bathroom remodel: things we learned
so we made a bunch of mistakes learned a lot from this bathroom remodel. i'd like to share them so that maybe any of you that are reading and plan to remodel a bathroom don't do the same. learn from our missteps people. or if you know what you are doing, feel free to laugh at our rookie-ness:
-measure EVERYTHING. we didn't measure everything and it came back to bite us. you'll see how if you continue to read.
-when doing demo work, make sure you have all the right tools. when we ripped up the floor we did so with a hammer, a chisel and a screwdriver. i think it would have been a thousand times easier if we had a pry bar. sometimes you don't know beforehand what you need, but in hindsight i should have spent the $15 on a pry bar.
-with paint colors, when in doubt, get samples. i had chosen a nice mellow light blue for the bathroom awhile back, one that i even used on the cabinet in the entryway, so i knew how it would look and that i liked it. and at first i was just going to go ahead and paint the walls in the bathroom with it, but decided to paint a small swatch on each wall just to make sure that it looked ok. i'm so glad i did because it turned out so much more vibrant on the walls than it did on the swatch and on the cabinet that i painted. i then went out and got 4 other samples of colors that i had narrowed down and painted those on the wall. all of these turned out way different on the wall than on the swatch or in the can as well. there was just something about that room, it is small and has no natural light and it just makes the paint color look more vibrant than it actually is. which is probably what happened to the previous owners; they likely picked up a nice yellow that morphed into the brightest yellow on the planet.
-when painting, if you need to stop and finish later, you can put your paint brush in a ziplock bag and store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. the paint won't dry or harden and you can just resume without having to wash the paint brush off every time you need to stop for a few hours or a few days.
-when buying materials, be sure to read the manufacturer's recommendation. we knew that we would have to install cement board on our subfloor before tiling, since we have a crawl space rather than a cement slab foundation. i researched lots about how to tile a floor and what materials we will need, and we even asked the mason that works in the tile section at lowe's and he gave us lots of tips and info. but it wasn't until i researched how to install cement board (i wanted to get more details on how to space the screws and whatnot) that i found out we needed to apply thinset under the cement board as well. luckily, i had read a couple of blogs and DIY websites that mentioned that they put thinset mortar underneath the cement board and then drill the screws in before the thinset cures. it prompted me to go to the durock manufacturer's website to see if they had instructions, which they did. and they instructed to apply thinset on the subfloor before installing the cement board. so, even with the massive amounts of research i did and all the advice we got, we still could have missed that important step. granted, i don't think it would have been detrimental if we didn't add the thinset, but from what i read it really makes the substrate strong and helps to avoid cracks in the tile and grout over time.
-when laying tile, it's easier to do one big section at a time and make the cuts in any tiles that you need to at the same time. that might not make sense, let me try to explain. when i was tiling, it was late at night when the baby was asleep and so i didn't want to run the loud tile saw. so i just went ahead and layed all of the full size tiles first thinking i would cut and lay the cut tile during the day. and that's what i did. hubby would come home and measure and cut the tile beautifully and i would lay the cut pieces. but the problem was that it was hard to get my trough in the small spaces in between the full tiles to apply the thinset evenly, so i think that helped to make the tiles a little uneven, even though i used the level to make sure everything was completely even, somehow it dried a little uneven. now, we're talking millimeters, maaaaaybe centimeters, so it's not that big of a deal, but it's enough of a difference that when we installed the vanity (which had 4 legs like a piece of furniture), it was a little shaky and uneven. so then we had to add some felt things to the bottom of the legs to make it all even again. anyway, i think that had i just tiled it all one line or section at a time, cutting the tile that i needed to as i went, it would have been better. again, it is barely noticeable but i want it all to be perfect!
-before you lay the tile (and cement board for that matter), do a dry run first. lay the tile how you want on the floor using the spacers before you actually mortar them to the ground. that way you can see what the pattern looks like, and then you will know if you should in fact tile from the center out or if you need to scootch it over a little bit or whatever. we did this and it was helpful.
-we ended up purchasing some grout that was a part of a kit kind of. it came in 2 parts, A and B. mix A with B, stir stir stir, let sit, then go to town. it was easy because everything was pre-measured so there was no worry about having the wrong consistency. and the type we got didn't need to be sealed at all, so that eliminates a step and a few days of curing time for the sealant.
-the thing about the measuring; so when we bought the vanity, we just eyeballed it and knew that it would fit in the bathroom, but we failed to measure the height of it. when hubby went to install it we found that the plumbing pipes were really low (for some reason all 3 of the vanities that were in the house when we bought it are really low, like they come to my mid thigh so you have to bend over when washing your hands and face), so hubby and my father in law had to be creative to make everything work. this included cutting out pieces of the back and bottom of the vanity and running to lowe's about 7 times to get the right pipes and all that. it may have been easier if we had measured it beforehand so that we knew, but we just assumed that plumbing pipes are a standard height in the wall.
-the other thing about measuring; we bought these great chair height, elongated bowl kohler toilets, 3 of them, and replaced the 2 old upstairs toilets with these. the third one sat in the garage until we were ready to remodel the downstairs bathroom. when we were ready, hubby installed it and it was wonderful. then we remembered we needed to put the door back on and that's when we realized the door would hit the edge of the toilet bowl and wouldn't open all the way into the bathroom. doh! the old toilet fit just fine because it was a small round bowl but our big elongated bowl was too long. we were so not happy about this. so our fix for this right now is to do nothing. usually, the door isn't being opened that far anyway so it isn't that much of a problem, but at some point should be fixed. so, when the time comes (like if we sell the house or something) then we'll likely just replace the toilet with something more round and smaller.
-if you want to save money, use existing fixtures but spruce them up with spray paint. we updated the existing brassy and worn doorknobs by spraying them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint. it looks so much nicer. you can also do this to light fixtures and cabinet hardware.
so i think those are the major things that we learned from during this bathroom remodel. we knew that we may make some mistakes and it may not turn out completely perfectly, which is why we did the powder room first. but, that is part of doing improvements and updates yourself, it doesn't always go as planned, and you definitely learn! none of this stuff is permanent and in the end, it turned out pretty well. for the next bathroom, which is a full bath, we decided that we will leave the existing vanity and just replace the counter tops, we will re-tile (we have a pry bar now so ripping out the floor should be easier this time) and paint, but we will likely hire out the replacement of the bathtub. but that's a little ways in the future. for now, i'm enjoying our first DIY remodeled room!
-measure EVERYTHING. we didn't measure everything and it came back to bite us. you'll see how if you continue to read.
-when doing demo work, make sure you have all the right tools. when we ripped up the floor we did so with a hammer, a chisel and a screwdriver. i think it would have been a thousand times easier if we had a pry bar. sometimes you don't know beforehand what you need, but in hindsight i should have spent the $15 on a pry bar.
-when buying materials, be sure to read the manufacturer's recommendation. we knew that we would have to install cement board on our subfloor before tiling, since we have a crawl space rather than a cement slab foundation. i researched lots about how to tile a floor and what materials we will need, and we even asked the mason that works in the tile section at lowe's and he gave us lots of tips and info. but it wasn't until i researched how to install cement board (i wanted to get more details on how to space the screws and whatnot) that i found out we needed to apply thinset under the cement board as well. luckily, i had read a couple of blogs and DIY websites that mentioned that they put thinset mortar underneath the cement board and then drill the screws in before the thinset cures. it prompted me to go to the durock manufacturer's website to see if they had instructions, which they did. and they instructed to apply thinset on the subfloor before installing the cement board. so, even with the massive amounts of research i did and all the advice we got, we still could have missed that important step. granted, i don't think it would have been detrimental if we didn't add the thinset, but from what i read it really makes the substrate strong and helps to avoid cracks in the tile and grout over time.
-the thing about the measuring; so when we bought the vanity, we just eyeballed it and knew that it would fit in the bathroom, but we failed to measure the height of it. when hubby went to install it we found that the plumbing pipes were really low (for some reason all 3 of the vanities that were in the house when we bought it are really low, like they come to my mid thigh so you have to bend over when washing your hands and face), so hubby and my father in law had to be creative to make everything work. this included cutting out pieces of the back and bottom of the vanity and running to lowe's about 7 times to get the right pipes and all that. it may have been easier if we had measured it beforehand so that we knew, but we just assumed that plumbing pipes are a standard height in the wall.
-the other thing about measuring; we bought these great chair height, elongated bowl kohler toilets, 3 of them, and replaced the 2 old upstairs toilets with these. the third one sat in the garage until we were ready to remodel the downstairs bathroom. when we were ready, hubby installed it and it was wonderful. then we remembered we needed to put the door back on and that's when we realized the door would hit the edge of the toilet bowl and wouldn't open all the way into the bathroom. doh! the old toilet fit just fine because it was a small round bowl but our big elongated bowl was too long. we were so not happy about this. so our fix for this right now is to do nothing. usually, the door isn't being opened that far anyway so it isn't that much of a problem, but at some point should be fixed. so, when the time comes (like if we sell the house or something) then we'll likely just replace the toilet with something more round and smaller.
so i think those are the major things that we learned from during this bathroom remodel. we knew that we may make some mistakes and it may not turn out completely perfectly, which is why we did the powder room first. but, that is part of doing improvements and updates yourself, it doesn't always go as planned, and you definitely learn! none of this stuff is permanent and in the end, it turned out pretty well. for the next bathroom, which is a full bath, we decided that we will leave the existing vanity and just replace the counter tops, we will re-tile (we have a pry bar now so ripping out the floor should be easier this time) and paint, but we will likely hire out the replacement of the bathtub. but that's a little ways in the future. for now, i'm enjoying our first DIY remodeled room!
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