While work was underway above and below us, we got to work on the bathroom. We decided to do this before we moved in, because as we have only one bathroom, we felt our friends and family would appreciate our access to daily showers.
Juan likes demolition...
...maybe a little too much.
You can see here where the old window used to be.
Putting up new cement backerboard (there was soggy drywall here before).
Yay! The last of the backerboard has been hung.
I have weird heebie-jeebies about mildew in the bathroom. So when I heard there was stuff you could paint on the walls that blocks out moisture and has an anti-microbial in it, I was all for it. It is guaranteed for life against moisture penetration and the growth of mold, mildew and fungus. Yay!
Now for the floor.
Rather than buying an off-the-shelf, assemble-it-yourself particle-board vanity or an overpriced custom piece, I bought two pieces from the rustic furniture store ($200 a piece, which is what it would have cost for the particle-board variety).
With help from my lovely assistant, Bisbee, I put a three-color stained finish on it: strokes of a deep red and a deep green with a mahogany stain over both.
The tiling begins: laying out a pattern for the floor. We chose a honed and polished copper slate, which only came in 12x12 tiles.
With the help of the wet saw, we made a perfect circle around the drain pipe. A wet saw really makes all the difference in the world!
The shower damn-near killed us. As some point in the demolition, it was decided that rather than picking a point to stop the tile, we would tile all the way up to the ceilings, which are 10 feet tall. In addition to that, the copper slate, which only came in 12x12's had to be cut down individually into 6x6's. But they weren't exactly 12x12; they were more like 11.87x11.85 inches. UGH! But it paid off.
While deciding whether or not we would replace the existing toilet or buy a new one, it was decided for us: it was knocked over and broken. So I gleefully chose this fancy-dancy toilet, which Juan excellently installed (after a little phone consulatation from Dad and some trial and error).
Ta-da! Look, no handle! I picked this one because the handle is on top of the tank, and you flush by pulling it up.
To finish the top of the vanity, I used the same tile as the floor and shower, and cutting it down into 3x3's. The top wasn't exactly even, so rather than cutting down tiles on the end, I made this tiny inlay. It turned out really cool.
Six months later...Dad shows up to help us finish trimming out the window and around the shower to hide the edge of the tile
Update: After a year, the 3x3 tiles on the vanity are starting to come off (literally, falling off onto the floor). Our plan is to remove them and install a sheet of copper on top of the vanity, instead. I will probably distress it, so it has a somewhat hammered look, and will leave it uncoated for a few months to allow it to get a nice patina. So, the bathroom won't go the to "After" page quite yet.