Tue 11 Apr 2006
Haven’t posted anything on the basement in a while now, but work has been moving along slowly and may be nearing completion! First the back wall came in place, with the mount for the sink. Then I worked on the tiles inside the shower area.
The next stage was to put up the rest of the walls. Finally the bathroom is enclosed.
Now we are reaching the final detail stages with tiles on the floor, paint on the walls.
Thu 22 Sep 2005
| It’s been a little slow lately with the bathroom, but some new stuff to report. On the shower I completed the glass block wall. Laying these blocks is much like regular bricks, except a special white mortar is used. I am not sure if it actually has any special bonding features, but it is white so that looks nicer. The home supply store sells a lot of these I think, and they have everything you need to do a good job: plastic spacers, metal support beams that you put between every other row, and wall hangers that anchor the blocks to the back wall.
We want to put some milky glass tiles on the end and top of the block wall, there is a similar installation at the university library and it looks very good. But I am still looking for a place that sells the right size in small quantities. Buying a box (30 pieces) is a little much when you only need 9! |
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| We have also done a lot of work on the main area of the basement, which I really haven’t talked about here. We installed a wood laminate floor over the concrete, painted the walls and ceilings, constructed a new partition wall with an opening and shelf on top, and finally added some decorations. The theme is bollywood-inspired. Works well for our tv-room! |
   
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Mon 29 Aug 2005
| So early on we decided on a custom built shower, as opposed to a prefab fiberglass shell. This allows you to use ceramic tiles inside the shower, which looks great, but is also a bit harder to do. To guide me in this whole thing I found some great online tutorials at the John Bridge Tile forum “Liberry”. Definitely worth a look if you happen to be building a shower! |  |
| We also had Dog the plumber run new piping to the bathroom instead of using the old stuff that was there. We could probably have used some of the existing stuff but would have had to run some new lines anyway. Now its all nice and shiny, well not really since its all modern plastic piping. Looks pretty easy to do being all flexible and not requiring any gas-torch welding. |  |
| When completed the base has many layers. First a reinforced concrete base which establishes the slope towards the drain in the center. Next a PVC liner to waterproof the base and direct seepage towards the center. This is topped by another layer of reinforced concrete. The base is now ready for ceramic tiles. |  |
| With the base in place it’s time to put up some walls. I’m using cement board since it is the most water resistant (and this being a shower….) It’s really heavy though but fortunately it comes in smaller sheets than regular wall board. You can see the cutouts for the shower handle and head. The original plan was to put both on the inside wall, but apparently there is some code against putting the handle on a wall you cannot access from the other side, so off to the side wall it went. I think it works ok, although I wonder if it couldn’t have been a little further out from the corner. |  |
| For the other wall we are putting up a glass block wall. I am doing the lower third in brick, covered by ceramic tile. Here I am leveling the top to prepare for the glass blocks |  |
Wed 17 Aug 2005
With the old bathroom mostly gone it was time to start the new one. We are using metal stud framing for the walls, it’s lightweight and very easy to install.
Thu 11 Aug 2005
So we had a "blah" basement. 1970’s style complete with ugly carpet and dark faux wood paneling. And lets not forget the "prison-style" bathroom. It was in urgent need of serious TLC.
I had wanted to do something to it for a while but it wasn’t until Sabine’s parents came to visit that things got started. Sabine’s dad was itching for some renovation action and I think hoped to get this all done in the week they were visiting. Oy! Not happening. But he did make a serious dent (no pun intended) in the bathroom!
Thu 4 Aug 2005
So across from us there’s this thing that loves to bark its little brains out on a regular basis. Sabine snapped this candid of the beast….
