The Bathroom Diaries: Week 8
Boarding, scratched tap lever and installation preparations
I’m now getting to the point where I just want everything finished!
We are making steady (if not slow) progress and I don’t think it’s going to be too long before the builders have finished their part. The rest of the internal installation and finishing touches will then be passed over to us to complete.
The good news is that one of the other half’s friends, who fits kitchens and bathrooms (I mentioned it in last weeks post), is able to support with all the finishing touches, which I’m delighted about. As long as we don’t have too many mishaps, there really isn’t any reason why we can’t be (more or less) finished before Christmas.
The joys of overseeing your own renovation project include trying to get ahead so as not to hold anyone else up, which often means working over the weekend.
Sunday 1st December:
Feeling slightly worse for wear following a very enjoyable girls' night out, I did my best to support the other half with boarding the ceiling. Fuelled by paracetamol, a McDonald's Egg McMuffin, and bottles of water, I don’t think I was too much of a hindrance.
We managed to get the ceiling boarded, including the reveals of the Velux, which took a bit of messing about. Originally, it had been battened to splay out at an angle, but when it was initially boarded, it looked awful. So, we decided to add further battens to straighten it up. We’ll just ignore the fact that Saturday afternoon's work went to waste. Sometimes, that’s just part of the process; you have to try something out, and if it really isn’t working, it’s better to rethink and start again rather than wasting too much time and energy.
We’ve marked out on the board where all the battens are for when our electrician pops over, so he can see what he’s got to work with.
Monday 2nd December:
Stud work has been applied to both the bath feature wall and the main bathroom wall where the shower is going to be positioned. This is to allow sufficient depth for all the pipework to be installed and also provide a really solid base for the tiles. At 1200mm x 600mm, they are big (and heavy), so we want to ensure there’s no risk of these bringing the wall down when they’re put up.
The remaining pipework for the shower and bath has been installed, which now just leaves the drainage to be sorted in this part of the bathroom.
All in all, it was a pretty good day until I was informed that the bath tap lever had ended up being scratched, FFS!!
This is what I mean with this project being an emotional rollercoaster.
Tuesday 3rd December:
Waking up at 5:00 am, I started my morning by sending an email to the bathroom supplier to see if they sell replacement parts. Otherwise, my builder has a bill of nearly £400 coming his way.
Fortunately, I received some good news: the tap lever can be replaced at a fraction of the cost of the whole unit, £40. However, it’s out of stock and has an 8-12 week lead time!
Luckily, it’s not going to hold anything up, as it can be replaced once it arrives. This would have been a completely different story if the main valve unit had been damaged.
By the end of the day, a lot of progress had been made internally.
With the exception of the wall where the main window needs to be installed (you may remember from last week's post we’re waiting in anticipation for this to arrive, hopefully next week), all the walls are now boarded and ready for plastering.
Pipework has been connected, ready to start arranging first-fix plumbing in the existing bathroom, and the water system was flushed through to check for any leaks in the extension and all is good.
Wednesday 4th December:
A slightly slower day today, with not a huge amount of visible progress. The lead-work has been started on the roof hips of the garage, which connect to the front of the house.
The other half has spent time boxing in and plaster boarding the connecting steel.
Although it’s still very much a work in progress, I’ve recorded a small clip to show the space from the existing bathroom through to the new part. I’m so pleased with the space we’ve got to work with and can’t wait to be finished with the construction side of things and move on to the fun part of installing and adding the finishing touches.
Thursday 5th December:
Again, not a huge amount to show today, other than some lead-work being put up. As I’m often told by my builder, I can’t expect big “show-days” everyday, and there are some days where a lot of work takes place, which you just don’t see the outcome of the work which has been carried out….and as I then remind myself, take a long deep breath and focus on the small glimmer of light at the end of what seems to be a very long tunnel.
Talking about the fun part of the installation I popped over to our local tile store to select grout colours for the tiles today and have made a decision. I was torn between Antique Ivory and Gentle Dawn and have decided on Antique Ivory. I now just need to find some tile trim to match as the selection on offer wasn’t right.
To continue on the theme of positivity I had a really good meeting with who will now be out bathroom fitter. I can not tell you how relieved I am knowing that I can wave goodbye to the builders (by the middle of next week).
He’s going to be starting on Wednesday next week and where I thought I may need to have one of the builders back to complete the first fix plumbing in the existing bathroom, I’ve been assured he can take over everything from now on.
Huge sigh of relief, and maybe I can start sleeping properly again from next week.
Friday 6th December:
Seems like today has been a good day for progress.
Both sections of the garage roof that connect to the extension are almost finished. The lead-work has placed and cemented in position.
We’ve even got the ridge tiles cemented at the front.
Part of the drive has also been cut out to allow for the new drainage to be laid, which will happen early next week.
Saturday 7th December:
Another busy weekend for us to try and keep things moving.
First stop was to pick up some tile edging, then straight on with pulling down the coving in the existing bathroom.
The other half had the joy of cutting the plasterboard around the shower pipework whilst I removed all the tiles from the existing bathroom.
Tomorrow we plan to get the old bathroom ceiling down, to re-board it, and we have our electrician coming over on Monday to install all the electrics.
Tune in next week to find out how we get on as we prepare for tiling and start to install the bathroom.
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The Bathroom Diaries is an additional weekly post every Sunday, sharing the progress of our first-ever renovation journey, documenting the creation of my dream bathroom.
If you missed any of the The Bathroom Diaries series you can catch up here:
The light at the end of the tunnel is certainly more visible now Sonya. Fingers crossed for a trouble free week 🤞🛁