bathroom Archives - Bigger Than the Three of Us

We’re calling the lights done

January 20, 2014 by Luke 1 Comment

Hi, this is Luke. I usually take more of a backseat role – working on projects, editing posts and providing tech support – but I want to stay on top of my one-post-per-year average in 2014. My favorite projects to work on usually involve paint or wiring. This one was a combination of the two, although Ashley ended up doing all the painting. Thanks, sweetheart.

So, in Greyson’s bathroom we’ve always had some lighting issues. Old, dingy light fixtures and not enough light for the room. We took care of some of the dingy light fixtures with a previous project but we still left some dated-looking can lights hanging around. This project ended up being pretty simple and a great way to improve the bathroom with little money spent. We looked into quite a few options for replacing the can lights but didn’t like anything enough to be worth the money. Instead, we decided to buy a can of high heat spray paint to see what a bright coat of paint would do.

Our beautiful, old can lights.

The first, and most important, step was to make sure the electricity was off at the fixtures. Then, we had to figure out how to remove the cans. I’m sure every model is different. For ours, it was pretty easy to figure out how to loosen the cans once the bulbs were removed.

As with most projects, this one changed a little bit as we got into it. Once we got the first can down from the ceiling we noticed that one of the wire connections was loose. After some investigation, and last minute googling, we realized that the sockets could not be rewired. As is always the case with our projects, we made one more trip to Lowes than we thought we would need to and picked up some new sockets.

Our last surprise of the project.

After I took out the last can I found one more surprise. With household wiring, you always want any wire connections to be done inside a box. When we bought the house the inspector pointed out a few places where our wiring wasn’t up to code. Every once in a while I find a new one that the inspector wasn’t able to see.

It’s pretty amazing how much wire was crammed up into the ceiling above this light.

Putting the newly painted cans back up was a piece of cake. I just followed the same steps in reverse.

The high heat spray paint was about $4. If it wasn’t for the cheap, old sockets we would have walked away with quite an improvement for $4. Replacing all of the sockets, ended up costing $12. So, it was more than we planned on spending but $16 still isn’t too bad. We’re happy with the result. Isn’t paint great?

Bathroom Progress Update

November 15, 2013 by Ashley Mayes 6 Comments

I thought it would be a good time to revisit the bathroom mood board. We have changed our thought process just a bit. Here is what we started with:

I had originally based the design and color scheme of the bathroom off of the duck art (number 8). I loved it then and I love it now, but I don’t feel like it’s a piece of art that can grow with us. Greyson is three (almost 4!) and he isn’t in to animals. If he loved animals, then I think it would totally work. I think some animal art can definitely work in a grown-up space, but this piece just doesn’t seem right in our space.

So, with all that in mind, I’m still looking for my accent color that feels like us. I think when I find a special piece of art or a rug, then I will probably just know that it’s the one. But, so far we haven’t had any luck. Cross your fingers for us.

As we were sitting at breakfast this morning, I asked Greyson if he would rather have his bathroom finished before Christmas or his big boy room. He took a second and replied “bathroom”. So, we are making the bathroom a priority. Our goal is to have it knocked out in four weeks’.

To-Do list:

-Update Can Lights

~~-Tile floor~~

-Decide on what to do about bathtub and do it *

-Decide what to do with tile around bathtub and do it*

–~~Put water shutoffs on sinks~~

–~~Update sinks/faucets~~

~~-Put new return in~~

-Add decor

-Finish cabinets (sand, de-gloss, and paint)

-Finish lining cabinets

-Finish baseboards (sand, de-gloss, paint and install)

-Caulk around tub

-Put floor transition in (carpet in hallway to tile)

*We have decided to leave the tub as-is right now. Yes, it is cream colored, but it is in good condition and we don’t want to mess with painting it or replacing it. The tile around the tub is green and I’m going to live with it as well. It’s not perfect, but it works.

So our to-do list is definitely getting smaller. We’ve set a completion date of 12/11. I’ll keep you updated on progress week-to-week and if you find any great decor items (art, etc.) please let me know.

Tile :: Part 3

November 6, 2013 by Ashley Mayes 8 Comments

Catch up on our tile progress with part 1 and part 2. So, we are calling the tile DONE. That feels so good to say that and it feels even better to see it done.

So, we left off on part two with having the tile laid but not grouted or sealed. We used a premixed white grout and it took me about an hour to grout the floor. Luke came right behind me and cleaned up the grout with a sponge. Then, we had to wait 72 hours to let the grout dry before it could be sealed. Well, one thing led to another and it was a few days later until we could seal it.

Luke used a clear sealer and a sponge paintbrush to seal the grout lines. He came back and used a towel to clean up any excess sealer on the tile. I would say it took him about 30-45 min to seal it from start to finish. After sealing it, we gave it 24 hrs before walking on it. I think the recommendation was at least 6 hrs, but we like to be safe.

Ok, enough chatting…check it out!

tile that looks like wood

All in all, we are super proud of this. It took us about 23 hours from start to finish. We saved about $375 by doing it ourselves.

I had budgeted $250 for the flooring and we came in just a bit over that. The tile was around $190, but then we had about $125 of extra stuff (grout, new hammer, jigsaw, tile spacers, 3x plywood, etc.). On the positive side, we now own a jigsaw which I’m excited about. =)

So, total spent was $315.

A tip that we learned throughout this process was:

Scoring and breaking tile is easiest, but won’t work for difficult cuts (which you’ll have lots of with oversized length tile).

We need to keep working, but we are definitely going to take a few days and enjoy the progress.

Linking up to:

Hallway Bathroom Tile : Part Two

October 29, 2013 by Ashley Mayes 7 Comments

Part one of the tile process left off with the installation of the cement board. I cheated a little bit by saying that though, because we hadn’t screwed the cement board in place. So, the next step was to screw the cement board in place. We placed screws about every eight inches in all directions. I did about half a board in thirty minutes and Luke did the rest of the room in about thirty minutes.
backer board screw installation spacing

He was so much faster than me!

Next, up was putting down tape between the seams of the boards. I did that and then Luke came back in to do a thin layer of thin-set over the tape. The first seam he did gave him some trouble. The tape isn’t very sticky, so you have to be extremely careful when applying the thin-set. After the first seam, he seamed to get in a groove and had the rest of the floor done in under an hour.

We let the thin-set dry overnight and then my Grandpa (who has built houses for over forty years) came over the next day to help us get started with the tile.

Well, he was supposed to only help us get started, but he ended up doing the work with Luke and knocking it all out.

First up was mixing the thin-set. They used a big drill mixer and, roughly, followed the instructions on the mortar we bought.

grandpa and Luke mixing mortar

They started off by measuring out where the tile would meet the doorway when working back from the far wall. We wanted to make sure we ended on an even tile in the doorway (making sure to take in to account the width of the spacers). We lucked out by discovering that 4 full tiles are the exact length (or, close enough) of the space. From there, we used a chalk line to make sure we had one guide going the full length of the bathroom. After we knew our rough tile layout, we started at the far corner and worked our way back to the door. measuring tile around the builtins

Five hours later we had a tiled floor…minus the grout and sealer.
It’s a beauty, right?

Part 3 will be coming up with grout and sealer (which we are still waiting to do). Stay tuned.

DIY Plant Hanger

October 11, 2013 by Ashley Mayes 8 Comments

Isn’t that little plant so cute? I’ve been eyeing hanging plants for quite some time and finally got around to getting one. I found the container (actually 3 of them) at a garage sale for $2. They are just plastic, but I really liked the design so I bought them. From there, I headed to the supermarket and bought a cute, low maintenance plant. I think it was $2.99. I used some lightweight rope to make the hanging net and that was about it. You can find some instructions here to make a similar hanging net. I peeked around the internet for hangers and then just winged it. I should have taken pictures, but I didn’t. So, see the above link if you would like to make one.

The project breakdown was:

1 container – $.67

Soil – Free (already had on hand)

Plant – $2.99

String – $1.99

= $5.65

I’m thinking about adding two more (different plants) staggered at different heights. What do you guys think? If so, should I use the same pots or different ones to mix/match?

Oh, and if you follow me on Instagram then you saw a preview of this:

Yep, we are actually getting ready to dig in on the flooring. Fun times ahead!

Linking up to:

COME AND GET IT!

We’re calling the lights done

Bathroom Progress Update

Tile :: Part 3

Hallway Bathroom Tile : Part Two

DIY Plant Hanger

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