Master bathroom

The master bath is the last actual room that is not finished to any degree.  It has drywall and paint, but no fixtures or tile at this point so is nothing but dead space so far.  We've been working towards picking out tile and the tub as the last couple items, and now have that settled so work was beginning around the end of March 2017.  This July was 4 years since we broke ground.

We got the tub ordered but when it came in, the box was totally trashed so I was expecting the worst.  Well it appeared OK at the store so I got it home and that was when I found that it was indeed cracked.  So back to the store and they ordered up a new one...  While waiting for that to show up, I started in on the shower tile work.  The shower tile was probably the worst part of the whole project.  The combination of the waterproofing being very hard to handle plus the linear drain that was not installed correctly due to an error in the instructions and the large format tile made this thing a real pain.  I'm not totally happy with how it came out, but it will have to do.

The first step was the Mud base.   Since we were using a linear drain, the main bed only sloped one way - towards the drain, so that was easier, but then there was the section closer to the door that I had to slope at a compound angle. A little harder to do but not bad.  I drew guidelines on the walls and made a tapered board as a screed guide. Linear drain is covered in tape.

Those photos were a bit misleading as I had to tear it out and redo it since I miscalculated the slope very badly.  It was so steep that it was going to be a safety issue, so all that nice work came out and I did it again, essentially the same way, but at the correct slope.  That was fun.


Next was the waterproofing membrane.  This was very difficult to handle and install.  The pan is all one piece, so it should be leak free, but the walls were the real challenge to install without wrinkles.  Wrinkles were unavoidable, so I ended up having to slit them and fill with sealant to make it sit flat.  The thing in the far corner is a pre-made bench that is nothing more than styrofoam.  You might think that it would not be sturdy enough, but you cannot tell that it is not solid rock after tiling.  You can see the linear drain at the left.

The corner by the door presented a challenge as it was an odd shape that was not usable.  I found another corner niche, also styrofoam, that fit in there perfectly.  The foam is coated at the factory with some spray-on stuff that is made to stick to thinset mud.

After the membrane was in, I put in the radiant in-floor heat.  Now we have radiant in the whole house, but there is no tubing in the shower as that would have been very difficult to do.  So I added this electric heat in the shower and just outside it so the floor will be more comfortably warm there in the winter.

Progress shot showing the floor tiled:

And finally all tiled and grouted:

I was short a few of the trim pieces, so had to order more to finish:

All completed with the door installed.  The door was only just installed near the end of Aug, so this has been going on all spring and summer.

Whereas the shower was a non-stop fight from beginning to end, and I feel it only came out OK (at best), the tub was much better.  I think the tub came out great.  I still need to make a panel to cover the bottom of the tub area for access to the motor.

And a look at the main floor tile.  These pebbles are cut and polished into a thin section and then stuck to a fiberglass backing in 12x12" sheets, so it goes down fairly easily.  Biggest problem I had with the floor tile was trying to hide the lines between the sheets.  The pattern was not overlapping enough, IMO, to make the lines disappear, so I did a lot with pulling off pieces and repositioning them or replacing them with other tile pieces.  I still did not feel that the lines fully disappeared, even after all that effort, but in the end after grouting, it does not seem too obvious.

And after all the tile was done I made the vanities and a shelf unit for the center and got those installed.  I also put the lights up before the cabinets were installed as it was a lot easier to work on them with the cabinets not in the way.  They were unusually heavy, too.  I put a pair of lighted shaving/makeup mirrors on the end of the shelf unit, and added a night light down by the floor.

And finally the countertops and faucets were put in the day after labor day.  The whole spring and summer 2017 gone on this one bathroom project...

From the entry door:

Tub and shower door: (Still need to make the cover panel for the tub skirt - it will match the cabinets)

Tub and toilet room:

2 shots of the vanities:

I still need to do doors for the toilet space, closet and the main bath door, but those are a ways out.  The tub cover panel will probably be done alongside some other trim work in the kitchen and other bathroom that still needs to be wrapped up.  That may happen over the winter.  I put in shelves in the linen closet to the left of the vanities shortly after the photos were taken, so that is done too.

The last of the unfinished rooms is now finished!  Woo Hoo!

Interior Doors

I was planning to do 3 doors to get the ball rolling here before starting on the master bathroom, but I am behind like always as the bar top took much longer than expected with a lot of interruptions and problems to surmount.  So I am only doing 2 doors now, but that will improve things a lot as they will be on the guest bathroom and the powder room, which will help when we have guests.

Here's the first one, for the guest bathroom.  This one turned out to be 31" as we got confused when framing the doorway and made it an inch narrower by accident.  The good thing about making your own doors, is they are made to fit!  So no issue...

The stock for these is some really nice 8/4 (2") quarter sawn white oak that was kept together as logs, so all of the boards are from the same tree, and the same section of it.  The color match should be spot on for these.  I picked this up a few years back from a sawmill in Western PA that I have used before.  They only deal in really nice lumber.

Door stock all prepped and ready:

Door frame parts all made and laid out:

Panels made, fitted and finished, and the frame all glued up:

Ready for finish.  I made up a simple rotisserie stand so I could finish the door on both sides without having to wait for one side to dry  before flipping it.  The door jamb parts are on the left side on the sawhorses:

Finishing complete, still in the booth:

And the first door installed (outside, and inside, respectively).  This one went pretty well overall.  I'm not quite happy with the evenness of the reveals on the jamb, but it is OK.

Skipping all the build steps, which are essentially the same, here is the second door on the main floor powder room.  This one did not install as well as the first, so I think I will be re-adjusting it to make it right.  Still a learning process, but I think the framing was not quite plumb on this one, leading to the problem.  I think I am getting a handle on it, and am getting a better idea on how to dial in a door install to make sure everything is just right.

So now we have 2 doors, on 2 separate bathrooms!  Woo Hoo!  We is civilized!

Kitchen details: Bar top + vent hood cover - Fall/winter 2016

While I was going to get to the first few doors next, I took a short detour to work on the bar top for the island and the enclosure for the vent hood.

The hood is actually just a "liner" that is intended to be covered with something for finish purposes.  This will be just matching the cabinets.  It has been a bit of a challenge as it is hard to reach up and over everything without standing on the cooktop.  The sides are permanently affixed, but the front is removable as an access panel if I need to get to the electrical or the duct for some maintenance reason.  It is held on with a few magnets.

Before photo (nothing in place):

And during sorting out how to build it:

And completed and fully installed just before Xmas 2016:

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The bar top is made out of white oak similar to the floor.  I also finished it to look more like the floor than the cabinets.  If it was the same darker finish as the cabinets, it would have looked too dark and massive.  With such a large area, seasonal wood movement was going to be an issue for sure.  To help deal with that, I made the whole unit with pieces set up in a radial fashion - essentially radiating out from the center of the curves.  I started with a full size template drawn directly from the bar top cabinets allowing for a decent 12" overhang for the eating bar side.

Here is the template sitting on the work bench and table saw.  Boards are rough cut and being laid out in rough orientation:

Needed more room to work, so I pulled the truck out to create some floor space.  This shows working through the layout.  Each piece is custom cut at various angles to best fit the curve.  The cuts were made by following a pencil line from the template on the bandsaw, and then cleaning that up on the jointer.  Fortunately each section is not critical as to how exactly it ends up, as long as the final 2 ends are about right.  The one section at the far end is actually straight for most of the run where it is over the tall cabinets.  These are first glued up in subsections of 3-5 boards that end up 18-24" wide:

And most of the rest of the subsections glued up.  After those are done, they will all get sanded flat and then glued up into larger sections that will also need to be sanded flat.  The ultimate goal is 3 larger sections that will get assembled in place on the island.  This thing is heaaaavvvvyyy.

There was an interim step of running all the subsections through a 24" drum sander to level them out (which is why I kept the sections under 24"...) which isn't shown here.  Then those sections were further glued up into 3 main pieces - a corner section, and the 2 wings of it.  To join the sections together, I used countertop drawbolts from the bottom side.  To do those, I needed to route in pockets to the bottom.  On the very last joint, the bit pulled out of the collet on the router and bored a hole completely through my bar top!  Grrrr,  Photo of that hole below.  This required me to make a new piece to replace that one, after cutting it out.  Extra hassle I did not need, but it worked out.

Then it was assembled onto sawhorses upside down, first to route for the drawbolts, then to begin finish sanding and shaping the edges to final form.  Below are 2 of the pieces joined with the repaired board at the far right.

And fully assembled and the perimeter cut to the pattern.

Here is the top side, after routing the edges and final sanding:

And after finishing, the 3 sections were bought to the island and glued and clamped-up in place into one mass.  This was set up on blocks for working room.

The next day, the blocks were removed one by one stepwise to minimize stresses on it as it was lowered into place.  Then it was screwed down from underneath.  I still have not done the trim on the front of the island, but that is not top of the priority list now.

All done!  Next up I will make the first 2 doors for the house, and then I will shift to the Master Bathroom.