1/2 Bath Prep Work

In spite of some indecision regarding the finishing details of our 1/2 bath remodel project, work continues to progress! Now that the majority of the demolition is complete, we can begin the process of putting the bathroom back together - starting with prepping the walls and trim.

Joey removed a very old medicine cabinet from the wall of the bathroom, which left a big, gaping hole in it's place. The medicine cabinet was on the wall opposite the sink and toilet. We do not want to use this area for a medicine cabinet anymore. So, the hole has to be filled in with drywall.




To do this, Joey took some 2X4 boards and screwed them into the frame of the opening. This gave him a solid foundation for screwing in the new drywall he had cut to fit.




Once the drywall was in place, he had to tape the seams and mud over it. This involves a little finesse to get it sanded smooth and make the wall feel seamless for painting. Joey is actually skim-coating the entire upper 1/3 of all the walls in the bathroom to make them all smooth. The walls are very old plaster and were never really finished for painting as they've always had wallpaper covering them. And we don't want heavily textured walls. So, the skim-coating will smooth everything out. The bottom 2/3 of the wall (where the plastic tiles used to be), will be covered differently - more on that later.




While Joey has been working on the walls, I have been painting trim boards for the bathroom. Joey set me up in the basement - laying the boards across 2 different sets of saw horses. The boards are select pine that we purchased them at Menards (select = higher quality wood with no knots). The boards came unfinished, and we are painting them white to match the white trim in the majority of the house.






Rather than buying what would normally be used for base and crown molding, we took a slightly different approach by purchasing these square shaped boards in 3 different widths. The trim will look very streamlined and will actually match what we used on our 3-seasons porch that we remodeled last summer.





Why 3 different widths? Well, the widest boards (1X6) will be used as the base molding. The 2nd widest (1X4) will be go along the very top of the wall to act as crown molding. The smallest width boards (1X3) will actually go around the room about 2/3 of the way up the walls (kind of like a chair rail).

What's next?

Here's a hint: the tile has arrived!




Hello, weekend! We have work to do!!!