It’s a nice euphemism, “functionally complete,” and it really means that we’re not done yet. But at least it does mean that we can actually use the bathroom now, and have been for the past few weeks. And yes, that means that this post is long overdue. At least I’ve been busy with more exciting things, like working on the built-in cabinetry, and attending a router class at Festool (which was AWESOME). Now, though, it’s time to share the (still incomplete) results of the last few months’ work…

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve finally had some time to actually put my (relatively) new Festools to use on some actual woodworking. Up until this point, I’ve only had the chance to use them for framing and other rough work around the bathroom. While I ultimately will be using them to make some custom built-ins, I figured that starting with something much simpler would be a good idea. And so, I decided to build a custom mirror frame.
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It’s been a month since I last posted an update. I didn’t plan on taking so long, but I wanted to wait until the tile was finished before posting it. There’s been plenty of delays, but now there’s just a little bit of grouting still left to do, and it will be done!

Fortunately, we had help

This week has been fairly quiet on updates, since most of the work has been pretty unremarkable. My brother came for a visit on Sunday to help us get started taping and mudding the drywall, and I spent the next few days finishing that off. Once that was satisfactory (not perfect, but good enough), I skim-coated the walls with joint compound, followed by two coats of vapor barrier primer. Since we used moisture-resistant drywall, we had to skip the vapor barrier directly against the insulation and use the special primer instead. A few extra steps, but worth it. Then, the painting…

Saturday afternoon, with the recently installed floor tiles sealed the day before, we set about grouting them. Mixing the grout was simple enough, as was spreading it around the floor. Things started to get a little tricky when it came time to remove the excess. Since the tiles aren’t uniform heights, a lot of grout was left behind. No big deal, we thought, that will just come off with a damp sponge. Alas, it was not to be…

With all of the drywall pieces in place on Monday, we were able to spend the rest of this week focusing on the floor (and a little on the shower, too). Tuesday marked the installation of the cement board for the floor. While it is normally a very straightforward process, we had one teensy little obstacle: the radiant tubing. The cement board is secured with screws, and we obviously don’t want those going through the radiant heat tubing, so we had to devise some way to make sure to avoid it. After considering how I would transfer markings to the top side of the board to show where the tubing is, I came up with a much better idea…

This past weekend, my brother graciously offered to help us install drywall for the bathroom. Since that meant that we’d no longer have access to any of the plumbing in the walls, it meant that it was time to test the radiant tubing to make sure everything was in tact and not leaking. I spent the better part of Friday trying to get the tubing to hold pressurized air, but it would not. After tightening all of the fittings in my pressure test rig, and using some soapy water to check for leaks, I was frustrated.
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We finished installing the cement board for the tub surround yesterday evening. This included the piece that covers the plumbing wall of the shower, which was by far the most difficult to cut, having a total of four cutouts, each with very minimal tolerances. I actually surprised myself by getting it right on the first shot, especially since we made all the cuts based off of measurements, rather than direct reference marks (i.e. holding the board up to the obstructions).

This afternoon, half of my order of tubing supports came in, which meant that I was able to work again on the plumbing. It didn’t take me too long to get the tub/shower lines routed and connect in the basement, which meant… testing! Since there was finally water to the shower fixtures, I could test both that plumbing work, and the tub and drain. So with a bit of trepidation, I started with filling up the tub…

Earlier in the week, I started framing in the niches for the shower. With the walls completely opened up, it’s trivial to add a bit of framing and get some nice custom-sized niches for storing all the various doo-dads that tend to accumulate in the shower. After spending a fair amount of time cutting, aligning, and leveling all of the lumber, I stood back to admire my work, and realized that I’d completely forgot to account for the thickness of the backer board and tile, so my finished niches would have been about 1 inch shorter than a shampoo bottle. Ooops! At least I figured it out now, rather than after everything was done, so it was trivial enough to fix…

A niche product