Done, finished, complete!

Yes, it can only be the bathroom!

While we knew we were going to be squeezing a lot of this work in around the rest of life, I don't think either of us predicted it would take three and a half months! To be fair, most of the last month has been dealing with the things that didn't work first time. Finally though, we can say that it is finished. Finito. Done. Hooray!

First up though, a reminder of the "before" photos:

 

And now it looks like this:

Worktop with countertop sink and plenty of storage

Draining board for lots of bottles

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Refitting the Bathroom: 5. Two steps forward, one step back

A misleading title really since everything is part of the planned progress, but when you spend your Sunday evening undoing the work of a weekend it doesn't feel like it!

By the end of Saturday we'd got all the cabinets in position. Much chopping and sanding was needed to carefully shape each piece so that they all slotted together really well, but we got there in the end. We'd also cut the worktop into shape and could finally get a feel for how the finished bathroom was going to look. Seeing the wood of the worktop against the white of the tiles started to bring home how close we are to done.

After church on Sunday we cut holes in the worktop for both the sink and the tap and then sat those in position too. What do you think? From the start the counter-top sink has been one of the features we've been looking forward to and seeing it in position - even if not plumbed in - was a very exciting moment.

And then we had to take it all apart again! Our bathroom is now back to how it was a week ago and all the cupboard panels are down in the conservatory so that we can sort all the final details and get everything painted.

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Refitting the Bathroom 3. We Will Rebuild!

One long weekend (and it felt very long!) and we've made some good progress on our bathroom project. Here's a quick whiz through of what we've achieved so far:

We finished gutting the place. The old suite was removed on Saturday and we stripped out the floor boards too. As I mentioned at the start, a rotting floor was one of the motivations for getting this project done - it was good to see it go.

Gutted...

We burst a pipe. Yes, you read that correctly! In getting the floor up we cut one of the pipes to the central heating system (the nearest pipe in the photo above) and so had the boiler off until the very kind plumber could come and solder it back together for us three days later. Oops! It turns out our pipes run so close to the floor boards that they touch which might explain why we get so many creaks and bangs as the heating warms up.

We laid new chip board, complete with drawings of where all the pipes are to stop some poor sod in the future making the same mistake. In the process we've also found that the joists are a medley of heights so there's no way the floor will ever be flat. Useful.

The toilet in a temporary setting while we sorted out the new floor boards

We replaced the toilet with its new "back to wall" counterpart. The cistern will be hidden inside one of the new cupboards once all is done.

We've tiled the wall behind where the bath is going. We figured this would be much easier without the bath in place. With a little more time we'd have tiled further but the deadline of going back to work was looming over us so...

First wall of new tiles all stuck in place

We fitted the new bath. By 10.30 the night before we went back to work we were both able to wash off all the plaster dust, tile adhesive and general dirt to become presentable again! We're feeling very grateful that we decided to use speedfit plumbing as Joe managed to get most of the fittings for the bath and shower together in about half an hour.


There's lots more to do yet, but it feels like we might be on the homeward stretch now - we're rebuilding rather than tearing down anyway. *Sigh of relief*

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