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| What it looked like before. Spencer wanted to remove those cabinets and extend the shower all the way to the closet. |
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| granny oak cabinetry |
He started by tearing down EVERYTHING- tile, concrete, the liner. We got down to the very studs and house foundation. That was the easy part. We discovered that the walls were actually fine (no mold), so they were not the source of the problem. We dodged a bullet there! Once he removed the liner, he noticed that it was cracked and that was probably what was happening. We never really knew if water was pooling anywhere else. I am yet to find mold. So for now, it looks like the cracked liner was leaking into the hallways and the carpet was just soaking it up. How did we get rid of all that old tile and super heavy concrete? We got lucky. We had a member of our church doing reno as well, and she had rented a bin, and she totally let us use it....since it wasn't that much. Don't ever put it in the trash can. I think you get fine if they see you throwing that stuff out in normal trash cans. Besides, the trash bin can only handle like 100lbs....so it would take you weeks to get rid of everything.
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| Cabinetry was painted before the shower was redone |
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| Primed and ready for new gel stain |
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| all stained and baseboards painted |
Once we were down to the studs, we got the brilliant idea to get a pocket door. The entrance is so tiny and there are three doors too close together- room entrance, bath entrance and shower entrance. It was so annoying! You had to close the bath entrance, in order to open the shower. So, a pocket door just made sense. It was out of the way and still be usable and you can still lock it. You can find a pocket door kit at the local hardware store and it's not expensive. Then you add whatever door you want. Doors are not expensive, they're just so many to pick from! And they come primed, so all you have to do is paint.
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| Starting demo...I was so scared haha |
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| He was better at demo |
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| phase one done...all tile is gone. Now, to dump it. |
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| Right before the pocket door. |
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| Pocket door in, now, on to the shower. |
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| angle kit is in and concrete waiting to dry and cure |
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| once concrete is in, liner is up . |
We did the kit (poured the concrete base to the shower) and the new shower liner went at the top of the kit....that had to dry for like three days. With the kit, you also have to do a curb. Spencer just used the leftover concrete wall (DUH! genius!) to do the curb, guaranteeing it would be straight...we hoped.
Once the floor was set, he bought special wall for the shower- it's like drywall but made out of concrete. WHY people use drywall in showers is beyond me. It's absolutely idiotic. Concrete walls makes so much more sense- it deters mold so much better, while drywall just absorbs all the water and eventually leads to black mold. I'm not sure if it's now a standard in home building (I doubt it) but if you are re doing the shower, it's a serious investment- do it right and get good materials. Concrete will last so much longer than puny drywall. I remember in our Missouri apartment there were mushrooms (like REAL mushrooms) growing out of the bathroom wall....and the only thing they did was spray bleach....unreal. DO IT RIGHT the first time!
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| walls are up and liner tucked in |
Once that all dried and cured, we decided to take it a step further and used this product. My dad used it when he did his shower about 5 years ago, and he's the one that told me about it. It is not sold ANYWHERE else but this website, so it's quite pricey. It's actually not even used right now as a standard....which really bothers me, because I would feel a lot better knowing that a shower is ACTUALLY waterproof...wouldn't you?
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| do seams first...thats usually when problems start |
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| then the rest of the shower |
We wanted to make sure leaking was never going to be an issue again. This product goes on like paint (it's a bright green) and it dries like rubber. It's actual chemical name is 4,4-dimethyloxazolidine.
It also helps with the fact that's it's rubbery- now, with all the earthquakes we're having...we are starting to see cracks in between the Sheetrock. At least this way, we know the rubber will stop the leaking IF a big earthquake happens to spread the walls a bit too far. This needed to cure for like a week.
Once we had everything ready.....we went and tried to shop for tile. We couldn't find one we liked at the local hardware store, so we went to a local shop owned by members of our Church and looked in there. They had some really nice stuff- I mean, this is what million dollar houses are made of....you can totally see the difference between these tiles and the ones at Lowes. We ordered a super strong porcelain which supposedly was easy to clean. We wanted big, because we did not want a lot of grout- a lot of grout means a lot of mold to clean later, so the bigger the tile the better. The bottom of the shower was going to be the same tile but much smaller (so they matched), and the tile that goes on the edge (that has a round edge (bullnose)...just to finish it off professionally) and we purchased an accent tile to make it pop. The tile took forever to get here. It came in a week, and when we went to pick it up, it was definitely not ours. So, we had to wait another week. Spencer bought already mixed thinset because he was afraid he was not going to use the right consistency if he mixed it himself....so that added to the cost. Thinset and grout are not the same thing...I don't know why I thought they were. Thinset is like tile glue, and the consistency is so different. It feels like glue, and really helps the tile stick. The grout? is just for looks, its actually very porous....so that's usually when mold starts. That's why we went with big tiles- the less grout, the better. And we had to rent a tile cutter from Home Depot...because to buy one it would have cost us like $400....for a one time thing. So, since it was only rented for 24 hours, he had to work fast. The day before, he measured all the wall cuts, so as soon as he got the machine, all he had to do was cut. He cut fairly fast and did the walls all in one day. It was the curb that took forever, I am not sure why. But he finished it just in time, to give it back within the period we had rented it for.
I am not sure how contractors do the shower all in one day. If you do the tiles all in one day with wet thinset....the tiles actually start falling.....they're so heavy and the adhesive is wet, and gravity takes its toll...it takes a day to set. So, we actually put some tiles first to dry.....then the next day we put up the the rest, so they could rest on the ones that had already dried and glued to the wall.We wanted to make sure they were not going to move! It was so scary....it was our first time doing this. Once everything was said and done, it looked great! It looked almost i dare say...professional. Thank you you tube!
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| the green goo went on top of everything (right before the tile and grout) |
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| First part is done. we put up a baseboard at the bottom to keep tiles from sliding down. My husband is a genius! We also got the trim for the pocket door. |
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| The curb took the longest...but there it is...all done. |
Once it dried really well, we spread the grout in between the tiles. That was the easiest and most fun part of the whole thing.
We then shopped for a glass door. The place downtown came recommended from family, so that's where we went. They had so MUCH to pick from....clear, frosted, with figures, with shapes...whatever you wanted....with color! We are minimalists...so a basic clear glass door was all we needed. The guy came over and did the dimensions and gave us a quote and we ran with it. It took two weeks to get the glass!We had to use a shower rod and a curtain for a while. In the mean time, Spencer found a caddy for the shower and installed that. He just had to bit a drill bit for stone, which was not expensive.
Luckily, guys came and installed the door. They had to use a glass plate to hold the door up (the door could not be the whole width of the shower) because having a pocket door meant having a hollow wall. So, they could not have the heavy door be sustained by a hollow wall....it would not have taken all that pressure....so they came up with the idea of a glass plate to take the pressure of the pocket door wall. It was so heavy and that was the final touch. And now, we have a shower we enjoy...and it matches our dark cabinetry....that was a total surprise haha.
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| New door installed. |
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| The pocket door. It still needs a lock...we're working on that. We need to make a hole for the lock first. |
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| View from our bedroom |
Here's the breakdown:
Tearing all down: free (bin and hammer were provided)
pocket door kit: $70
pocket door:$27
door jamb: $9
thinset: $22 (times 3 buckets) = $66
trim for pocket door:$40
trim brads: $2
caulk; $3 (times 2)= $6
concrete drywalls: $60
special screws: $5
shower angle kit: $50
concrete to mix (for shower base): $5
shower liner: $30
tools to mix and level concrete: $24
green rubber goo: $45
tile (big, small, bullnose, and accent): $624
tile separators: $6
grout: $5 (times 3- but only used 2.5) $15
grout tools: $13
shower caddy: $30
rental for tile saw: $55
special drill bit for tile: $14
glass door: $1319
Gel stain for cabinets: $16
GRAND TOTAL: $2,531
Notice that most of it was really the tile and door (the door was half the cost! But keep in mind, it was custom. You could probably buy a plastic one at your local hardware store for so much less).
So, that's what we ended up spending. I know it's probably not polite to say how much you spend on DIY, but I want it as a record, so that when I print my new blog book is all in there. I can keep all the receipts, but they don't last....that BPA makes them go blank after so long. So, this is a better way to remember how much we actually spent, along with the nice before and after. I really thought we had spent so much more....haha. Every time we went to the hardware store it was like $40! And is seemed Spencer went every day. But if we had paid somebody to do it, it would have been at least three times as much, due to the labor. And, keep in mind, we kept all the existing fixtures and hardware.
And compared to the kids bathroom (which I only spent $30 just in paint and brushes and rollers since we already had the sandpaper and primer), it seems a fortune....but now, both bathrooms are updated, and they look so MUCH better than before.
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| My hubby had concrete left over and decided to leave his mark on the house. |
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