It is amazing what sheetrock can do! (Bath & Closet, part 5)

It never ceases to amaze me how a room can feel so different once the sheetrock goes up. Sometimes it can make what felt like an open space seem closed in, while other times it grounds the room and makes it feel just right. Thank goodness we are in the second camp. The last 2 homes we built so we know firsthand how a room can look just the right size on a plan, but once the walls go up it can magically transform into you questioning the room size! At this stage in the bathroom & closet renovation I feel so happy with the space, the design just has much better flow, feel and natural light, it’s very exciting! We subcontracted the sheetrock work out, this was a big job and neither of us felt qualified to handle it.

The contractor we hired to install the framing is also helping us out with the shower. We are having him install the liner, mortar bed and cement backer board on the walls. We ended up using a pond liner instead of the traditional pan liner, mainly because the tile stores don’t stock 9×8 liners and recommend you seal two of them together in order to get the size you need. I did find some online, but it cost over $100 just to ship it and would have delayed the project. So I looked at pond liners as an alternative, they are made of the same product and thickness and I saved over $300 and have a single piece rather than two seemed pieces.

I have already taped the seams, but I still need to cover the mesh tape and screw holes with thinset and then paint 2-3 coats of a waterproof membrane called RedGard for waterproofing and crack prevention.

All of the new LED ceiling lights are in, but we still have to add junction boxes for the new sconces beside the vanity mirrors. This was not in the original plan and is what my husband lovingly refers to as my “scope creep”…  The nice thing about being our own General Contractor and doing a portion of the work ourselves is that there is no fee to make this change, just the cost of the material and the time is takes us to do it.

Also we will be installing Board & Batten on the bathroom walls, I have already installed and painted the top trim (it is a lot easier to paint the walls prior to the rest of the trim being installed). Our plan of attack for the rest of the room is to tile the shower, install the vanities, install the flooring, install the baseboards, then install the vertical B&B trim.

The closet doesn’t get B&B, but will eventually have built-in cabinetry, it is painted the same color as the top portion of the wall in the bathroom (and in the master bedroom) Benjamin Moore Stonington Gray.

Thank goodness my sweet Hubby painted all of the ceilings for me, ceilings are such a pain for me so I was very grateful for him doing that.

In case you’re interested these are some things I have learned by being our own General Contractor:

• One good contractor can lead you to other skilled tradespeople, if the contractor is nice and helpful (which ours was in spades). He recommended the sheetrock guy, the shower glass guy and let us use his discount at the tile store.
• Let people know you are working on your home, we got a referral for a great plumber from a parent of our daughter’s when my hubby dropped her off at a sleepover!
• You can take your time and work at your own pace, which may be slow or fast depending on what else you have going on.
• You can make changes on the fly when you see an opportunity you didn’t think of when you were in the planning stage (without the burden of creating a change order and the associated costs).

So far the only major problem that has occurred is with the flooring. When I opened the shipment we received the other day it was the wrong color and wrong width although the packaging was stamped with the product I ordered. I hope the company has the correct product and can get it to me in a reasonable amount of time otherwise I have to start all over again looking for flooring… not fun!

Well I’m off to work on the shower, let me know if you have any questions about our project so far, I think it’s going to turn out beautifully!

Thanks as always for stopping by!