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I am still hungover from my bathroom warming party last night. Pics: concrete sink, custom shower base, glass block showers, teak shower walls, teak floating shelf
http://imgur.com/a/k1lwZ#yslkC You may have seen my earlier posts about building a custom shower base, building glass blocks, and lifting a 400lb concrete sink onto its base. Thanks, DIY reddit - you really helped. This was originally 1 1/2 bathrooms; there was a wall where the towel rail is now; the first bathroom contained a toilet and crappy MDF sink cabinet; the second bathroom contained a 250 lb cast iron bath set into the floor, a crappy MDF sink cabinet, and a toilet. My project (which took up approximately 60% of my weekends over the past 5 months) consisted of: * remove wall between bathrooms * pull second toilet * chip up floor tiles (leaving old concrete base) * accidentally damage drain to the bath (I broke somebody's crappy caulk based drain repair - the break was inaccessible, between a floor joist and the bath itself) * think 'fuck it, how long can this possibly take', and rip out bath rather than repairing drain (leaving my good natured girlfriend and I showering outside for a month plus) * pull sink #2 * run shower drain * rip out drywall to make room for shower install * run plumbing for shower valve + head * build shower base (this guy's instructions were invaluable: http://www.ontariotile.com/preslope.html) * build glass block wall (the glass blocks were recycled from a Smithsonian Museum of Natural History exhibit - something about oceans, late 90s) - originally intended to be roughly rectangular, design change was forced by lack of undamaged corner blocks, thus the curve was a happy accident * build sink mold (scrap lumber, single ply veneered plywood, caulk) * install shower fittings (yay for indoor showers in December) * install teak tongue and groove in shower stall (teak sustainably grown in plantation in costa rica, imported to PA) * urethane T&G shower walls * rip out sink #2 * extend / install plumbing/fixtures for 2x taps * fix giant hole in floor where the bath used to be (rebar, plywood, concrete, existing joists) * quickrete self leveling floor coating #1 * build sink base * pour sink * realize the damned thing is 400lbs * install new toilet (Jacuzzi low flow - recommended: low flow and does the job, what a concept!) * coerce friend to helping me get sink onto base * patch holes due to non-optimum mix * wet polish / grind sink * epoxy sink (pour on epoxy, 2 coats) * install bars in wall for floating shelf * use above friend's woodshop to plane + drill press teak board for shelf; install shelf * purchase walnut beam from local lumber yard for sink back * build linen closet - teak offcuts for shelves, slatted door from Community Forklift (recycled building materials) in DC for $2 * wire ceiling pots + vanity lights above mirror location (light fixture $8 from community forklift, pots from lowes) * quickrete coat #2 on floor * paint floor with perma flex (http://www.sanitred.com/permaqualities.htm - awesome, awesome stuff. shower floor has permaflex with rubber granules inbetween coats for non slip texture, pictured) * install drywall (full wall on sink wall, patches around shower) * install trim (poplar from lowes, squared) * prime + paint walls (accidentally pink - offwhite in wrong direction) * paint again (gray) * paint trim * install doors under sink (I chopped in half two shutters that I purchased from Community Forklift, for $2) * hang mirror * get extremely fucked up at bathroom warming party, put off doing the kitchen for another 6 months I probably forgot one or two details, but that was the long and short of it. I missed easily half of the steps when planning it out, and took twice as long as I estimated it would take. I bought several nice new tools: a nail gun (for the T&G - will be reused when I do the laundry room and outdoor porch); a wet polisher (will be reused when I do the kitchen counters); a cement mixer (an old bucket of a thing, $150 off craigslist, much need for reuse in resetting brick paths around the house); an electric planer (useful, primarily, for the doors). This was my first time concreting floors, doing T&G, and hanging doors. Second time building anything with mortar (first time was also glass blocks). I videoed the steps involved in making the sink. If there's interest I'll dig out the clips and edit together a howto. EDIT - dammit, wish I could edit the headline. _Shower_, singular. more