Handy-Man Corner

[Iowanian]

I'm tired of bad Chiefs news.....


I thought it would be a good idea for a thread on the Handy-Man.

Do you have any Home remedies, gadgets you've made, advice on car repair, home maint, sollutions to kill weeds in your yard, bugs in your garden?

Use Coke to clean your batteries? That type of stuff.
Home made floor dry?

[NewChief]

Alright, I'm starting a flood of my bathroom remodel. Our master bathroom, originally, opened up into our kitchen as well as into our master bedroom. We had decided to close that in so it wouldn't open into our kitchen. We ended up with a bad leak, so the project got rushed. Anyway, we ran into various problems, but it's done now. I'll post up the project step by step. First off, here's a few before pictures.

This one is shot from out bedroom and into our kitchen. You can see how our bathroom was basically a passageway between the two.

[NewChief]

Here is a picture as we're getting into the destruction. Before there was an enclosed, tiled shower. This was the source of our leak. We decided that it had to go.

[NewChief]

This gives you a good view of the enclosed shower. Notice that the door into the kitchen was right next to the shower.

[NewChief]

This shows just how far we went down. Yes, we had to rip the entire floor out. Yes, we had to scab the joists. What a pain.

[NewChief]

Here's a finished shot. This is from our bedroom. I enclosed the door into the kitchen, and put in a corner-opening shower. Tiled behind it with subway tile. We found a nice modern cabinet to put in next to the shower, and it fits perfectly.

[NewChief]

New sink, toilet, floor, and medicine cabinet. Also have a place for my son's potty to go under the sink. Forgive all the weird ghosty reflections. Lots of shiny, reflective objects is one of the prices you pay for a wife whose tastes run towards the modern.

[NewChief]

View of the shower and toilet. Unfortunately, I need a wide angle lens for the camera. You really can't capture the area very well with this one.

[NewChief]

And that's the remodel.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by NewChief

And that's the remodel.

Very enjoyable, thanks for posting these.

I'm going to start a bathroom remodel sometime in the next year. I'm going down to studs everywhere, then tiling every square inch up to the celing. Hopefully, I'll won't have to go down to the floor joists. I'll post pictures along the way, so people can enjoy the step by step progress and the agony that goes along with it.

[RJ]

NewChief, that's cool. Thanks for posting.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Very enjoyable, thanks for posting these.

I'm going to start a bathroom remodel sometime in the next year. I'm going down to studs everywhere, then tiling every square inch up to the celing. Hopefully, I'll won't have to go down to the floor joists. I'll post pictures along the way, so people can enjoy the step by step progress and the agony that goes along with it.

After spending an ungodly amount of time trying to get the mud for my drywall just right, I was tempted to go all tile. We're doing an addition over the summer for my wife's office, and I'll be hiring someone to do the sheet rock. It's not that I can't do it, it's that it's not worth the time and effort. I'd rather just hire it out.

[el borracho]

Originally Posted by NewChief

And that's the remodel.

Looks great! How far away is the next nearest restroom now that you closed off the "jack-and-jill" restroom?

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by el borracho

Looks great! How far away is the next nearest restroom now that you closed off the "jack-and-jill" restroom?

Not far at all. Our house is only around 1500 sq.ft., so nothing is very far away at any place in the house.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by NewChief

After spending an ungodly amount of time trying to get the mud for my drywall just right, I was tempted to go all tile. We're doing an addition over the summer for my wife's office, and I'll be hiring someone to do the sheet rock. It's not that I can't do it, it's that it's not worth the time and effort. I'd rather just hire it out.

Heh, yeah that last coat of drywall mud can be a PIA. One trick I've learned is to soup up the mud a little bit, and roll it on with a lamb's wool roller, then go over it with a 12" knife to smooth it. That does a good job of filling in the pin holing and other minor imperfections.

Sometimes I even do a prime coat with a flat wall paint before I do my final detailing, that way you're less likely to screw up the good areas while you're trying to fix the bad areas, plus it makes the areas that need attention easier to see.

Nevertheless, nice job on the place.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Mr. Carlson the Bugeater

Heh, yeah that last coat of drywall mud can be a PIA. One trick I've learned is to soup up the mud a little bit, and roll it on with a lamb's wool roller, then go over it with a 12" knife to smooth it. That does a good job of filling in the pin holing and other minor imperfections.

My brother told me the same thing. He also suggested throwing some mudinto the primer, throwing it on with a shaggy roller, and letting that cover the imperfections. One problem was that the stupid studs weren't on 16" layout, so I had to do a ton of cutting on the drywall. In addition, stuff just wasn't square, so the drywall really wasn't put up correctly. Next time, I'll know that it pays to put the drywall up nicely, even if you have to nail in some extra bracing and such to make it happen. Actually, I don't have to know that, because next time I won't be doing it. All I could think the entire time I was messing with the drywall was that I could drive down to Lowe's and pick up a truck full of migrants, and give them $100 bucks; they'd to the job better and quicker than I ever could.