eWoodShop - Lake House Bath Remodel 2013

[Swingman]

Figuring I'd better get it done while I'm still young enough, here's a long overdue, nasty job in the partial basement of our 60+ year old lake house on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, AR. (Yep, that's black mold in the early photos).

Being a personal job and therefore needing it done as inexpensively, but not cheaply, as possible, it took two of us 18 working days to do it all, in between fishing, from demo to final paint & pee ... no subcontractors, including plumbing and electrical. Example: I bought (ugh) the vanity and marble counter top from the local Railroad Salvage for $100:

Sometimes you just do what you gotta do ...

[SonomaProducts.com]

Damn, Deja vu. I am in the middle of renovating\upgrading a 1903 Farmhouse with total gut and re-do of the existing bath and addition of new bedroom a nd full master bath. I almost went with that same "Curve" tub and surround for both but when with the cheaper Sterling knock-off at Lowes that was a f ew hun cheaper.

Just finished sheet rock install and got it signed off by the county; so en tering finish phase on the interior. Anybody want to help scrape and paint the entire exterior of a 100 year old house in Jamestown California?

Embarrassing note. My brother (the plumber) helped me set both tubs a few w eekends ago. Ran the water in one of them last weekend and it wouldn't drai n. I think he left in the wad of insulation I stuffed into the trap to keep sewer gas from rising into the bathroom during construction. This weekend I try to get it out, via the tub overflow, starting with a shop vac, per hi s "idea".

Finally, I like your idea of painting out a vanity. I want a black or dark vanity to match the black accents in the vintage style hex mosaic tile and they all start at $400. I will now look at buying a cheapo white and painti ng it black-ish. You may have just saved me a couple hun.

[Lee Michaels]

That bathroom doesn't look 60 years old any more! Looks modern and functional. Good job of taking some modern components and integrating them into an older cabin.

And I was going to ask you about the fishing. How long did it take you guys to land those whoppers? LOL

[Swingman]

Feel your pain ... I still have the kitchen to address, and an upstairs bath refresh, although I'm thinking of leaving that shower in and just replace the vanity and sink.

Also thinking of scaling back the proposed kitchen remodel to just the base cabs, as the wall cabs are in excellent shape and well built ... I'll just build the new doors for the uppers and replace the base cabinets totally as I need to take it to the studs due to some obvious leaks down through the years.

Problem with these older houses, unless you want to add-on, is there are always space limits in just about any direction, so anything I do upstairs will basically have to be pretty much like what was there before.

Then a new roof and exterior paint job ... just trying to last long enough.

Good luck with that tub p-trap obstruction ... it should be doable. I hate plumbing worse than painting.

[Swingman]

Thanks ... since I usually just supervise, but actually had to do the work on this one, it made me feel my age.

Getting those two fish, that were smaller than the bait, to bite was a challenge worthy of professionals. ;)

[SonomaProducts.com]

Yeah my original plan had me doing a complete retro upgrade to make the pla ce like a fresh 1920's home. Once I looked through my budget I have dropped about 70% of the ideas. I wanted to do claw foot tubs, new shaker style ca bs, new single panel doors throughout the house with Rim Locks and crystal knobs, farm house drain board sink, checkboard linoleum in the kitchen, tin ceilings, remove the dropped 8 foot ceiling and renew it to the original 1

0 foot, vintage wall paper and boarders, etc. Oh well, saved myself at leas t $10k and I'll be able to get it on the rental market sooner. If I ever wa nt to flip it I might do all that plus add forced air and likely re-side th e whole fricking thing.

I hope I don't have to cut the floor open to get access to that trap but th at's the only way in. The crawl space back there is only about 10 inches an d I luckily had the floor opened to replace the rotted floor when I was doi ng the install.

[Sonny]

k on this one, it made me feel my age.

Looks great. It's always nice to get a long-needed job accomplished.

I certainly identified with you, as I looked at your pics, all that work, r e: feeling aged. I've always enjoyed remodeling, but these days, almost an y task seems a chore and not so much fun, anymore. I do still enjoy the re sults, though, despite the labor. When I have one of my nephews helping, I don't feel so old and weary. Somehow, my nephews pick up my mental and, m ore often, physical slack and the chore isn't so bad, or my slowness/wearin ess/age isn't so obvious. These days, even the thought, of doing a signifi cant task, starts having an effect on my eagerness to do the work, before I even begin.

Sorry for the venting, that way, but as I looked at your pics, I somehow fe lt your "long overdue" reluctance, in doing the job. And, as my nephews of ten give me a lift, I felt I would have liked to have given you the same ki nd of helping hand.

I, no doubt, need to go fishing. Maybe that's what's missing from my work schedule.

Sonny

[Lew Hodgett]

Sorry for the venting, that way, but as I looked at your pics, I somehow felt your "long overdue" reluctance, in doing the job. And, as my nephews often give me a lift, I felt I would have liked to have given you the same kind of helping hand.

I, no doubt, need to go fishing. Maybe that's what's missing from my work schedule.

---------------------------------------------------- It appears you have an advanced case of analitis: however, you have lots of company, including me.

It is one of the reasons I posted "One Thing Leads To Another(Errata Corrections)".

Another is that "Artie" and his buddies are playing hell with my lower back.

There was a time when fishing was a way of life for me.

Today, "Artie" makes more work than fun out of a lot of things including fishing.

Catch a couple for me.

Lew