Bathroom renovation series part 3

Almost ready for the shiny goodness....actually, we'll get there today.

Ceiling. Needs insulation. Hippy neighbor specilizes in natural products used for such things, so yah, we've got a hemp insulated ceiling now.  As they sprayed it up there I had to stand underneath and mention if the roof appeared to be buckling under the weight of the hemp/fiber mix. Not a nice job.

Beginnings of a shower stall. You can see the pins inbetween the tiles, still holding some in place.

My tile was chosen to reflect the Bergisch region; I wanted it to look like the outside slate tile of most of the homes around here.

They said, "Do you want heated floors?" I said, "I'm not a heated floor type person." They said, "You need them." My husband convinced me. (And how I appreciate it now.)

The tile saleslady showed me the accent mosaic tile, and I was like "Yes, that." The accent tile makes the rest of it. Hey, is anyone from HGTV watching? My husband and I love that network and watch it on every visit to America!

I wanted a shower big enough for two.

Close up on the accent. Oh, about the accent mosaic tile -- the contractor wanted to lay mosaic in the shower stall because the floor is not level (for drainage). I was happy with this idea but he didn't understand that I wanted the mosaic to appear in at least two places in the bathroom, not simply the shower stall. I explained that an accent used only once looks like poor planning, and used in 2 or 3 places, looks like we intended it that way. I don't know why but it was really hard to convince the contractor. In the end I got it in 3 places, whew!

We waited 4 months for this door. It had to be custom made, of course, and a neighbor installed it. Plastic door, resist rain!

The fact that it both opens, .....and closes.......wow. Note the lights. They were installed improperly, "no fault of the contractor" - supposedly the springs that hold them up in the ceiling were broken, so every one of those lights hung down slanted, you could put your finger between the light and the ceiling. And the marks they made on the ceiling with a pencil, for alignment, were never properly painted over, so we had crooked hanging lights and pencil marks. Eventually finally they came back - months later, with a solution that will hopefuly keep those lights flush with the ceiling. And the pencil marks were haphazardly painted over, often getting paint on the lights themselves, of course.

The door LOCKS? Am I dreaming?

There is now a sink and a half-wall that shields the washer from sight, mostly. The sink was a re-install after I complained I had nowhere to store ANYTHING at all in this room. They decided to appease me by installing a sink with a drawer underneath. It is hideously huge, but really does hold all our stuff. I have to be real here and tell you what the contractor said when I asked him, "Where shall I put my stuff?" and he said, "You can stack it all on the shelf there." I'm like, "The laundry soap, the hairdryer, the extra soaps, lotions..." it was like he was some human imposter, not understanding what goes into a bathroom, or a laundry room. His van says, painted on the side, "Innovative bathroom technology" and he doesn't know where I'm supposed to put stuff that occurs in bathrooms and laundryrooms.

And the neighbor came back and put in a cat door! Woo! I love the way it lets a patch of light in. You can also see that the half wall has some drywall, and a tile top piece. OOPS, I was about to say the Tile Guy was the one person who didn't screw up, but the black granite he installed on that half wall was supposed to match the granite on the windowsills and half-wall, and somehow, it didn't. It's close, but not it.

That's it for now, and believe me we started showering before we had a shower stall. We simply set up my husband's sheet music stands all around the shower, with towels hanging on them, to deflect water. Being able to stand under flowing water was ecstasy.