Powder Room Remodel: Days 13-15 (Fin)

You guys…I’m super happy with how this turned out. It ain’t perfect, for sure. But overall it turned out like I imagined—better even because I didn’t know I’d find that amazing light fixture at Habitat for Humanity for $20 and the pulls for $1 apiece. And my sister recommended painting the non-mural walls a fun color, and that wasn’t part of my original plan, either.

The big challenges of the last couple of days were all plumbing-related: reinstalling the sink and toilet. Everything really went fine—I had to shim the toilet a tiny bit in the back, as expected, to make up for the weird way that one tile set; and, there were some supply lines and P-traps that needed swapping out b/c they were old or the floor height had changed and they weren’t long enough. But no dramas per se. Oh, I take it back—installing the baseboard was definitely a DOD. I couldn’t get the nails in to save my life in some spots. I think I just had terrible finishing nails and should have picked more expensive ones that were sharper and smoother. Oh well, nothing that some judicious application of wood putty couldn’t fix. But I can definitely see why people who do any amount of this get a nail gun. Also, I am just constitutionally awful at hammering nails. Anyway, here’s a reminder of the before and after:

And a bonus pic, mostly so I can talk about the black charcoal bamboo soap there that I bought at Soko Hardware in Japantown like 3 years ago in anticipation of doing this remodel with the magpie wallpaper:

Cheryl also pointed out that brushed brass switchplate/outlet covers would look pretty fly, so I might do that as well as changing out the threshold covers to brass. But moving on…I’m so happy I was able to salvage so much in the remodel: the sink, toilet, cabinets, mirror (from elsewhere in the house), light fixture, pulls. The overall price tag still came in about double what I estimated, but like I said, I’m living in the early 2000s in my head still sometimes price-wise, and I always forget how freaking expensive paint is. Besides, as my sister pointed out, if I’d had a contractor do the work, it would have come out at least 50% more expensive. Here’s how it broke down in the final accounting:

• Tile: $100
• Wallpaper: $300
• Fixtures: $100
• Countertop (including templating and installation): $700
• Supplies (including grout, paint, caulk): $800
• Total: $2,000

Lessons learned (just recording them for me, mostly):

• Always go lighter rather than darker with caulk (also with grout most of the time)
• Use 1/8” joints when tiling smaller rooms
• Make sure backerboard is level before tiling (i.e., don’t just assume if the subfloor is level, you’re good; thinset can build up weirdly in spots)
• Clamp base to fence on both sides of chop-saw when mitering longer sections to avoid jitter that will mess up the angle of the cut.
• Don’t use galvanized finish nails; they are evil
• You’re not 30 anymore: schedule remodeling days with no more than a half-day of work.

Overall, really happy with the project. I need a break before starting the laundry room, but hopefully I’ll apply all the lessons I’ve learned on the powder room, and it’ll go smoothly! At any rate, I know I’ll have fun doing it, and there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of looking around a room you love and thinking, “I did this.” ❤