Bathroom Progress!

Yay, for two brilliantly successful weekends driving the bathroom transformation along. It brings us that much closer to moving in!

First of all a reminder of what the bathroom looked like, (we had already taken down the curtain and ripped out the carpet - urgh, I hate carpet in the bathroom. The wall separating the bath from the shower enclosure has also already been removed):

Always makes me feel better to look back at what it used to be, it's easy to forget how far you've come when you only see what is left to do!

And now, here is what it looks like to date:

We are so close to finishing it off now. All that is left to do is: Fit sink & tap, front and side bath panels, shower screen, radiator, skirting boards, give the room a final lick of paint, polish the floor, fit light and a door! Ok, ok, so it sounds like rather a lot actually (you see why I have to look back once in a while?), but we are close all the same - the toilet works after all, so does the bath faucet and the rest is cosmetic, right? I mean who needs privacy in the bathroom...;oP

Ok, so to give you a little more insight into how we got from A to B, here is a step-by-step guide to redoing a bathroom:

1. Strip the room of everything you do not want to keep.

2. Re-arrange water pipes for new bathroom layout

3. Re-plaster or skim room if neccessary.

4. Prep walls for painting (sand them down, then wipe off dust), apply two layers of base coat, dilute first coat if painting onto new plaster. Go round edges first, then fill in the surface.

5. Put in new flooring.

6. Move waste pipes to correct positions (you need the bathroom suite for this, which is why we didn't do it before).

7. Fit toilet frame and bath.

8. Measure out starting points for tiles, cut tiles to size, keep checking they are level as you work your way around the room.

9. Use tile spacers to keep distances even, these are removed before grouting.

10. Once tiling is completed, clean out grout spaces and clean tiles before grouting!

11. Start grouting, working in small areas and wiping down tiles as soon as grout starts to set (within 15 - 20min).

12. Once grout is hardened, polish tiles so that they shine again.

13. Fit toilet! (also known as Bathroom Yoga)

14. Admire your handiwork and write a lengthy blog about your achievement. :o)