Three weeks have passed since I left you with the photo above and this length to-do list mostly for the basement bathroom. Since then I have been slowly figuring out the big ticket items. I’d like to give you an update on our progress, and here is the to-do list first:
Getting new bath vanity and sinks
Bathroom fixtures! Vanity! Toilet!
Glass shower door by professionals
DIY install 4 new doors for the bathment bedroom, bathroom, and entry, including a pocket door between the bath and the bedroom
Closets in the bedroom!
Baseboards and trims in the bedroom and media room
Vanity, sink, and plumbing
As you can see the first four items are all for the bathroom. We actually bought vanity and sinks before summer, but the incompetent contractor (whom we have fired) did the plumbing wrong and they have to be returned. Thanks for IKEA’s full refund policy we were able to minimize the lose, then we found this similar one on Wayfair:
Ordering vanity and sinks online felt intimidating. Before pulling the trigger, we triple-checked with our new plumber that this one would fit our space AND work with the rough plumbing. It will be delivered to our home this weekend, and our plumber Chris will come first thing next week to look at it in person and make sure it is really gonna fit. Speaking of Chris, he is truly amazing! He is not only knowledgeable and experienced, but also super transparent about his approach. After giving us all the information we need, he even suggested NOT to book him until we figure out the shower door installation, which should go in first before the vanity.
A new glass shower door
Following Chris’s advice, we shifted our focus on finding a shower door. Slav wants a see-through glass shower door to make the bathroom feel bigger. After getting several quotes, we trusted our business to a local company called L and L Glass. They are specialized, professional, and never pushed any product on us. Among all the quotes they are not the cheapest, but we have already learned in a hard way to not go with the cheapest!
Our final choice is very similar to the inspiration photo below. The difference? Ours will be composed of two clear glass panels, one fixed and one swinging door. We also opted for a single knob instead of a handle for the door.
To date, the shower door will be installed after the Thanksgiving weekend, then Chris will come in the following week to install the vanity, sinks, faucets, shower fixtures, and toilet. After he puts everything together, as the last step – we will install the medicine cabinet which has been collecting dust in the basement for 6 months!
Doors, doors! And doors…
With all the bathroom work scheduled in early December, we might (!) have a complete bathroom by mid-December, minus the doors. Yes, the doors. There are three empty doorway waiting for their doors, and as we are on it, we will replace the basement entry door under the stairs too.
This entry door and the media room-bedroom door are easy-peasy. They are both in standard sizes, so we simply ordered the doors from Home Depot website. However, the two doors leading to the bathroom are merely 76″ tall. That means we need to either cutting the standard door down, or customize-building them. I am still trying to figure out the best and cheapest way to go about it. Luckily we do not have to have doors to actually use the bathroom…
Now the fun part: working with the PAX
With all the bathroom stuff (almost) figured out, I finally had some mental capacity for bedroom closets. Slav is completely hands-off on this project, so I am taking full responsibility of the design, the purchase, and the assembly (hopefully Slav will lend a hand there…). Although there are a lot of decision to make, it feels like a good break from the bathroom decisions!
To make things easier I decided to design and purchase my closet first. My request of closet is simple and does not require fancy add-ons, And because it is sitting along a long wall, the design challenge is minimal. Slav’s side of the closet is a lot more complicated because of the location of our basement windows. So I hope what I learned from designing and installing my closet will be helpful to the design of Slav’s. So stay tuned for the big closet post!
Baseboards and trims
The very last thing we need to tackle to complete the basement reno 1.0, is to install all the baseboards and trims. This step should come after installing the closet and doors, which means we will likely not get to this part until January. Since we have already picked out the profile we wanted, it should be a fun and easy project when the pressure of bathroom and holidays is behind us. Right now, the bathroom and the closets! I cannot wait to come back with some completed installation of…anything, the closet, or the bathroom, anything really! We will get there, I promise!
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