Bathroom Remodel - Unexpected Plumbing & Hardiebacker

Well things sometimes don't go as you expect them to when remodeling. Turns out when we decided to leave the old shower fixtures in place we didn't account for the fact that the new tub is wider than the old one. Consequently they were off-center.

Since I had to redo it all anyway, and we already had the new valve body, I just went ahead and installed it. I'm sure a good plumber wouldn't have taken as long as me (4 1/2 hours!) but in the end it all works (no leaks and hot is hot and cold is cold) and I'm pretty proud of myself. I took my time and was careful.

That was actually all done last weekend.

Today I added the last of the Hardiebacker in the shower area. This time instead of scoring the board with a knife and having a hell of a time getting it to snap cleanly, I put the concrete blade on the circular saw. Man the dust that kicked up! It was raining so I did it in the garage. Probably not the best idea. I had to wash both cars afterwards!

While I had the saw out and setup I also cut the Hardiebacker for the fireplace. It really helps define how it'll look later. I'm also really happy with the height.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 10

It's hard to take pictures in a bathroom, the space is just so small.

We've been finishing up the demo this last week. It's been a slow go. Mostly just because we are not in a rush, so we'd do a much as we wanted and then just quit for the day.

We did get the drywall all up though. Started mudding. I hate that part. Ugh. From the pictures you can see I still need to put up the corner beads.

You can also really see how big of a space we've gained. We're going to fill it full of cabinets.

We also got the tub out finally. I had to smash it to bits with a sledge-hammer. That was a mess. After inspecting the tub/shower plumbing we've decided to leave it be and just buy a new cover/handle for it. Two reasons: One, the work involved with changing the plumbing was going to be a lot because of how the house was built. Two, this is a lot cheaper. The set with bought for the bathroom wasn't terribly expensive, but it was overkill for the room.

So we have to finish the drywall, then it's tub time. We have to have the floor vent moved still too. That'll have to be done soon. We can't do the floors until that is complete.