Mirrors, lights, and counter tops for bathrooms

 With the cabinets in place, the counter top people came out and measured where the counter tops will go.  Then they went off to work on the counter tops.  We expect them back in a couple of weeks.

In the mean time, the people can install the lights.  We choose lights from Lamps Plus, Possini Euro Exeter 36" Wide Nickel LED Modern Bathroom Light.  We need four of them -- one over each sink, plus one for the side of the center bathroom which will have just a cabinet, no sink.  These are $299.99 each, plus sales tax.

 

We also ordered 3 mirrors -- one for each sink.  For the master bathroom, we picked two Kohler 20" x 30" Single Door Reversible Hinge Frameless Mirrored Medicine Cabinet from the Verdera Collection, Model:K-99002-NA, for $296.13. 

 

For the central bathroom, Kohler 35" x 26" Double Door Reversible Hinge Frameless Mirrored Medicine Cabinet  Model:K-CB-CLC3526FS, just the one for $359.10.

(That is the shower curtain being reflected in the mirror.)

The doors and drawers arrived, and were put on the counters.  And the crew put down a 1x6 oak baseboard, stained to match the cabinets in both bathrooms, as needed.

Plus the shower glass was installed in the main bathroom.  The shower glass is one piece of 3/8 inch clear tempered Glass, 54 inches wide by 79.25 high.  I also got the "ShowerGuard" option.  Showerguard is supposed to make it need less cleaning, and what cleaning is needed is easier.

The glass (plus installation) was $1304.35.

And then we needed new toilets.  I have been happy with the ones we had, so we just got two new versions of the same thing, American Standard Champion Two-Piece 1.28 GPF Single Flush Elongated Chair Height Toilet with Slow-Close Seat in White.  I just drove over and got two from Home Depot, $454.60 for the both.

Then on Friday, the counter people showed up with the counters, and installed them.  That includes attaching the sinks to the counters and drilling the holes for the hot/cold water faucets (but not attaching anything to the plumbing).

The sinks are Kohler Ladena 23-1/4" Undercounter Lavatory sinks (in white) Model K-2215-0. $232.50 each, for 3 sinks ($697.50). The faucets will be Kohler, Devonshire Widespread Bathroom Faucet with Ultraglide Valve and Quick Mount Technology -- Model K- 394-4-BN.  $408.53 each, for 3 sets ($1225.59)

The simplest counter has no sinks.

But across the room, the counter has one sink.

And in the other, Master, bathroom, we have two sinks.

Update: 28 April 2025.  While putting towels in the cabinet in the master bathroom, the door came off!  The scres from the top hinge came loose.  Not sure if there were two screws or only one (never found two on the floor), but the one recovered screw was too short to do much.  It is a 1/2 inch screw (#8), so I replaced it (and the other missing one) with a 3/4 inch (#8) screw, which seems to be much  better.

A quick check of the cabinet doors in both bathrooms shows no other problem like this.

 

Fill in dirt for the Front Yard

 We put in a retaining wall in the front yard and brought in a lot of dirt to fill in where we dug out all the rock and stumps.  The dirt we brought in was perhaps not the best choice.  On the one hand it had a very high compost content which should help anything that is planted in it.  

On the other hand it had a very high compost content, so as the compost has decomposed, the soil level has dropped.  There are places with over 6 inches of subsidence. This seemed to particularly be a problem around the edges of the yard, next to the retaining wall.

To remedy this, I bought a bunch more dirt -- this time with a higher level of actual dirt -- and put that in the cracks that developed around the edges of the front yard.  Ten bags the first time ($26.70) and then back for another eight bags ($21.36).  Each bag is 40 pounds of Texas Native Enriched Topsoil, which it says is "local soil" and "compost".

This seemed to fill in around the edges pretty well.

And in particular in the area between the house and the stairs from the front sidewalk to the front yard.  Here we had to dig out the grasses that had been planted there, add the dirt and then replant the grass.

Cabinets for Bathroom Remodel Arrive

 The new cabinets for the two bathrooms being remodelled arrived today.  They were first unloaded into the garage.

And then moved into the appropriate bathroom.  The two tall cabinets were the most difficult to move since they were too tall to go thru the doors.  They temporarily removed the base from one of them.  The other we were able to get in by removing the light bulb and cover from the hall light fixture just outside the door to the bathroom.

Once they were in place, they were attached to each other and the walls.  The master bath has the simplest layout -- all along one wall.

The center bathroom has two walls with cabinets.  The left wall is not planned to have a sink (although all the connections are still in place below it.

The right wall will have the sink.

The doors and drawers are to be delivered at a later time, probably within two weeks.  But this allows the counters and sinks to be put in while we wait for the doors and drawers.

New Light Wiring in Attic

 Encouraged by the replacement of the Loft light fixture with an LED one, we want to replace the attic light fixtures (currently 4 foot fluorescent shop lights) with LED lights.  A couple of the fluorescent attic lights work poorly, or not at all.  We found some inexpensive replacement lights at Home Depot (4 ft. 88-Watt Equivalent Integrated LED Utility White Shop Light with Pull Chain, Bright White) for $19.97. 

These lights plug into an outlet; they are not designed to be hard-wired.  This seems a trend, so it seems advantageous to convert the current wiring to provide plugs for the lights.

There are 5 fluorescent light fixtures in the attic; 3 work poorly, so we start with those. First we do the one near the chimney and HVAC system.

We remove the old light fixture, to get a bare ceiling.  

 

The wiring box is not suitable for an outlet, so we install a new box to the side.  We run the wire that went thru the old box over to the side and down into the new box, and attach it to an outlet.

Plugging in the new fixure.

Then we move to the other end of the attic, to the center light, and remove it also.

We install a new box to the side of this spot, next to the living room ceiling.  In this case, the box for the old light seems to be a junction for wires going to many of the lights, so we leave that wiring and add a short new wire that runs to the box and the new outlet.  We cover the old junction box with a spare cover we had.

Removing the yellow outlet tester, and putting on a cover plate, we can plug in the new light fixture.

 

Finally, we do the same to the light fixture over the kitchen, removing the old fixture

and running the wire back over to the wall around the kitchen skylight, we install a new box and an outlet.

We can then plug the new light fixture into the outlet.

We see that all the new outlets work correctly under the control of the 3-way light switches near the attic access door into the loft and the stairs into the garage. 

 

Replace Loft Light Fixture

 The loft has two lights -- a low round fixture on the ceiling over the bookcases, and a long fluorescent light fixture in the wing that goes over the  back bedroom.  The fluorescent light fixture had a plastic bezel to disperse the light from the two fluorescent bulbs, but I often hit it as I was going by and it broken and fell off, leaving the exposed fluorescent bulbs.  So I thought to replace it with a low-profile LED light fixture.

I bought a new fixture at Home Depot -- Commercial Electric LED Ultra Low Profile Wrap Light.  42 inches long. 3400 Lumens. 4000 Kelvin (Bright White).  Says it will last  50,000 hours of use (up to 45 years).

The first problem is removing the old fixture.  Leaving the switch off, we remove the old bulbs.

That exposes the two screws that hold the fixture into the ceiling.  Removing those and disconnection the wiring leaves us with a bare ceiling with a metal box and the wiring.

Mounting the new fixture requires connecting the three wires -- power, common, and ground.  This is made easier by connectors on the light fixture which just requires the wires to be pushed into a hole.  Then we mark where the two screws go to attach the fixture to the ceiling, drilling the holes, inserting the sheetrock anchors, and screwing the two screws into place.  The light fixture is then put in place, pushing the mounting holes in the fixture over the screw heads and twisting slightly.  Then we can tighten the screws to hold everything securely.

We test everything by turning power on at the wall switch, and then clean up.

More Dirt and Expanding the River of Rocks

 I started by trying to mulch under the new Mexican Plum.  But some sedum had worked itself into the bed around the Mexican Plum, so I took it out.  But I like the sedum -- it's a succulent, and requires little effort to grow.  So I wanted to transplant it.  But where?

The best spot seemed to me to be along the back wall of the house, outside of the back bedroom and bathroom.  The strip of land along the wall seems to get little water; I think it is shaded from the rain by the roof overhang.  And it gets a fair amount of afternoon sun.  A succulent should do fine there.

But the soil there has compressed, so before moving anything to grow there, I wanted to build the soil level back up to the rest of the area around it.  Which is mainly the River of Rocks, as it splits and goes around the Shin Oak.  So I brought in more dirt.  I found what seems to be good dirt at Home Depot, Texas Native Enriched Topsoil, 40 pound bag.  I started with 10 bags.

That got me about half way, so I bought 14 more bags the next day.  But that was not enough, so I got 15 more bags the next day. So 39 bags at $2.67 each (plus tax).

As I filled in with dirt, I noticed that I had some flat-ish rocks that could be used to widen the Rive of Rocks.  While the River of Rocks was fine when it was built, the Shin Oak has sent up suckers to try to propagate, and filled the space left for it and at least leaned over to occupy the space above the River of Rocks.  So it made sense to either scootch the River of Rocks over, to allow more space for the Shin Oak and it's offspring, or to add another row of rocks on the outside -- between the Shin Oak and the house. 

We moved some Monkey grass out of where we have dirt and put them along the outside of the new edge of the River of Rocks.

Fixtures for new Showers installed

The fixtures for the new showers have been installed.

For the Master Bathroom, this involves a valve in the middle of the wall that turns the water on or off, and selects the temperature.  The water comes out of one of the two shower heads.  By default it would be the fixed head.  But there is another valve, under the fixed shower head that will divert the water flow to a hand held spray shower head.  The hand held shower sits in a holder that can move up or down a vertical bar.  So even if it is not used as a hand held spray, we can have two shower heads at different heights (only one at a time).

 This is a Kohler Devonshire Pressure Balanced Shower System with Shower Head, Hand Shower, Valve Trim, and Shower Arm.  Model: KSS-Devonshire-Handshower-4-RTHS-BN (Vibrant Brushed Nickel). $1354.69 plus a Kohler Master Shower 2- or 3-way Transfer Valve. Model K-728-K-NA. $186.71.

 

The Center Bathroom has a similar set-up.  The primary difference is that the off/on/temperature selection is done at the front.  When the water is turned on it will by default come out of a spout into the tub.  The spout has a small lift button on it that will re-direct the flow of water to the showers, which then has a diverter for either the fixed shower head or the hand-held spray, which sits in a holder that can move up or down a vertical bar. 

This is a Kohler Devonshire Tub and Shower Trim Package with Single Function Shower Head and Rite-Temp Pressure Balancing Technology. Model K-TS395-4-BN. $196.76.  Plus a Kohler Devonshire Single Handle Diverter Trim with Lever Handle, Model: K-T376-4-BN. $191.48. Plus a Kohler Devonshire 2.5 GPM Multi-Function Handshower Kit with Master Clean and Katalyst, includes Slidebar, Hose and Wall Supply.  Model: Devonshire-Handshower-Kit-2.5-BN (Vibrant Brushed Nickel). $730.09.

The tub itself is a Kohler Underscore 60" by 30" Alcove Soaking Bathtub with Integral Apron, Integral Flange, and Left-Hand Drain. Model K-20201-LA-0, in White. $1026.00 plus a Kohler Clearflo 1-1/2" Tub Drain Kit with Overflow. Model K-7271-BN. $264.19.

 

Empirically, filling this tub takes 50 gallons.  Unfortunately, we only have a 40 gallon water heater, so we don't have enough hot water to fill it completely, in the best case.

And since the demo work is all done, and there is no more tile to cut and set, the dumpster becomes of limited use -- there is not much more to throw away.  So the dumpster is gone.

Tile is Set in Bathrooms

We were gone for the month of January, and now all the tile has been set.

In the master bathroom, the shower has been defined.

including an accent piece on the back wall

and niches around where the shower head will be

The wall at the end of the room has been completely tiled to match the shower wall tile.

That wall tile matches the new floor tile for the part of the bathroom floor that is not the shower.

In the Central Bathroom, we have a different floor tile

And a new tub -- slightly taller.  It's considered a soaking tub.

And a redo of the tile around the tub. with a niche and new plumbing.

Master Bath and Central Bath Remodel

 We remodeled the back bathroom back in 2004 and remodeling the other two has been on our list since then.  We are finally getting to it.  

One of the main problems is knowing what to do.  We looked for a company that could both do the work, and help with the design, and settled on Vintage Modern Design Build (VMDB). They came and took measurements and pictures and used that to create a computer model of the bathrooms which could then be modified to show us what was possible.

In the master bathroom, the plan is to remove the bathtub, and the current shower and merge them into one long shower area without a door.

And also replace the counter top, the sinks, all the fixtures.  And as long as all that is gone, we will update the cabinets too.

In the center bathroom, we will replace the existing tub with a deeper tub, replace the counter tops, the sinks, the fixtures, and the cabinets.  Oh, and the tile, both on the wall and on the floor.  

 Basically the only thing left in the two bathrooms will be the toilets.  (We've replaced all the toilets over time, and the current ones seem to work fine.)

Linda worked with VMDB to pick out tile and flooring, sinks, fixtures, counters.  They will remove all the old stuff, and put in the new stuff.  $75,190 for the master bath and $43,278 for the center bath.  They estimate it will take 3 months and will start the first part of December.  

They actually started on 7 December 2023, and within a week had finished "demo" (demolition) -- the removal of all the old stuff in both the master bath

and the center bath