Small bathroom progress

It's been a while since I posted about this, and there has been a lot of progress.

The galleries I managed to "make work" here in terrible, terrible Blogger look like they're actually getting worse every day! I have added some captions to the images but they only show over the thumbnails in ALL CAPS now, wtf?

In any case, what Pim has been working on (I am really not doing anything of this anymore, I am due to give birth any day now):

• Put up electricity for aseo, laundry & kitchen
• Pipes for aseo & kitchen
• Tap fittings for aseo
• Drains for aseo, laundry & kitchen (lots of cutting and digging into the floors here!)
• Plasterboards for aseo, laundry & kitchen
• Self-levelling screed / compound / mortar for aseo floor which was very uneven 
• And he's also been re-setting the tiles on the mesh since I couldn't bend over anymore!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Small bathroom tile I

We picked up the tiles for the small bathroom, which I call aseo. Both the bathroom and the tiles are small ;)

They come attached to mesh backing, all tiles on a mesh the same colour, of course. So in order to have checkerboard and stripes, we either have to remove them all and place them one by one (bit of a pain in the ass since they're 5x5 cm) or rearrange the tiles on the mesh.

I've begun working on rearranging them. The white tile sheets are separated from each other by a waxed paper, which comes in handy, but the black ones do not have it.

First I remove alternating tiles from the mesh, they come off easily, while trying to not distort the mesh. I then I lay the sheet over the waxed paper, apply a little PVA glue (white wood glue) to the back of the tile (of the opposite colour), and lay it carefully. I guide myself by eye and also some 3mm (the given grout line in the mesh) layout crosses. The tiles are not perfect and even, so some eyeballing is always necessary. I lay a sheet on top of another so that the weight will help them set and not shift.

I think it took me about two hours to do one square metre. I have the impression the stripes are gonna be more time consuming ;) it is also a lot more surface.

Plans for the back building

We've been mostly planning the next renovation phase: the "powder room*", laundry room, kitchen and dining room.

*What a stupidly euphemistic name. In Spanish we call this aseo:  a small room with a WC and a washbasin, literally a place where you tidy up yourself. I guess powdering might be considered "tidying up", but, really? anyway.

Planning is incredibly important, we've found. We go over things over, and over, and over, and over again and we always find something we were mistaken about, or we had forgotten. It also happens that you change your mind 3 or 4 times, I think, mostly for the better.

We've been mainly focusing on the aseo and the laundry. These are immediately adjacent the main house building (the living room which is a temporary kitchen at the moment), and, with a baby on the way, will come in very handy as you can imagine. The kitchen and dining room can wait since we have functioning ones, temporary and super messy, but functional. The laundry is also functional at the moment, with the laundry machine and also the dishwasher connected there.

So we have been planning the distribution of the aseo, which is no easy task since it is a tiny 1 x 1,2 m room, and we are recycling a door found in the house (72 cm wide). And I did not want the door to swing outwards into the narrow passage/laundry, particularly since you'll have to go up a couple of steps to go into the aseo, and that seems very awkward to me.

We finally chose and ordered a WC (I love how easy it must be to clean this one! all stupid crannies hidden in a smooth ceramic column :)), a vessel sink (with overflow, many vessel sinks do not have one! dangerous...), the tiles (going for Winckelmans gres again, which we're loving), the taps and hardware (also very happy with our choice in the bathroom), and the lamps (going for a bit of a fancy-design thing this time). We'll build the counter for the sink ourselves, of ebonised oak and carrara marble. A wall to wall mirror and possibly some led strip lightning over the moulding on the ceiling and that's all that's necessary. We have also ordered the laundry sink, but I'll talk about that later.

• WC: Globo Paestum Monolito with an ebonised oak seat
• Sink: Scarabeo In-Out drop-in
• Tiles: Winckelmans 5x5 cm black and white square
• Hardware: Nicolazzi 1477NO70 nero opaco half dome wall mounted + paper holder / towel bar
• Lamps: Karboxx Escape cube

Obligatory crap-collage
The hardware finish is all wrong! and also wrong tap handles

The colour scheme of the room will be very strictly black and white. I'm quite inspired by razzle dazzle camouflage paint from WWI for this! Really looking forward to it ;)

So far we have received the WC, we will pick up the tiles tomorrow, and we got a dispatch notice for both sinks. Both lamps and taps (bit of a special order) are due in February.

Structural work has already begun, and, as I'm getting large and clumsy, I am not helping with this hard, dusty as fuck work at the moment. Pim's been cutting at the walls with the angle grinder, in all the places where electricity switches & ducts, and pipes of all types have to be built into the wall. No insulation/plasterboard in this building, so lots and lots of cutting!

He's already built the threshold (recycled steel railroad beam + concrete) for the aseo door (this was simply a solid wall before), and begun building the wall that is missing at the moment, between the aseo and the kitchen. He also cut off a chunk of wall between the laundry and the kitchen, because the passage was unnecessarily narrow:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Insulation

Next in house project is to insulate the back building on the outside. The width of the court allows us to do this, instead of losing space on the inside (which we've done on the rest of the house), the back building is only 3 metres wide. It also allows us to cover the very messy bricks of this part. The terrace had to be done first since the insulating foam and thin bricks that go on top will overlap the floor.

Pim finished the drains that come from the gutters, and he and his dad had to replace a couple of windowsills still, since they were not deep enough for what the new thickness of the wall will be.

Then Pim removed a layer of pieces of marble someone had attached to the bottom of the wall, washed the flaky paint (painting over moss is never gonna work, people) away with a Kärcher, and filled all gaps and largest unevenness with cement so that the insulation would glue to the wall properly. The insulation has guides to place the bricks, so they have to be placed level and correct (some bricks over windows etc go vertically), this is very important.

So lots of thinking, measuring, then finally cutting a gluing with a special cement glue.

The entire back is now covered in... polystyrene :D looks total class! We still have thinner insulation to glue to the edges of the windows, screw everything down, then glue the tile-bricks.

We can't wait to move on to work on the inside, the kitchen (!!!) and the dining room. We will have to, soon, due to the weather. We've already ordered the tiles for the floor :)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

More tiling

Some more pictures. The floor and almost all the wall is tiled, and grouted. Now a lot of finishing and installing.

Quick preview

We are very much behind posting about the tiling in the bathroom. So much to do, so little spare time.
So, meanwhile, a few pictures of the latest progress:

Long wall all tiled. The inside of the niche to go.

Some of the floor.

Center floor pattern. Our first ever tiling!

Shower and door-side wall (it's all tiled now).

Storage and bath walls. These are also tiled now.
We're leaving the bottom strip until after the floor is all tiled up.

Some grouting has also happened. We chose a medium grey, which looks
darker here since it wasn't dried yet. Grouting is slow! or at least we are
slow grouters ;) we'll use the same grout on the floor as well.

I'm afraid they're all phone pictures... too dirty (and time-consuming) a job to bring better cameras around.

Bathroom &

I am afraid all these images are taken with my phone, since it is always around and convenient.

Some leave much to be desired.

We bought a bunch of Ranarp Ikea lamps for the hall
and the staircase, some of them are up and running.

I would have preferred something fancier, but we're on a budget right now.
And these are quite nice I think.

Finally!! the roof guys brought and installed the attic windows.
These windows are Fakro (a Polish company) and they're neat.

Typical Belgian skies.

We're not sure what to do with the brick wall.
The attic is so much brighter.

The bathroom tiles arrived and we picked them up.
Winckelmans stoneware (grès) tiles, we chose 10 cm
hexagons in pearl grey, with green accents to
complement these antique tiles of the same material. 

I have finished the branch chandelier I started a long time ago. I don't remember if I posted about it. Inspired by images found on Pinterest, particularly this one. We gathered the branches around the perimeter of Pim's parent's garden. I will take better images once it hangs in the bedroom and explain the process.

Branch chandelier in progress

Painting in the bedroom is nearly finished
and we started placing the moldings.

I am actually glad they are foam instead
of plaster, I don't want to imagine how difficult
 to place plaster would have been, especially on
 such wonky angles.

The bathtub has been waiting outside for a long time, wrapped.
We finally made some space to bring it in.

We've mainly been working in the bathroom. Once it is finished, we'll probably move in.

All the pipes, drains and water outlets are installed, so is the electricity, and the insulation + plasterboards (these green ones are especial for bathrooms and kitchens) are up.

Now remains, in this order:

• Removing the floorboards
• Reinforcing the beams with steel (to strengthen and straighten the floor in order to tile)
• Placing OSB boards over the floor, with inset for antique tile trim (which are thicker)
• Tiling the floor
• Waterproofing around the shower walls & floor
• Installing the shower tray
• Tiling the wall
• Installing the shower glass screen
• Installing faucets, bath and washbasin, & toilet if we have bought one by then!
• Fixing plasterboard joins and paint over non-tiled areas

So it is a lot of work and it may take longer than we anticipate.

Removing floorboards.

These are the steel beam reinforcements.

I've been washing the oil residue and painting the steel, on the side that will be exposed after installing, with a rust resistant paint before we place them. They'll be glued (to avoid movement and create a sort of more rigid composite material) and screwed to the existing wooden beams. That's whet the holes are for. After researching the most efficient way to reinforce and straighten the floor for tiling, Pim made a technical drawing and had these custom made out of plate steel.

April

I have not updated in... a month!!
To be honest, I have been distracted with the garden. I don't mean I have been only working in the garden, but when it comes to blogging, it appears that's what I've been doing.

Of course a lot has been done in the house as well.

Let's see what I wrote about last...

Floor

Indeed, still going at it. Still a lot left. Less than half, yes! it is a lot of square metres and 3 layers.

Aïda sanding

Boxes upon boxes

Electricity

This is what we've been working at the most. Trenches (?) for the cables, plug boxes, installing switches etc. LIGHTS ARE WORKING! sorry. Yes, this is a big milestone :) The main lights for the bedroom, bathroom, "library", "parlor" and entryway are working. All the cabling for the staircase is installed, so are most of the lights, but the switch is not working yet (the timer we needed is backordered at the moment).

"Parlor"

"Library". I'll try to restore this medallion from its atrocious paint "job".

Entryway. Still doubting between a medium and a
dark grey for the ceiling.

That's a mane of internet cables.

Switch guts.

Holes to add wiring where there's none.
Staircase.

New staircase lights.

Much finishing to do.

Due to the inclined ceiling, at the top of the
 staircase we are putting the lights on the wall.

Hallway.

STUFF!

We've been receiving several deliveries, stuff for the bathroom: shower tray (enamelled steel plate, but of course) with fittings, shower glass (stripy!), washbasin, bathtub with fittings & the thermostate for the shower. We should very soon receive all the taps, I can't wait to see them.

Bathtub fittings. Drool.

Washbasin on its approximate placement.

I couldn't find brass fittings that I was sure were going to fit,
so I ordered a porcelain click-clack closure made by the
same manufacturer that made the washbasin.

It is actually chrome, but you cannot see it when installed.

We found a box of these marble stripes for a steal.

Here come a few dreadful phone pics:

The stripy shower glass.

That's all you (and I) are gonna see of the bathtub for now.

Apart from this claw. Talon.

We've also decided (that was hard) on the floor tiles and ordered them, this may take up to a month. We have matched them to an edging of antique tiles we bought and will place in the centre of the bathroom as a feature. The colour scheme is white, pale grey & sage green with brass hardware and medium oak furniture. This is all I have for now, a phone pic taken at the shop:

Top and bottom tiles we already have.

Since we finally chose tiles for the floor, we have to reinforce and straighten the beams, which will be a lot of work. Tiles will be a lot of work too, but we want it to be well done and functional, so we discarded the idea of wood in the bathroom floor.

The bathroom is still a bit of a battlefield:

Pipes and more pipes.