Tiling

It has taken me three and a half days, but it was worth it. There are a few parts that I wish I had thought through better, but I am generally happy with the finished product. One of the difficulties in doing a renovation, is that you find that you are having to do extra prep work to make sure that everything is 'square' and 'plumb'. Once this is done, the actual tiling is pretty easy. I hired a rotary cutter from Diamond Hire to make the tile cutting easier and accurate. I have also invested in a Dremel - a small electric hand tool that cuts, which was great for the areas where the drains go.

The plumber will now install the shower head and taps, as well as the toilet. Once this is done I will get the shower screen measured and installed before I complete the project by painting the walls, reinstalling the mirror and detaling the grout.

My next post wont be for a week or so.

Happy Renovating.

Sonia

Waterproofing

The waterproof membrane has taken slightly longer as I needed to wait for the render to dry fully, before starting on the first coat. This product is just like a thick paint, but is fairly smelly and as you can see from the picture, is a 'lovely' shade of green. I have given this area three coats, as I do not want the water seeping through to the downstairs lounge.

The next step is the exciting part ----- TILING!!





Happy Renovating!!



Sonia

Progress At Last

Now that Christmas is over, we have been able to get our plumber to come and do the necessary work so that we can move forward with our ensuite renovation.


The old vanity has been removed and the new one installed. The spigot for the shower has been raised so that my husband, who is over 6ft tall, can now stand under it comfortably.


The first job has been to build a small partition wall between the shower and vanity. This has been reinforced with cement fibre sheeting which also gives a smooth, even surface to tile on to. This wall will prevent the creation of a void between the two areas, which previously was very hard to clean between.
I have used bondcrete on the surface of the shower walls, before the render has been spread over the top. Further rendering of the top of the new wall and the existing recess wall, will need to be done and left to dry for two days before the next step.

The next step is to waterproof the entire shower recess thoroughly, so that it does not leak into the downstairs lounge room.



Happy Renovating!

Sonia

Renovation Rescue

Over the past twenty years my husband and I have renovated a couple of houses and used the benefits of doing the work ourselves to keep the costs down and then reaped the rewards when we sold the house later on.

The 'Bunker' (as the neighbours call it) was purchsed in 2001 and since then we have done very little to it, but as we now are looking to retire in the next 5 to 10 years, we are now planning our renovation strategy to assist in gaining the most benefit from our primary asset.

Built in 1978, you can tell by the colour scheme in the following photo, that this house could have been used for 'That 70's Show' very easily!!! The previous owner had painted nearly every internal room in 'Peach', a colour I hate!!! So the only thing that I have done over the past few years is paint the internal walls in a more neutral palette, with the occasional feature wall in larger areas.

A very 70's kitchen colour scheme. (Very difficult to face if you have had a hard night and get up feeling a little 'seedy' in the morning!!)

The overall plan will take us at least 8 to 12 months to complete, as we both work full time and have only our weekends and annual holidays to do any meaningful work on the place. By the time we have finished, we hope to have this old, tired looking 'Bunker' looking more like a new contemporary home.

JOB NUMBER ONE -

Master Bedroom Ensuite

This is going to be our first room to renovate. We have purchased all the tiles, grout, toilet, vanity and fixings to get the project started. One thing that always happens with renovations is that as you go along, you will always find other things that need to be fixed, so make sure that you have a contingency budget, so that these small, but often costly jobs don't hold up the entire renovation.

Renovation Day One -

There are several ways to remove tiles. DIY with a tile removal tool or call in the professionals. We have opted to DIY. The small floor tiles in this case are fairly easy to remove, but the wall tiles have been a different story!! I will need to render the wall before I retile. (** Extra cost #1) Now that I have removed that tiles, I have noticed two things, firstly that there is no water proofing and that there is a leak in the pipe for the cold water. (** Extra cost # 2 & 3) Now you can see how having the contingency plan for unforseen problems is so important. In one day I already have discovered three extra costs.

Most renovations can be done youself, but one thing I won't touch is plumbing, so I will need to call the plumber to remove and install the new toilet and vanity as well as fix the leaking pipe.

Happy renovating

Sonia :-)