Bathroom Remodel 6: Almost Finished

After finally installing a proper toilet, I set about hanging the beadboard on the walls. I had been dreading this step because of all the intricate cuts that were involved. It would’ve been easy if it was just a matter of measuring and drawing lines; but as I’ve said before, nothing is plumb in my house. Beadboard is like graph paper; it’s easy to see angles on it. I was worried that even if I cut everything perfectly, it would still look bad as I lifted corners to make the seams fit snugly. I decided to start by lining up the two light switches. I’m a nut for symmetry. I took it as a good omen that the first piece of paneling only need to be trimmed once to fit.

The other pieces went up with relative ease. There was just enough room behind the toilet tank to slide the beadboard in place.

Next, I reinstalled the light fixture. It turns out my new wiring was successful. It looks much better now that it’s inverted and mounted higher up the wall.

Next, I had the wife drop a plumb line from the center of the light so I could properly center the vanity and medicine cabinet. Since the top of the medicine cabinet will stick out from the plaster wall a quarter inch or so, the wife painted the area behind it with the gray paint. She got a little carried away. This gave us our first real preview of what the finished room will look like.

After the upper and lower cabinets were attached to the wall, I cut and installed the baseboards. I also switched out the old off-white outlet for a pure white one.

We decided to put a small ledger on the top of the beadboard to cover the seam and add decoration. I bought some molding to accent the joint and the wife picked out a router bit she liked for the cut of the ledger overhang. She decided to just do a simple 45° angle halfway down the edge. I cut and installed it. It came out really good.

Here’s what the room looked like after caulking all the seams and gaps and mudding over the many nail holes.

To recap, here’s where we are in regards to the plan:

• Remove everything that’s not necessary or nailed down
• Scrape the walls and ceiling
• Skim coat the walls
• Patch the ceiling
• Remove the old tile (down to the studs)
• Remove the sink and vanity
• Prime and install the new beadboard
• Remove the toilet
• Tile work done
• Install a new toilet (x2)
• Prime the walls and ceiling
• Paint the walls and ceiling
• Buy and install a new sink
• Return everything to the room
• Bathtub refinished

I still need to finish smoothing the mudwork on the walls above the shower tile. When that’s finished, we’ll paint everything and rehang the accessories like the towel racks and wall clock. As far as I’m concerned, all of that work is cosmetic. What’s important is that we finally have a working bathroom again. There’s a tiny leak in the sink plumbing, but it’s nothing I can’t fix one afternoon after work.

I’ll admit to one problem I have with the room. I measured the height of the shower tile on the wall closest to the doorway. Apparently, the floor drops 3/4 of an inch from the front to the back of the room. I’m not really surprised. The old tile weighed a ton. As a result, the beadboard on the left side of the window is slightly higher than the tile on the right side. Our window blinds provide horizontal lines that accentuate the error.

What makes me mad about this is that I didn’t do anything wrong and it still came out a little messed up. Should I have foreseen this and angled the beadboard downward toward the back of the room? Would the angled board have looked bad? I don’t know. I guess the grass is always greener…

UPDATE: Bathroom Remodel 7: Finished

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