Time to brag about my project

[Clueless Morgan]

Just in case y’all were wondering what I’ve been up to lately, here’s an update on the home front.

Three years ago I bought my place and for three years I have complained about my stupid, terribly designed, flaming shit on a stick master bathroom.

(Master bathroom as I was working on the place 3 years ago before I moved in)






I shall complain NO LONGER!






I haven’t finished it completely: I’ve done 2 of 3 phases, but the major tear-my-hear-out-I-hate-it-so-much items are checked off the list! Namely: that stupid, stupid, stooooopid wall between the vanity and toilet is GONE!!!!  Which means I can actually use my bathroom to dry my hair in rather than having to do it in the middle of my bedroom! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Last to go for phase 3 is flooring, wall base, a new toilet and a new vanity.  The bathroom is in an extraordinarily workable state as is, though, so right now I’m living with the shitty floor (with particle board filler strips where the wall used to be so the floor is almost level) and silly little 24” vanity until I pay off the couple things I put on my credit card and find a vanity that I either like, or love enough to spluge on it.  I just can’t mentally justify $900 for a 36” vanity though, and the $250-500 ones are of dubious quality (or simply fugly) so the search is still on…

Every time I walk into my bathroom now I’m like


And, for anyone wondering, yes, I have done many, many Sound of Music twirls in there since Phase 2 was finished

I would formally like to thank my sister who came over twice to help me put up gyp board, and would like to extend my fiercest fuck-you to the guy who eavesdropped on my conversation at Home Depot and who didn’t think guuuUUUuuurls could do construction projects by themselves.

Yes.  They.  Fucking.  Can.

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Process Photos!!!!

So… the whole project was sort of started accidentally…  I was only going to take the door to the toilet/shower off its hinges for the summer.  Then I was like, “Maybe I should see what’s under the trim?... If I take the trim off, it’s not going back on so why not take the door frame out?  Now that the door is out, the header over the door doesn’t need to stay… so bye, bye header!!” and then before I knew it:

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Whoopsie daisy…



On to the barn door then!  I had been researching commercial barn doors for a client at work and suddenly realized that a barn door would be perfect for my bathroom since it requires less construction and less construction-precision than a pocket-door which was my initial plan.

But first things first: build the header.

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The wall on the left and the wall on the right aren’t actually in the same plane, hence the 2x4 down the left side of the wall furring it out so the header can go straight across the opening.



The aforementioned sister precision-cutting the gyp board.

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She’s a superstar at it, ya’ll.  She got things so perfectly cut and fit that I looked at it after and was like “Do I even need to mud this joint?”



Got all the gyp board put in and joints mudded, corner bead installed…

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(Did I mention that construction is fun??)



Once the gyp board was in, joint compound was dry, texture spray applied, priming and painting was finished, and then it was time for Inspector Riley to make sure the barn door was in working order before it was put in.

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“Hey, how can I get stuck down there?”

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Got the rest of the wall removed, the ceiling taken out and was finally able to fix the ductwork for my exhaust fan and run new electrical for the relocated switches and fan timer since the wall they were in is, you know, not there anymore…

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The wall also had to be furred out two inches (the offset on the barn door side was carried over from the plumbing wall on this side… Don’t get me started…) but that’s basically the same picture with a lighter-colored wood over the wall studs.



Part Two: The Return of the Sister for the gyp board work.  Got the wall all closed back up, put in a junction box which will be hidden behind the vanity mirror so that I could extend the electrical up to the vanity light – where I put in an actual light fixture compatible junction box for the vanity light rather than the hole with a paint stir stick screwed over it that was literally how the vanity light HAD been installed. *sigh*

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Then, more joint compound, wall texture, primer and paint! Put the vanity back in, and BAM!!!

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It’s like a whole new bathroom!!!

Yes, the lower shelf is missing in this photo and no, I’m not going to leave that octopus picture taped to the wall (I need a find a nice framed piece of art for that spot, and it needs to be bigger anyway), but this is my new digs ya’ll!

Also, check out the kick-ass handle I got for the door (which I *ahem* stained to match my floors)

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It’s the same style as my kitchen cabinet pulls!  It’s like I’m a designer or something!

It's soooo nice not to hate my bathroom anymore....