Pulp Bath Reno 2

Pulp Kitchen

Continuing on with the Pulp Bath Reno 2 utility “rough in” install, we are nearly complete! A couple more water connections to the main shower valve left to go and then we’ll run some quick tests (to make sure valves are operating and set properly) and the start closing up the shower walls.

As mentioned, we’ll have a conventional shower valve/shower head but also adding a side shower slide pole with handheld sprayer. To make that happen, it requires some kind of diverter valve to make the water go to either the main shower head, the side handheld sprayer or both at the same time, so in a nutshell, we’ll have two valves, one above the other, that will ultimately control everything. The trick here being you want the valves to end up properly flush with your finished tile wall, and, of course, they are of different depths so you end up doing the “measure twice (and by twice I mean six times), cut once” thing when it comes to the back wall support for the valves. In our case, we were able to get the correct depths using 3/4” and 1/2” plywood back boards run between the upright studs. We landed the main shower valve first (lower) and then we have that feeding up into the diverter valve, which, in turn, feeds up to the main shower head and to the side slide handheld, respectively. Sounds complicated, right? Turns out it all makes perfect sense when you see it in front of you, just sometimes takes a little bit to get there!

So with that nearly complete, we did have some time to install recessed lighting templates on the ceiling, which was a blessing, as the templates are made for 4” or 6” recessed lights and it immediately became clear that our original choice of 6” recessed lights were just way too big! Back to Lowe’s, we’ll be going to exchange them for 4” lights (it would have been a huge amount of rework later if we installed what was originally bought and then decided to replace them)!

We also had some time to get going on the floor “leveling” portion. As with a lot of old houses, this one has a bit of slope coming from outside wall in (you know, sagging). In this particular room, it’s mostly in the toilet area leading up to the shower water wall, and then just slightly beyond into the walkway past the shower entry. Using a collection of cut to fit 1/4” plywood, we’ve positioned them in such a manner that the low spots have been removed. That leaves you with a bunch of edges which need to be smoothed out. In this case, using some concrete/wood floor patch (like a mortar) and easing it into the edges to get the smooth transition. Once we are close enough, we’ll be putting in 1/2” Durock over the subfloor and patch in prep for the heated floor Ditra mats on top of Durock, and then the floor tile. All in, should be one nice and solid floor when done!

Last, we found some time to get those bar stools painted for the kitchen island makeover, and they came out great! Amazing what a difference a few new colors can make! Next up, adding an arch and new wallpaper, stay tuned.

The Progress pics below. See you next week!