Polyurythane = Non-Sticky Shelves

Have you noticed shelves with latex paint tend to stick to objects placed on them? I used my left over Minwax Wipe-On Poly on all the shelves in the bathroom for extra protection against wet stuff and to remove the latex sticky factor.

Stoop Repair

During the bathroom renovation we probably neglected the rest of the house. But the kitchen door stoop could not wait any longer. The paint had peeled away in places and I could see cracks in the wood that were taking water. It was mushy too. So rather than just repainting, I decided to scrape it and remove the rotten wood.


I wish I could have replaced the whole board but it appeared to go under the entire door jamb and would probably affect our new kitchen tile. Forget that. When I removed enough wood to see under it, I found a nest of sweet ants that were a little surprised. After evicting them I coated everything left with rotten wood hardener. Several days later I found some scraps of mahagony (left over from vanity project) that fit perfectly. I screwed and liquid nailed the scraps in place.


Finally, I covered them with Bondo, primed a few coats, painted a few coats, and caulked. Someday, I would love to add a little roof over this door to deflect the rain. But until then, this should hold.

Shower Valve Roughed Too Far Forward!

Now that all the painting and caulking is done, it was finally time to attach the shower trim plate and hot/cold lever. The wall trim plate attached fine but the lever was about an inch out away from the trim plate. After a deep breath and closer examination, I concluded that my plumber had roughed in the valve too far forward. All I could think about was what a huge pain in the ass it was going to be to rip the finished wall off to move the valve.


Clinging to the notion that everything has a workaround, I googled the problem and found someone else with the same exact situation. They even had a Moen valve and handle. In their case the plumber was also responsible for the finished wall, which is even more embarrassing. In my case, I had stuck with my detailed plans for finishing the wall so I am still blaming my plumber. Apparently, the Moen valve installation instructions must confuse plumbers. Either that or plumbers are too cocky to use the instructions. I assume it is the later.

Anyway, the other couple had posted their problem on the Terry Love plumbing forum and managed to solve it by using Moen's valve stop extension piece. The extension is actually provided for valves that are set back too far into the wall, but I guess it can also be used for the opposite. And despite the fact that Moen says to correct the valve in-wall depth instead, several Terry Love moderators seemed to think correcting the problem by using the extension was acceptable. In fact, some argue that the rough-in is still technically accurate because the trim plate fits.


Since bringing my plumber back was about the last thing in the world I wanted to do, I studied the valve and lever parts to determine if said workaround was sound. I came up with a few modifications to help improve it. Since two screws would now be exposed, I added rubber washers between the screws and the trim plate. Then I filled the extension with plumber's putty in case water dripped into it (to prevent it from flowing into the valve from the lever). Finally, despite a rubber gasket where the extension passes through the trim, I had Melissa seal it with black caulk. The caulk looks a little out of place but I prefer to error on the side of function over style.


Well, it looks a little weird but the damn thing seems to work and as far as I can tell, it should be a suitable workaround. In the end, I'm disappointed and I can't help hearing the phrase, "If you want it done right, do it yourself". Next time, I'll rough in the plumbing myself!

Roll-Away Dumpster and Old Washer Removal

Or...saying goodbye to our old bathroom for good!

We've had this pile,

the guts of the bathroom we removed, sitting in our driveway since December. I guess my plan to slowly dispose of the pile, piece by piece, via our weekly trash pick-up, was not a success. So Melissa put her foot down and rented a roll-away dumpster.


With the dumpster sitting in our driveway, we also decided it would be a good time to get rid of the old washing machine sitting in our basement. It came with the house and when we replaced it, the Sears delivery guys acted like there was no way they were going to get the thing up, out of our basement. It weighed a lot. So at the time, I said "just leave it in the basement. Some day I'll take it apart and move it upstairs in pieces. " Some day was this weekend...and it sucked. I had to cut through a one inch thick solid steele rod with a hacksaw because we couldn't get the solid metal spinning thingy detached from the base. I'm glad it's over.

Water Proof Window Trim

We had a rough time trying to figure out how to frame our glass block window to have a water tight seal. It wasn't set back far enough to frame it with tiles set back into the wall. Yet, it was set back too far to have a huge grout line. We finally decided to use rot free vinyl exterior PVC molding. I attached it with some kind of outdoor caulk adhesive. After it dried, Melissa applied grout colored caulk between the trim and the tile. Then she applied white caulk between the trim and the glass.

Threshold, Toilet Paper Holder, Shower Head

Now we're getting down to the easy cosmetic stuff. Mom and Dad bought us the toilet paper holder for Christmas.


They also got us the Shower head. This was scary to attach because I had to attach the pipe feeding the shower head. If the pipe leaks where it connects to the elbow in the wall, it will be difficult to detect. The other complication is that the thing basically screws on. Sounds easy, right? Well, it has to screw on such that it aims down on the final tightening. This proved very tricky so I wrapped the threads about 6 times with thread tape and applied a little rector seal for some extra piece of mind. I have a plan to check for leaks from a small access point behind this wall...

This is the fourth threshold I've added in this house and each gets easier. I buy the oak threshold from the flooring section at Lowes, router out any necessary areas on the bottom, cut to length, apply stain and polyurethane to match the adjacent oak floor and countersink four screws. This one is rock solid and except for all the dog hair in this photo, looks fairly good IMHO.

Vanity...Finally

Seven months after building the vanity, I am finally able to put the porcelain top on it, connect the plumbing, and put the doors on. The porcelain top mounts onto the wall. It was tricky working from inside the little vanity to tighten the mounts but somehow it worked. I like it.