Bathroom Reno - Progress

The contractor has been here for three days and work is well underway on the bathroom renovation. If any of you have gone through this before, you know that the beginning is all prep work and not that pretty to look at.

Before he came in, the last step in getting ready was to build a niche in the back shower wall for shampoo and other necessities. Tom rerouted the vent pipe through the left-hand stud, cut the centre stud, and built a box in the middle. We originally thought we'd just install glass shelves at one end, but the contractor said it would be easy enough to add the niche.

The contractor spent the first day patching in drywall where Tom had moved the water pipes and installed a new fan - and patching up all the holes from hooks and towel bars. I did not expect that! I hate sanding drywall mud, so it'll be nice to move right to painting once the room is done. We haven't picked out a wall colour yet so we didn't ask the contractor to do the painting too. And I like painting, so don't take that away from me!

Here's the progression:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Amazing, right? J

He also had to move the shower drain three inches to accommodate the new drain pan. Three little inches!

Tomorrow the contractor is mudding the kerdi membrane in the shower. It's slow going as he has to wait between coats of drywall mud. He estimates that he'll be ready to start tiling by next week.

Hopefully next time I'll have prettier pictures to show you.  But after nearly two years of talking about this, it's so, so exciting to see it actually happening.

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Check out these links for the rest of the process -

Bathroom Reno - Demolition

Bathroom Reno - Plumbing and Insulation

Bathroom Reno - Tiling

Bathroom Reno - Reveal!

Baked Asparagus Fries

I have a fun little recipe for you that I discovered the other day. I say discovered,  not invented, because I'm sure it's been done a dozen different ways before.

I saw a picture on my Instagram feed of zucchini fries the other day and thought, wow, I'm going to make those soon. I already had a zucchini in the refrigerator, but I'd been planning on making zucchini noodles and kind of had my heart set on that. Digging around the back of the fridge, I found a bundle of asparagus that I'd all but forgotten about. How about asparagus fries instead?

I cut off the woody ends of the asparagus, gave the tops a rinse, and patted them dry. I then set up two plastic containers - one with an egg and a splash of milk in it (beaten together well), the other with corn flake crumbs (you could use bread crumbs), plus a bit of salt, pepper, and parmesan seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and have a greased cookie sheet ready.

Dip an asparagus stalk in the egg mixture, then roll it around in the crumbs and place it on the cookie sheet. Do this for each one, making sure not to lay them too close to each other. You want them to stay crispy all around. I also gave them a sprinkling of chili powder just before they went in the oven.

Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they're softened but not mushy.

You can eat them on their own, but they're even better with a dip. I stirred up a mixture of mayonnaise, soy sauce, and a little bit of sugar. The asparagus fries were so good that we ate them all as an appetizer - they didn't even make it to our plates. The outside stayed really crispy, with just the right amount of coating (that didn't fall off!)

I'm thinking I'll have to keep this recipe handy for when we have guests over. It's so easy, but looks so very fancy (which is what I'm always aiming for).

Have you made these before? Or maybe you've tried other vegetables?

Bathroom Reno: Plumbing and Insulation

This weekend's bathroom progress is all about Tom. I hurt my back on Saturday morning and was out of commission for the rest of the weekend. After a run to the dump to get rid of the debris from last weekend's demolition, Tom went ahead and started on the plumbing for the bathroom without me. Not that I know anything about plumbing. To refresh your memory, we're going to install a floating vanity, so the existing pipes have to be rerouted from the floor up into the wall. Tom decided he'd like to move the toilet feed pipe up into the wall as well.

The first step was to cut away the drywall all the way across. We figured it was easier to replace one whole sheet than to cut out holes and have to patch them individually. Tom pulled out the insulation around the drain pipe and cut out the plywood around the water feed lines on the floor. After he turned the water off, he cut the feed lines back and capped them off until he's ready to run them up into the wall. Once the lines are capped the water can be turned back on.

To make room for the drain pipe, he cut a semi-circle into the footer running along the floor with a hole saw. The pipe can now curve up through the footer and then up the wall. He'll reinforce the backside of the footer to compensate for the missing piece and replace the insulation when he's finished.

He also removed the last of the studs that made up the shower frame so that the new shower walls will be flush with the rest of the room. He removed the bulkhead frame above the shower and installed new insulation and vapour barrier in the ceiling and the outside wall. We want the shower ceiling to be as high as possible to allow for air flow and to make the space feel larger.

On the wall where the shower controls will be, he still needs to replace two studs that are so curved it's ridiculous. Can you see the light shining behind the stud? The drywall on the other side (i.e. the bedroom wall) is not even touching the stud for several feet in the middle. The shower wall always looked like it bowed out, and I guess now we know why!

We also had a surprise inspection from the site foreman. She looks happy with our progress so far.

Even though I spent most of the weekend on the couch watching Leave It To Bryan and Brother vs. Brother (I'm a DIY and HGTV network junkie), I'm looking forward to the day when we can say, "What has to be done this weekend?" "Nothing!"


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Check out these links for the rest of the process -

Bathroom Reno - Demolition

Bathroom Reno - Shower Installation

Bathroom Reno - Tiling

Bathroom Reno - Reveal!