Master Bed, Bath and Beyond

Jump to the most recent (January, 2012)

Preparing for the Plumber Onslaught

28 September, 2007

Closet in the master, comin' down

Man, oh man, can that boy stir up the dust! Just he and his 4-pound sledge had the plaster talc roiling as he demolished the master bedroom closet, which also provided one of the shower walls. The plan is to move the sink to the back wall, close off the doors with the prefab wall board (Tri-D) and install a new door and step. We'll recycle the sink, but (hopefully) put it on a nice pedestal, add a medicine cabinet and mount the water heater back in the toilet corner.

Master bath walls removed

Cutting channels for wiring conduit

While waiting for plumbers, Stan tinked away at the wall in the master bath, prepping the channels for conduit. Juan and Rafa had already helped with the final demolition, reducing the walls, steps and closet to rubble. We opened up the bathroom, moved the sink drain to the back wall, and will reduce the size of the shower by half a foot, but without the dividing wall. We also decided to leave the raised floor as-is, so we'll build another step in front of the door, which will be center stage.

29 November, 2007

Walls and Ceiling Repairs

Master mason at work

Rain had taken its toll on walls and ceilings, paint chipped, and eventually so did concrete. That turned out to be a good thing because it exposed rusty rebar. Stan donned a dust mask and chipped away crumbling concrete to expose the bars, then applied the nastiest rust-proofing he could find, the orange gunk full of lead - don't eat the rebar.

After things dried out, he practiced what he learned from Rafa, mixed concrete on the back patio, just like the local boys, and flung it at the walls and ceiling.

Indoor window punched out

In the meantime, I hefted the 4-pound sledge and whacked away at the inner window between the master bedroom and the dining room/guest bathroom. It popped out without alot of effort. Stan hauled the iron frame and the surviving glass to the corner garbage spot and it disappeared within hours. Recycling at its finest.

Part of the window space will be bricked in, the part that the laundry room will cover. The other part of the window will be partially bricked and partially filled with glass blocks to create an additional light source in the dressing area.

Creating a shower shelf

Stan left the bottom half of the closet/shower wall intact for a shelf in the shower. Of course, the demolition took its toll, so he smoothed out top and sides using wood forms, just like the plumber boys did for the curb, outside. This shower wall will be rebuilt on the outside of the shelf, also with a glass block design, but maybe using green board or panels, depending on who we can find to do the work.

Closet

Closet installed in 2nd bedroom

Work was progressing slowly in the master bedroom and bath. We'd found alot more repair work to do in there, and the fixing is going to be dirty. So, when the closet was delivered, we had it installed in the guest bedroom, the one we're currently occupying ... the only room that's livable at this point.

15 December, 2007

Walling in the Master Bath

Eduardo and Rámon and their erector set

As soon as the laundry room was finished, Rámon and Eduardo attacked the master bath. Once again, Stan had to do the hustle to stay ahead of them with wiring and masonry. He would jump out of bed in the morning and shut down power before the workers needed to plug in their tools, then run wires like mad until the teams showed up for work (between 8:30 and 11:00). Then again at night when the day labor left (sometimes the last one straggled out around 9:00PM) Stan would sling a little mud at the walls, filling spots that would be covered by sheetrock the next day.

The design for glass blocks in the shower

Design on the other wall in the shower

Hemmed in during the workday, we also had to do the hustle to clean up before springing three rampaging felines from jail to romp through the day's dirt.

28 January

Bathroom Sinks

Sink for the master bathroom

Sink for the guest bathroom

The bathroom sinks will coordinate with countertop and wall tiles. Now that we have the sinks on-hand we can start measuring and thinking about tile colors and designs.

26 October, 2008

Painting the Master

The master has been undergoing scraping and chiseling, rewiring, rust-proofing, and finally, concreting. It's finally ready for a coat of paint, and maybe even cleaning up enough to serve as my office?

15 May, 2011

The Master Suite, for Real....

Here's where we left off, 3 years ago....

Newly painted, looking out the little window toward the back garden

After a false start or two, we found a contractor with whom we felt comfortable; one who used email and text messaging and who actually returned our phone calls and was responsive and proactive. We contracted Angel Briseno and have been extremely happy with the ideas he's come up with and the preplanning and foresight he's been using in construction and design.

Phase I entails finishing this bedroom so that the cats can be corralled while the other openings are being worked on. Phase II will create a screened porch across the back.

Marked off for new glass sliding doors

Forms, held in place with bent rebar,
and a plumbline were used to create the new door frame.

Sill forms in place, looking from the outside, in;
en suite bathroom in the back left; total area about 11' X 22'

The glass man has come and gone with his tape measure. The sliding doors, made to order, are promised for Tuesday. In the meantime, we live with the big, gaping hole and hope that closing the bedroom door will keep mosquitos at bay.

7 June, 2011

Sliding Door, Floor, a Niche and another Slider

Door installed

Aesthetically, the doors and windows installed in the original casitas were just plain ugly. As stand-alone cottages, each bedroom door and window was of the steel-bar security variety. We asked Angel if he could make shoji screen looking doors.

     
Bedroom door removal. Window on the left is next. Installing the new bedroom door.

Tile's installed. With the big ole swinging door removed,
the closet space is opened up for Bucky's inspection.

     
Tearing out and replacing the window with some sort of niche with mirror, yet to be designed

The outside of the window niche
closed up, trim on the door being installed

7 January, 2012

Finishing Touches

Bathroom door and closet

Bedroom door

Old window niche looking good
(but still salitre problems that we'll deal with ... later)