Week 7 is already here somehow! In the beginning it felt like the weeks were going by so slowly, and things were just slowly moving along. This is probably since I was doing so much demo and I was very over it haha. But the time is flying by now, and I could really use more of it.
This is week 7 update in the One Room Challenge. The entire thing is going to be done in another 2 weeks. Which is crazy. The whole thing is only 8 weeks long. There are so many other cool participants involved in it. You can see more of them on the one room challenge website.
I am happy to report that we finished all but just a few items on my week 6 checklist.
Here was the checklist as a refresher:
Finish the plumbing for the sink, and shower.- Connect the wiring to all outlets, fans, and lights.
- Build the arch over the pocket door entry
- Build in any additional shelves or nooks we planned
Strip vent cover, and door plate of old paintBuild a mirrorBuild drop down shower ceiling for recessed LED lights- MAYBE start the vanity build.
We worked hard this last weekend, and got a bunch of these items checked off. There are still may big ones to finish, and I will move those to this week. Like I mentioned last week, we cannot start the drywall in the room until two things are done… The wiring, and the windows. We are waiting on the windows currently. I plan to just keep writing weekly updates even after the 8 week challenge finishes. I like the idea of documenting the process of everything.
For now Ill share all of the progress we made!
The plumbing is finished. Thank goodness. It was a nightmare to figure out, and having it done is a huge milestone. We ended up having to re-order the shower head. Right now if you flush the toilet or turn on the sink while someone is in the shower, the shower water temperature will change. It sucks.
So that is one of the issues we were hoping to change when we re-did everything in this bathroom. We bought a nice shower head at Home depot that ended up not having the right thermostatic valve in it, so we would have had the same problem even with a new shower head. So we returned it. Our new head arrived yesterday and its lovely, and has the correct valve.
That is the last bit of additional plumbing we need to add in the wall. Obviously we will have a little more plumbing to do once the sink is in, and we add in the plumbing there, but all of the in wall lines are in!
I took out the old vent when we demoed the space. I knew I wanted to save it. It is so cool and different, and plus you just cant buy them like this. It had been painted over previously several times. It was painted over with regular wall paint, not a spray paint, so it was pretty gunked on there.
I shared a post a little bit ago about removing old hardware paint and saving the hardware. I did those same steps again. You can read about it HERE.
I used the acetone to soak the smaller metal pieces in, and the paint came off easily with a few minutes, no scrubbing required.
The issue with the vent cover was finding a container big enough to “soak” it in. It couldn’t find it, plus acetone is spendy, and I didn’t feel like using a whole container to cover it.
So I ended up doing it in two steps. I first used a paint stripper gel that I used when I recently re-did some chairs. I will be sharing that DIY soon!
I put a thick layer over the entire vent cover and let it sit for about 20 min. After that amount of time, it turned the paint into a gummy sticky goo, and it scraped off pretty easily. Like I said though, it had been painted several times. So this only took off one layer of paint. I did this 2-3 times depending on the thickness of the paint in some areas. Then I washed it all off.
Then I used the acetone similar to how to you would use finger nail polish remover. I rubbed it on, and kept scrubbing until the paint came off. It took a little time, but I did it.
Once it was all cleaned up, I re-painted it. I chose a black spray paint that is for covering rust. The backside of the vent had a bit of rust on it, so that is why I chose the rust covering paint. I did two coats, and was really happy with the overall finish it had. It was kind of a matte sheen, which I was pretty happy about.
I had planned on going over it again with a clear satin finish to protect it, but after reading the rust covering spray paint, it says that it is not needed. If it gets dinged or starts to look bad in the future, I guess I can always repeat these steps again to make it nice. I am pretty happy with home it looks right now.
I cannot wait to install it!
Another win this week was the drop down shower ceiling. I had a design idea that I can’t wait to see come to life. We wired in some waterproof LED rope lights so that we could get this look. I got continuous LED lights instead of separate bulbs, so that the light would be soft and even, and not have any ” dead spots” in the light. Here is a inspo photo from pinterest.
Here is the drop down shower ceiling we built. We are hoping it will hide the lights in the little nook at the back, and just look glowy from the front:)
The other fun thing I did this week was upcycle a old mirror for the space. I will share how I did that in another post soon! Thanks for being here for the week 7 bathroom update. See you next week!
-Amanda