Bathtub Bravo

Almost everyone who has seen the tub asks if they can take a bath when the house is done. I suspect those of you who haven’t asked are just shy.  When the house is done, I may start renting the tub out.  We have to pay for the build somehow.  There’s precedence for this…a nickel for a hot bath in the old west.  So, $20 for a bath in the western suburbs? I suspect the village would have something to say about that and I'd be violationg about 100 health codes.  So, I'll keep the tub to myself.

The other question everyone asks is "where did you find that tub?"  If you search  Amazon for "slipper tub" you might think we spent $5,995 on the Barclay 66" Slipper tub.  And you'd be wrong.  $5,995 for a tub was not in the budget.  


Maybe you wouldn't do a search for a bathtub on Amazon.  Before this build I certainly would not have done it. But now it would be my first stop...we ended up buy over 80% of all the plumbing fixture from Amazon...just not the tub.


If you were to do a search on Houzz (a site I've been addicted to throughout this entire build) for "freestanding slipper tub" you might think we spent over $4,000 for the Victoria and Albert Amalfi tub. And you'd be wrong.  $4,000 for a tub was not in the budget.  


If you do have $4,000 in the budget for the Victoria and Albert tub can you build a new bath and let me take a bath at your house?  I love my new tub but the finish on the Victoria & Albert is a little bit nicer.  Maybe you'll have the drop-dead gorgeous tiles use in this bathroom.  Click on the picture to see other images on Houzz from this house.  The shower is amazing.

Another wonderful
Victoria & Albert tub!

 My dream tub is an Ofuro style soaker.   I asked Dr. Google about these tubs (multiple times.) Every search I did led to Signature Hardware's selection.  Sadly, none of these tubs would fit in our new bathroom.  But plenty of the  other tubs would fit...but the pricing (compared to the other tubs I looked at) seemed way too good to be true.  Last spring break we decided to let the girls get their horse fix and took a drive to Lexington.  We took a little detour and visited Signature Hardware's show room.  The first time I climbed into the 66" Susanna Freestanding Resin Slipper Tub I knew this was the tub.


The price I paid for the tub was less than what's currently listed on the web site.  I'm not going to pretend like it's not a lot of money for a bath tub.  My original budjet was a max of $1,200.  So I blew that but the whole experience gave me the confidence to source all the plumbing fixtures myself and still came under budget (barely.)

My awesome tub!

A Bathtub Fit for a Queen

Week 25:This week brought some more bad weather that created more issues with us being able to get the exterior siding finished. We are hoping for better weather this week, but it doesn't look too promising. In the meantime, we have the kitchen cabinets being installed and the master bath tub was installed. They will finish the master bath vanity early this upcoming week. They also swapped out the kids tub due to damage. Some of the lights we ordered are coming in and we have the exterior porch railing ordered. This next week, we are hoping to finish the siding and getting the rest of the hardwood floors installed. If the last pieces of the tile come in tomorrow and the floor lights on Tuesday, as they are scheduled, then the tilers will be in to finish up their work. We met with the shower door and mirror company and are having them come out to measure. The countertops will also be measured this week.

The top of the siding installed.








Joe measuring for the boards in the gable.








More siding to replace the boards that were the wrong size.










The finished front.









Working on the new addition side.








Here is the new master bath floor.








Here is the niche for the tub.








Closeup of the tile with the dark grout.








The tub built for a queen. It is now installed and ready for use.








Close up of the soaking tub.









Here they are starting to unpack the kitchen cabinets. This is the double oven cabinet.









Here they are dry fitting all the cabinets to their locations.








Cabinet being leveled and installed.








Another angle of the cabinets.








Completed installation of the cabinets on the south and west walls.








Here is the location of the dishwasher.








Upper cabinet with soft close doors.












Starting the build out for the refrigerator and pantry.







Cabinets installed with the opening for the refrigerator and coffee station on the left.







Here is where the island will be.








Here is the girls bathtub that was damaged.








Here is the cutout of the tub.








The replacement tub.








Lumber for the framing of under the stairs.

More of the Same

Week 11: Another week, more storms. Here is a link to what we have gone through this past month. It has been the rainiest July on record. This past week we had two storms at night that brought torrential downpours, thunder, and lots of lightning. We had highways that were impassable and more people losing power. Due to the torrential rain, we had rain come through the window wells and fill up the basement. The sump pump was going when we had power and ran for a few days. Now we have a bit of a cave in with the dirt so that will have to be cleaned out. Our external drainage system also came lose so we had water going in the system and then dumping out right by the window well. Need to get that adjusted. On the days it wasn;t rinaing, it was hot as an oven. We did have a couple nice evenings with temperatures in the high 70's or low 80's. The past few days have seen no rain and things are starting to dry up just before more rain is forecast. Anyway, this week we received both the kids bathtub and the master bath soaking tub. Both had been scheduled for the previous week, but one was not delivered and the other was damaged by the carrier. This round everything looks good. Also, we had the roof re-shingled with some nice black architectural shingles. We also decided after conferring with Ferd and Mike to remove the bulk of the cinder blocks and replace with standard framing. This was done mainly to ease the connection of the new addition to the old. It is a little tougher when you are trying to tie in cinder block with wood. We also decided after receiving a proposal from the mason to re-do the cinder blocks around the windows and to clock in the chimneys that were removed. It is more affordable to demolish and do it in wood. The house now looks like it is on stilts because of the framing and a few rows of cinder blocks. Next week is the rest of the interior framing, the windows (yeah) and sheathing on the sides.


Here is where we had a little cave in. Underneath the dirt is where the drainage system came undone. It will be repaired next week.







Here is more progress on the stairwell to the second floor.










Here the stairwell is sheathed and next there will be windows.






A close up view of the new skylight.









Here is the framing for the new closet in the foyer.








Here are the architectural shingles that will be going on next.







Here John and his concrete crew are starting the removal of the cinder blocks. We left a few rows that were filled in with concrete and will hold a framed wall on top.







Here the cinder blocks are gone from the front of the house.








Here they are gone from the back.








The house of stilts. The framing was done to solidify the structure while they removed the cinder blocks. There will be another framed wall as well.







More house on stilts.







This is a closer view of the concrete they poured over a few rows of the cinder blocks and then create a flat bed to frame the new walls on.






Here is a shot of the shingles post install. Hard to see how good they look.







Here is the new addition with the new shingles. They also painted the exhaust pipe black to match the shingles.







This is the deck and is getting ready for the floor.