The Great Bathroom Makeover

For a few dollars worth of paint and a weekend's work, the bathroom looks great! (Okay, so it was two weeks and a few hundred dollars, but in 2022, I'm pretty sure I won't remember.)

The catalyst: No baseboard, the vent just flopping around.

"Shadow" of old cabinet above toilet; I didn't like the wood

This photo also shows the cheap plastic medicine cabinet.

Hard to organize storage under the sink. Need a shelf.

Fresh white semi-gloss and new shelves. The one under the sink has a backstop and is removable.

New LED downlights; new tp holder with phone shelf; new medicine cabinet

Gave walls a nice gray (Sherwin-Williams Silverpointe), added unobtrusive crown molding and baseboards in white, and converted wood grain cabinet to a "Pottery Barn" blue (Sherwin-Williams Distance). The ugly jacuzzi timer above the light switches is now a blank plate. The medicine cabinet swings the other way, so the mirror can be used for close-ups. Note new hinges on main entrance door.

Luxurious bath towels match the cabinet.

Satisfaction.

The ugly, temporary, skinny window looks a lot better in solid trim white (Sherwin-Williams Pure White). I thought about Silverpointe to "paint it out," and I thought about recalling the blue of the cabinets--if not the whole door, then the trim at the glass. Peggy was right--solid white.

Peggy also selected Silverpointe for the wall (shown here respecting the two-tone tiles) and Distance for the cabinet.

Note that the new window/door handle matches the cabinet and can break your fingers if you don't grab it from the left.

The flat "crown" molding works exactly as intended. 

The tile has fresh grout. The old tp and paper towel location have vanished.

It's been two months!

How the heck did that happen? We voted in a consequential election, I became a Splunk employee on November 9, Casey tore up his bathroom and vanished. I decided to pay EnergyWorks to install a gas water heater for Casey, and then had to press them to actually do it. At the same time, I set up a music studio in the living room.

Casey decided to turn the vanity counter 45 degrees and built a live-edge counter for his black porcelain vessel sink

Creative destruction. Casey painted and prepared to install his new sink

Before EnergyWorks arrived, I removed the shelf and door to give them access to the old water heater. Some of Casey's fancy accessories had to come down as well.

Casey removed the toilet before he left, but he installed the sink (left).

Curt and his son, Ryan, showed up at 8am on December 8

Casey was supposed to dig this trench. Curt ended up making it deeper with the pick axe. The new gas line passed its pressure test and county inspection on Dec. 9.

Curt couldn't remove the old water heater, so I had to remove the door frame Tuesday night. The EnergyWorks electrician, Dylan Lamb, did a great job putting the old hot tub circuit in a metal box (center).

The new unit is just right. Water at the sink is hot in 10 seconds.

Lots of shut-offs and other valves. The white ball is the new kind of expansion tank.

The inspector made them add electric anti-freezing tape around the pipe. I can't fill in the trench since we don't have final approval yet, but when I do, they gave me bright foil indicator tape to warn someone digging in the garden that they're about to hit a gas line. I think I'll put boards down, as well.

Now we just need Casey to put his bathroom back together. His new black toilet is in a box in his room--it doesn't fit because the center of the drain in the floor is 10" from the wall, not 12" (if I understand correctly) and the adapter Casey bought doesn't work without breaking up the concrete.

Temperatures have dropped to the thirties this month and we've had a lot of rain, but the new deck shrugs it off (except for all the needles and stuff from the trees). Curt took the trouble to run the new gas line between the joists in the basement so that it doesn't reduce the head clearance. 

Bye, 2020. And to all a good night.

Hot Water is Easier Than It Sounds

 We've been talking/arguing with plumbers. Kevin Holloway sounds great on the phone, but he doesn't want to come all this way from Issaquah. We've been around and around.

He says, go electric.

I had decided to go gas. because electric needs more than 240V x 50-amp = 12kW. A lot more. We have a convenient 50-amp, 240V line right there, but 12kW's the limit.

This afternoon, Mr. Holloway suggests the Rheem RTEX-11 11kW 240V Electric Tankless Water Heater. Amazon sells it for $260. As Mr. Holloway says, "Buy a couple for spares." It serves up to 2.68 GPM, which should be enough for a shower. It's the size of a piece of paper and 3-5/8" thick (8.25" x 12.625").

Looking at the user manual, it must be mounted inside with 12" clear above and below, 6" to each side. That's 20.25" and I'm not sure we have that unless we mount it on the east wall of the closet. It requires no venting.

Greenwood is coming out tomorrow (10/15/20) at 11am, but they already said they want too much and won't consider a cheaper water heater than the upsell they put in their bid. But bid guy doesn't talk to field guy, apparently. I also talked to Fischer Plumbing--they don't bid, they do time and materials. So I could get the Rheem from Amazon and Fischer would put it in.

Trying to understand Rheem's data table. It seems to say that this model, at 2 GPM (a typical shower, I think) can raise the temperature 38 degrees. Is tap water 55 degrees? Then you get a 93-degree shower.

Do we install the tankless unit inline with the old tank? Do we remove the old tank and hope the Rheem keeps up? The User Manual says we might want a Flow Regulator to "prevent the exit temperature from becoming too cool." The manual says if the inlet water temperature is 60-degrees, we want a 1.5 GPM Flow Regulator. The water here is about 59-degrees, as measured by the kitchen thermometer.

I like it as a solution (it costs thousands less), but it's right on the line of working. I like Rheem (that's what I bought for the main tank), and they actually make a smaller one, just 8kW.

If we go this way, we just have to bring the 50-amp wires into the house. That means opening the wall, removing the closet shelf and figuring out what the conduit has to do.

Should be simple enough. If the wires don't reach, we'll need a j-box. Maybe we cover these wires with the j-box and run the new wires back in the house from there. They must be individual wires and in a metal conduit, I think, but that's doable.

Possible deal-breaker: the User Manual calls for 6-ga wire (I don't know what we have, maybe 8-ga) and a 60-amp breaker. That seems odd because the same table says the max amperage draw is 46 amps, so you would think a 50-amp breaker would suffice.

Deck Complete Except for Punch List

Well. We slowed down a lot at the end, and I was hoping for a more polished look from the cable rail, but I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with the results.

Punch List Items

• Clean off remaining tree sap
• Some deck boards are not screwed down everywhere; need to backfill screws
• Need a block under one of the lower deck boards--it comes to an acute angle that barely rests on the joist
• Tighten stair cable rail--make lines more parallel
• 2nd coat of black stain on understructure
• Final placement of patio lights, tuck in extra wire--lots o' cable ties
• Tension patio light support wires, cut off excess
• Hardware cloth critter barrier under both decks--2x2 frame?
• Handrail at house for upper deck

Rain Storm Strikes

We got a lot of rain Friday afternoon, September 25.

The deck and patio lights survived the rain storm quite well. The drainage swale at the street, however, filled with mud and plant debris and completely clogged the pipe under the driveway.

I filed an online report with the City of Seattle on Saturday (confirmation #20-00193731). They expect to respond with 5 days. In the photo, you can see that the street runoff created a river across the grass, down the driveway and through the backyard to the ravine. My property, by the way, starts at the brick post light thing.

The 118th Street River

We had some mist on Saturday, but it's been dry (sunny, at times), for days (I'm writing this on Wednesday).

Clearing the Front Yard

 The front yard was out of control, so Fidel and his guy worked from 9 to 3 yesterday to fix it. I paid $550 + $100 tip. All I know about Fidel is his phone number: (206) 476-3238.

In the street, looking at the drainage swale. Notice the house, cowering in the right rear.

What the Amazon delivery guy sees. Curb appeal, amiright?

Better, but I kinda knew it would be a two-stage process, if not more.

Before...

...and After.

Better this way...

Or like this?

That was a lot of work and a lot of hauling to get us this far, but it needs more. Maybe new planting, certainly more pruning (and more careful pruning). 

Before, looking east

After, looking west

Presentable. Bushes need pruning.

Hot water for the 3rd Bath

Casey finds that the hot water runs out when he tries to take a shower. Not a long shower, every shower. It's just a 12-gallon tank, so that's a 6-minute shower with a low-flow head, less at full strength. We discussed this last April and yada-yada-yada, now it's September.

Builder Matt Risinger just put out a video on tankless water heaters and he points out three drawbacks: 1) they don't work if the power goes out; 2) they encourage wastefulness; and 3) they need more maintenance than tanks. He left me with the impression that a tanked water heater is an anachronism for poor people.

In our case, if we install a unit on the outside (on the south or even the east side of BA3), we can run a gas line from the basement under the new upper deck and straight up to the tankless. This gets us six square feet free in the bathroom and allows us to replace the 36x36 shower with a 54x36 shower as phase 2. 

Something like a 155,000-BTU model with 6.5 GPM rating. Rinnai V65eN ($680 at Home Depot) for example. (They also sell a "value series" for $550 that's 122,000-BTU, 5.6 GPM.)

We need a plumber to extend the gas line and route the hot and cold water from the water heater closet outside. That's maybe 2 men, 2 days = 32 hours. (I've learned to be cautious with estimates.) So, maybe $3,500?

I can move the existing water heater power to an exterior receptacle. 

Among the positives that Matt Risinger lists is that if one goes away for a while (Casey sleeps at his Dad's, I don't rent the AirBnB), it costs nothing, unlike a tank.

Local plumbers include:

• Gene Johnson, who I don't trust
• Beacon Plumbing, who spend too much on advertising
• Washington Energy Services - their bid was too high for the furnace, but maybe. They sell Navien equipment, apparently
• 2 Sons
• Raymark Plumbing

HomeAdvisor is a waste of time.

Recommendations from NextDoor:

• Pioneer Plumbing (Ballard) - 2 reccs. pioneerplumbing.biz
• Kevin Halloway (206-854-3864) specializes in on-demand
• Archies Plumbing (Keith) - 2 reccs 206-339-0064
• 1st Response http://www.1stresponsehvac.com
• Rush Plumbing (Robert)