Our bathroom remodel project is trudging along – we have been sidetracked by so much work and travel that we are not moving nearly as quickly as we had originally planned. Progress has been made: the plumbing is all installed and the cutout for the soap and shampoo is done. Over the past week or so Chuck also finished putting up the roofing paper that goes underneath the cement backer board for an added moisture barrier.

This weekend we went out to San Gabriel and bought a bathroom cabinet (at a place called Cabinet City – they don’t have the widest selection but they have AWESOME prices so good, I think we’ll get our master bathroom and kitchen cabinets there) for $275 or thereabouts. With all of that accomplished, it was time for the next step: installing the cement backer board!

So yesterday, in the midst of about the worst heatwave we’ve seen this summer Chuck set to work. The biggest pain in the neck was making the cutouts for the plumbing. It took him most of the day and two sets of completely-soaked-with-sweat sets of clothes to get basically two of three walls of cement board up.

Next steps: finish cement board, buy the granite tile and backsplash, then turn the job over to our contractor Julio. We have a deadline of Thanksgiving to complete the bathroom and spare bedroom (guests are coming!) and at his current pace there is no way Chuck can get it all done AND do all of his normal work. He’s disappointed but realistic.

The good news: we are WAY under our $5,000 budget! So far the most expensive part has been the plumbing. I had no clue how costly faucets and sinks and pipes and whatnot can be! We spent about $2000 on it all – including a wall mount faucet for the rectangular sink (that looks kind of like this), a rainforest shower head and hand shower on a sliding post (it will look kind of like this). Basically, our master bathroom will look like total shit when the spare bathroom is done.

So it goes. More pics here.