DIY Modern Rustic Cabin Bathroom Renovation Update 2 [Tile, Shower Door, Trim]

It's starting to get pretty up in here! Our modern rustic cabin bathroom renovation got off to a rocky start, but we are really moving now.  All of the tile and so much more in the space is finished!  

In case you missed what we've done up to this point, you can catch up here DIY Apartment Bathroom Renovation Update 1 [New Walls].  After we rebuilt the new shower walls, we water-proofed them.  We used a product we haven't used before (Merekrete Hydrogaurd 1) and I wouldn't recommend it.  It stayed sticky and was not as easy to work with as other waterproofers we've used before.

We tried everything we could think of to anchor that long wall on the right side from underneath in the basement, but it still wobbled ever so slightly.  So we ended up bridging the doorway with a piece of 1/2" x 2" aluminum bar stock that my husband polished with a pneumatic air polisher to make it look like chrome.  Then we sealed it with a clear coat.  It's recessed into the top plates of the walls and runs all the way out to the angle to tie the two walls together.  Now it's solid.  It's wrapped it blue tape here to protect it. 

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See that vent on the wall above the shower?  That's the inline exhaust fan, hidden in the space behind that board. 

Here it is before the trim board was installed.  It's exhausting through the same hole through the exterior wall as the original exhaust fan.   

Here it is up close, installed according to the manufacturer's directions. 

We used:

Inline duct booster fan

4" flex duct with 2 clamps

Vent grill

Foil tape

4" backdraft damper

The grill was originally brown but we decided we wanted it black and spray painted it.  We installed the trim board and pulled the flex duct through the pre-drilled hole.  Then we attached the grill to the flex duct and then to the board by screwing it to the board. (Excuse our temporary construction lights.)

You can see the top of the shower head there in that previous photo.  It's the Grohe Euphoria Shower System in chrome. We are pretty excited about it!

One thing that was pretty time consuming was duplicating the existing wood trim throughout the bathroom.  The original trim is rough sawn and we haven't been able to source anything that looks like it locally.  My husband has been buying large pieces of southern yellow pine and milling the boards himself.  He uses a very worn out blade and the result is a pretty good replica of the originals.  

Then I give them several coats of stain using a custom mix of Minwax Golden Pecan and a little Minwax Dark Walnut.  This darkens the wood enough to match the 30 year old existing boards. Each board takes a different amount of coats depending on its grain and how it accepts the stain. Then I add a last coat of golden pecan on top to give it the warmth of the old boards.

Before adding the trim:

And with the trim installed:

And last but not least, we installed the glass door.  The hard part was making sure the opening was exactly 28" wide, which took a lot of planning.  We had to take into account the thickness of the Hardie backer boards, the thinset, and the tile and arrive at exactly 28" wide.  We cut a yard stick to 28" long and used it as a gauge to make sure we stayed at the correct width all the way up.  We also used a 6' level to make sure the side walls were perfectly straight and even.

So now we are getting super close to being finished with the bathroom.  We've got cabinets, counter top, and all of the little things to finish up ordered and on the way.  I'll update as we go.  

As always, thank you for stopping by and reading my little blog!