Monday, February 8, 2021
Master Bathroom Remodel One Step Forward One Step Back
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Master Bathroom Renovation: I Replaced the Subfloor!
Removing and replacing the entire master bathroom subfloor is a job that I haven’t been looking forward to and is the reason why we put the renovation off for so long. Everything hinges on the subflooring is cut perfectly to size and level. Once I removed the old moldy subfloor, I realized that there wasn’t anything to screw the new flooring to around the edges of the room. I can’t leave it this way or the new floor could slope over time and we’d have to start the process all over again. Trust me, once is more than enough!
I nicked a couple of joists when I was cut the floor to remove it with my circular saw by accident. This might create a weak spot where the flooring could squeak, crack, or sag or it might not because the cuts are not too deep.
Monday, January 11, 2021
How to Remove a Damaged or Moldy Subfloor
On Master Bathroom Demo Day I found black mold on a chunk of the wall and on several areas of the subfloor.
After removing the damaged drywall, the next step in the process is to remove the bathroom subflooring, check for mold or water damage, have it treated if necessary (and crossing my fingers I don’t,) and replace the subflooring.
Thursday, November 5, 2020
DIY Cotton Bath Puff and Friday Favorites Linky Party 554
While everyone else was baking sourdough bread during quarantine, I was making hot process soap. I took notes on what I did right and wrong and while I can't quite get it as thick as commercial liquid soap like I want, it cleans and lathers beautifully especially when I use a plastic bath puff. While a loofah is zero waste because I can compost it, it doesn't perform as well as a mesh bath poof that has to be tossed after awhile due to bacteria buildup. I tried washing one once and it fell apart.
I hadn't crocheted since I was a kid and recently picked up a hook to make a dishcloth. I looked for more quick beginner crocket projects on Pinterest (follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?) and found the answer to my zero waste bath puff problem - crochet a bath puff from cotton yarn!
I followed this crochet shower puff pattern from Hooked on Patterns and it was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. My shower puff isn't perfect but still not too shabby for the third thing I crocheted as an adult. Best of all, I can wash it in a mesh lingerie bag in the washing machine when I need to - no more bath puffs in my trash can ever again!
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Thursday, October 1, 2020
Marble Look Porcelain Bathroom Tile and Friday Favorites Linky Party 549
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Blah Builder Condo Bathroom Remodeling Plan
After putting it off for too long, I am planning the end of the Bathroom Remodel Trilogy with Master Bathroom: Revenge of the Leak.
This time around I am not even going to even try to consider reusing the bathroom vanity. We learned from Bathroom Remodel 2: Mold Sneak Attack the micro leak around the toilet flange may have caused the vanity to mold like it did on the subfloor.
This isn’t a great loss because when we removed the guest bathroom vanity we found just how cheaply it was made. We realized that all of the cabinets in our condo would eventually need replacing. Then we sang the Condo Blues because part of the reason of we bought a new build is the expectation of quality cabinetry – ha!
On the upside, since we knew ahead of time that everything needs to be replaced in the main bathroom, I was able to do a little scouting while I was sourcing a new vanity for the guest bathroom last year.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
How to Hang a Hook on a Hollow Core Door
I want to add a robe hook to my guest bathroom. The logical place to hang it is on the bathroom door.
Unfortunately it, like all of the doors in my condo is a hollow core door. Can you hang towel bars and hooks on a hollow core door?
Yes you can!
The secret to hanging towel bars and hooks on hollow door without them crashing to the ground is all in the type of wall anchor you use – in this case Molly Bolts!
Sunday, April 26, 2020
How to Build Recessed Bathroom Storage Shelves
I figure I better replace it and poked around window shopping while I was searching and pricing every thing else I needed for the guest bathroom remodel.
Have you ever priced medicine cabinets?
Be prepared for some sticker shock. Even the cheaply made medicine cabinets like the one I have are a couple of hundred bucks. The medicine cabinets made from actual wood are even more expensive while still lacking style. That’s more that I wanted to pay for a medicine cabinet in a second bathroom we don’t use often.
I really don’t need a medicine cabinet with a mirror door because there is a mirror hanging over the sink. Actually I really don’t need a door either because the way it was installed, the current medicine cabinet door smacks into the bathroom vanity light if we’re not careful. Open bathroom storage shelves are the only answer.
I stood in the guest bathroom staring at the wall and trying to visualize how to turn the medicine cabinet hole into an open storage niche as pretty yet affordable as possible when I realized I was standing on my answer – use leftover tile from the bathroom floor!
Monday, March 30, 2020
How to Caulk Around a Toilet
I went with a Watersense rated Delta Faucet Company toilet (you can find similar toilets here.) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) I had such a good experience installing one in my powder room because every single thing you need to install the toilet comes in the box down to a screwdriver and the Watersense rating means it is water efficient (I think of it as the Energy Star rating for plumbing) without the hit or miss of not quite flushing everything that needs to be flushed like a duel flush toilet.
But before I can completely cross Install New Toilet off my punch list, I need to caulk around it (and also along the new tile next to the bathtub. Fortunately, you caulk around a bathtub the same way you caulk a toilet. Let’s do this!
Why Should I Caulk Around the Toilet?
Sunday, March 8, 2020
How to Install a Bidet Attachment
I’m working on the details of the guest bathroom renovation while looking forward to the master bathroom renovation. Well planning actually. I’m not looking forward to this even more involved project where are water leak began.
Anyway.
I would have liked to add a bidet in the bathroom to save on toilet paper because according to Tushy it takes 37 gallons of water to make a roll of toilet paper and most people use 1.5 toilet rolls a week! That is a lot of water to flush down the drain, which doesn't include the amount of water it takes to flush it all down the drain.
But more importantly, with a bidet, even if you run out of toilet paper at the time you need it most, you have an option.
Unfortunately all of our condo bathrooms are too small to add a free standing bidet. I didn’t think much more of it until friends raved about just installing a bidet toilet seat. I was intrigued. A bidet toilet seat attachment I can do. Then I promptly forgot about it because I'm awesome like that.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
DIY Poo Pourri Air Freshener Spray
Even though I wasn’t thrilled with the synthetic ingredients (although now Scent Fill makes natural essential oil refills for Glade and other brand plug ins, ) I had scented oil plug thingies in each bathroom for that purpose. Once they became available, I upgraded to pluggable wax melt warmers similar to these and use a locally made vegetable wax and essential oil wax melts for my bathrooms. They work just as well, and I like that I easily scrap the last bit of wax from a dead candle into the smaller wax warmers to keep enjoying the scent. I am the only one who buys a candle and can never seem to find the same scent when I need to replace it? (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)
Unfortunately, there are still times when your bathroom needs a little more immediate or preventative air quality attention. Does a room freshener exist without the synthetic ingredients?
Yep, it sure does and it is the perfect thing for zero waste, natural living, and budget minded folks.
Or you just want something prettier than a can in your bathroom, that’s cool too. *raises hand*
DIY Natural Air Freshener
Sunday, February 16, 2020
11 Floor Tiling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
It is also a DIY job that is easy to mess up if you don’t follow a few precautions first. You really don’t want to put in all of the work of tiling a floor only for the tiles to eventually come loose or crack after the job is done.
1. Not adding an extra 10% of tile to your tile order – Depending upon the design, you may need extra to match up the pattern in the room. It is also good to have extra tile on hand just in case you cut one incorrectly or worse drop one and break it.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
How to Prep a Wood Subfloor for New Tile
Flooring underlayment is the layer of material that sits in between the subfloor and the flooring material. As tempting as it may be to skip the underlayment – don’t. The underlayment layer is what keeps your floor tile from shifting and cracking over time.
And trust me, after the killer backache preparing and tiling this floor gave me, it is NOT something I want to completely redo if I don’t have to!
Fortunately, preparing a floor for tile by installing underlayment isn’t difficult to do and once you finish the job you can immediately go into tiling the floor.
How to Lay Bathroom Tile Underlayment the Easy Way!
Sunday, January 19, 2020
13 Things You Didn't Know You Can Store on the Back of Bathroom Doors!
Anyone?
Me. Neither.
It seems that no matter what size your bathroom is, you can always use more storage space.
Which you can easily find more of if you store things on the back of your bathroom cupboard and closet doors!
13 Bathroom Cupboard, Closet, and Door Organizations You Didn't Know You Needed Until Now

Sunday, January 12, 2020
Spa Bathroom Remodeling Plan
Do you know the absolute worst time to toss out your original plan and make a new one from scratch?
When your room looks like this.

On demo day I found black mold growing on the back of the bathroom vanity which made it completely unusable.
And just like that, my beachy remodeling plan got tossed just like the mold ridden vanity.
Sunday, October 20, 2019
What to Do If You Find Black Mold in Your Bathroom Remodel
With demolition!
Because Demo Day is the best day.
It can also be the worst.
My demolition plans included removing the rest of the flooring, the toilet, and vanity. I planned to makeover the bathroom vanity if I could get it out in one piece. The builder installed all of the sink cabinets in the house first and installed the plumbing in around them. When I removed the vanity in the powder room remodel I had to destroy the cabinet which wasn’t the plan.
Joy.
I cut holes for the plumbing in the cabinet with this exact Rockwell oscillating tool (after reading a lot of specs and reviews I chose the Rockwell because it is the only oscillating tool that can use bits and blades from any brand not just its own.) I was pretty stoked this DIY idea actually worked until my husband and I lifted the vanity up and over the plumbing to discover black mold on the wall and wood vanity. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
Oh yes, my friends. We sang the Condo Blues.
How to Get Rid of Black Mold
Sunday, September 8, 2019
How to Clean Rusty Chrome the Non Toxic Way!
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Industrial Beach Bathroom Remodel and Design Mood Board
Well that and knowing that while I love searching every tile shop in the city for my heart’s desire, my husband would rather I cut off his arm with a rusty table saw than shop even though this is his house too and he wants and absolutely should have a say in the decision. Interestingly enough, when it came to selecting floor tile, we bought the exact opposite of the black and white mosaic tiles I thought we might choose and went with his suggestion of slate tile because he wanted something more interesting. Which made me love him even more because I’ve always wanted a slat floor somewhere in this house. Besides we have another bathroom we need to do. So chances are, I’ll get my choice in that room. That way we both win!
We were in agreement with a lot of the design and décor desires of this second bathroom. First off, it’s not the Master, so we can go with something a little more fun and different in this room. As much as I make fun of almost every residential bathroom in my lakeside home town being nautical, I lean toward ocean beachy influenced by one of our first vacations to the Dominican Republic.
After the flooring was decided, I turned to the vanity and other bathroom accessories and décor. I was concerned the ideas in my head might being going with too much white on white. I was also concerned that the things I want to keep may look out of place with the things I want to change in the remodel and vice versa. I figured the best way to see if I am going in the right décor direction is to create a bathroom remodeling mood board.
Let’s take a look!
Sunday, June 30, 2019
DIY Beer Bottle Soap Dispenser
After sampling an Innis & Gunn bottle, my husband commented on the unique look of the bottle and suggested/challenged me to do something cool with it.
Fortunately, I started dabbling in making liquid Castile soap in the slow cooker and I'm in need for a new liquid soap dispenser. (If you want to try it I suggest reading the books Making Natural Liquid Soaps and Liquid Soapmaking because I'm still learning and it will be quite awhile before I feel confident in writing a tutorial for Condo Blues.) (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links to the supplies I used for your convenience.)
It practilally a no brainer to to make a soap dispenser from a glass bottle that has a threaded screw cap like my DIY Chamboard bottle soap dispenser because you just screw a replacement liquid soap pump like this one onto the bottle and Bob's your uncle.
But can you make a soap dispenser from a recycled glass beverage bottle that does not have a screw thread top? Yes you can! Here's how!
How to Recycle a Glass Beverage Bottle into a Soap Dispenser
Sunday, February 3, 2019
DIY Chambord Liquor Bottle Soap Dispenser
At her encouragement I dabbled in making super easy soap with melt and pour soap base like this kind a few bars at a time in the microwave oven. I got a feel for how add ins and scents work and was itching to do more. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)
It wasn’t until my friend closed her brick and mortar store that I started looking into making real deal hot process soap in our spare slow cooker. (My Instant Pot has taken the big slow cooker’s place and can now be dedicated to soap making using this liquid soap making book. It’s the best!)
I made unscented liquid Castile soap because it is more versatile and requires less equipment than bar soap. My first batch turned out OK for a first timer. I like that I can add a little variety by scenting (or not) each dispenser full of soap with this Organic Aromas essential oil sampler I got last year for review that otherwise will sit largely unused. I love the oils and blends, it's just that I err on the super duper side of caution when it comes to diffusing essential oils around Lacey.
The only downside to eventually replacing all of my bar soap when it ran out with liquid soap is realizing I don’t have enough liquid soap pump dispensers for every sink in the house. I need to fix that.