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Heaven and Hell of Moving a Toilet Flange
Hurricane Lane won’t cause much damage before tonight, which gives me time to talk about moving a toilet flange. Such an exciting topic, right? Well, it is to me. I wish we had known about moving a toilet flange when we remodeled our master bath in Sacramento 10 years ago. But c’est la vie. At least I acquired that knowledge in time for our Hawaii bath remodel.
Plus, for some reason, our existing guest bath toilet in Hawaii was not centered exactly between the bath tub and vanity. It’s a little bit tough as there is a lot of labor involved, especially on a slab foundation. Primarily because you have to dig through it. And our house in Hawaii is basically built on a bed of lava.
The workers from Lowes were here on-site almost all day yesterday. Reciprocating saws going as they dug up the floor. Good thing I wasn’t saving the floor tile. Spent most of my day out on the lanai, away from the noise. Fielding emails from people worried that I’ll meet my death with Hurricane Lane. But the way I look at it, at least they cared enough to check in.
Like I said, though, not much will happen storm-wise before tonight. Then the winds and rain will begin to pound us. Hawaiian Airlines is offering waivers to travelers, and my husband might get caught up in that as he’s flying to Honolulu at the end of the week. The storm should be over on Big Island by this weekend.
I am also feeling grateful that we are a mile up the hill from the ocean. Already had one home fall into the Pacific and not about to live through another disaster. Once is enough.
Our first photo on top is of the new deeper and wider tub. It is 3-inches wider than our horrid fiberglass one-piece tub. It is also about 8 inches deeper. A couple people had asked me for a photo when I mentioned buying a bath tub, so there you go.
The second photo is digging up the toilet, and the third is the finished toilet flange. Although some of the pieces for the tub are on back order. Turns out a lot of people like the design I chose. Which puts us on a waiting list for the valve and diverter for the Moen 90 Degree Collection. I ordered it from Lowe’s more than a month back. Just now, it is arriving in Georgia for shipment to Hawaii.
How to Get Rid of Hard Water Stains in the Shower
Finding a way to get rid of hard water stains in the shower has for me been one of the great mysteries in life. Many of my home sellers say they prefer to replace the shower glass than to try to clean it. Since you can’t really just replace the glass and you generally need to replace the entire door and frame, it’s expensive. Time consuming, too. Not to mention a PITA.
Oh, they say green cleaning materials such as vinegar and water is a great solution, but you may as well drink it for all the good it does. Vinegar doesn’t easily dispose of stubborn hard water stains. However, I stumbled across a product that really works. My clients told me about it. I had referred Masters Window Cleaning service to the sellers and one of the guys on the crew said he could charge the sellers an extra $100 to get rid of hard water stains in the shower. Or, they could buy the product the professionals use.
Ha, they never told me that secret fix when they cleaned my windows in Land Park Sacramento. They made it sound like I was stuck with a few windows that had hard water stains. Little did I realize they had the secret fix all along. Yup, the pros say the best way to get rid of hard water stains in the shower is by using a product sold on Amazon: Driven Extreme Duty Glass Cleaner. It’s an acid gel, $19.95.
I had my doubts, but first tried it on the glass block in our master bath. There is no door in the shower. Just a staggered glass block wall that continually is hit with hard water on the inside. A good 10 years of build up in that shower. We use Lime-A-Way and CLR for the pebble floor to remove hard water stains, but the glass block and our windows has been a puzzle until now.
Wearing rubber gloves, of course, I applied a small amount of the gel on the glass block. Rubbed it with the rough side of a scrubby sponge. Rinsed and voila. Like they say in Panama: ¡Chuleta! I could see through the glass to the other side. Before using the secret fix to get rid of hard water stains in the shower, the glass blocks were cloudy and streaked. Worked like a charm! Some entrepreneur should hawk this stuff at an exhibit at the California State Fair or as seen on TV.
You can bet my Sacramento clients will now benefit from this tidbit I discovered. On to more happy home selling!
Day One of the Guest Bath Remodel in Land Park
Guest Bath before remodel in Land Park
Because I don’t have enough stuff going on in my life as a Sacramento REALTOR at the moment, what, with all of my new listings and January purchase offers going into escrow, I have decided, like an idiot, to remodel our guest bath. There’s just no time like the present, is there? The cats hate me because they are sequestered to the family room, kitchen and sunroom, and there are strange noises they can’t explore and strange humans they can’t torment.
When we first moved into our home in Land Park, way back in 2002, we decided to make a few improvements to the guest bath. I guess you could say it was our first bath remodel. The first improvement we tackled was to be able to open the door. For some reason, the previous owners had installed a large vanity that blocked the door. How does something like that happen?
Outdated bath in Land Park
Him: Look, honey, the vanity is too big for the bathroom, whatever should we do? We could take it back to Home Depot and buy a smaller vanity or we could simply install it and get used to the fact that we can’t really open the door. What do you think we should do?
Her: Have another beer, Harry.
I removed the humongous vanity and dragged it to the street, where upon deposit it was promptly hauled away by passersby. Installed a small pedestal sink. Now we could open the door. Then, when my husband and I returned home from a trip to Italy, we discovered our oldest cat had taken an exception to our absence by repeatedly urinating on the carpeting in the bath. It brings up questions such as why did the previous sellers cement a stork to the glass block knee wall? How could our housesitters not notice a urine soaked floor? Who puts carpeting in a bath?
Shower and tub before bath remodel
Been down that road before in a bath remodel. That type of situation involves removing the carpeting, removing the subfloor, installing a new subfloor and tiling over it. But now that tile is outdated, and let’s face it, although the walls are covered in sheets of gray glass, the grout is diminishing, its integrity is cracking, and the gold-toned shower surround is dated in a not-so-nice way. We need a better mirror, a new LED light fixture, an exhaust fan. Well, my husband would tell you I am the one who needs it because he’s quite happy with the bath just the way it is. Even though the faucet drips.
Our permit sticker is secured to the window, and the construction workers have started the job today. This will be a huge change for that guest bath.
Before photographs of guest bath remodel in Land Park by Elizabeth Weintraub
Installing Granite Countertops Flush With a Cabinet is Cause for Woe
AFTER: New granite in bath remodel
Not every bath remodel turns out exactly the way it should be most often due to contractor error. Just because a guy is cheap doesn’t mean he’s any good, just like your Sacramento real estate agent who agreed to work for a discount, which is not this writer. I recall from many years ago the guy who put in the granite on top of the vanity as being very proud about the fact he had “tricked out” the granite, meaning he had cut it flush with the cabinet. It wasn’t what I had expected.
BEFORE: Bad granite in bath remodel
At the time, it didn’t dawn on me that the edge of a countertop should never ever sit directly on the edge of the cabinet because a flush edge does not prevent water nor other liquids like contact lenses solution from dripping down the face of the cabinet. And even if that thought did cross wires somewhere in my brain, after the contractor cut and installed the granite, it was too late. Let this be a lesson you don’t have to learn the hard way: don’t ever install a counter flush with the cabinet in a kitchen or bath remodel.
It’s not just the water dripping down the cabinet that can damage cabinets. Our wall cabinet got dinged pretty badly by the ceiling heat / air vent dumping hot air directly on the finish. We ended up buying a clip-on clear plastic thingie that funnels the heat from the vent downward into the room. So much for Thomasville cabinets and the factory finish.
Before we could refinish the cabinets, we had to replace the granite countertop. Not only was the granite a problem, but the faucet was installed too close to the mirrored medicine cabinet door. Opening the door banged it into the faucet. On top of that, the spacer piece was never blocked properly at the base of the cabinet so it continued to move every time the housekeeper cleaned in the bath.
We fixed all those things with the new granite. It’s also lighter in color, which looks better with chocolate cabinets anyway. It opens up the room and makes the small bath appear larger.
Now we have a new problem, I hate to admit. With the overhang on the granite, we can’t easily open the cabinet doors. I’m not sure my husband has discovered that defect yet and I don’t have the heart to tell him. Well, after we get the cabinet doors refinished, we’ll attach pulls.
How to Fix a Vessel Sink That Doesn’t Drain Completely
Need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain?
Need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain? If you are a homeowner who has recently remodeled her master bath, odds are you have probably installed a vessel sink and might have now noticed that your sink does not always promptly drain or drain completely. OK, for me, I hate to admit, it took me 6 years to get fed up with the sink not draining and to acknowledge we had a problem. I imagine it’s because I’m preoccupied, either in a rush to get out the door, or I’m too tired and I’m heading for bed, to focus on the problem of slow drainage.
The need to fix a vessel sink that wasn’t drain completely was one of those things that caused minor irritation but not enough to register on the brain waves in such manner that I needed to find a solution for it. It was just a small PITA, not a huge one. The thing about human nature is after a while, those constant nagging voices in your head that say you should do something about this manage to ripple to the surface, and then I pay attention.
Of course, we tried other things first. Like pouring caustic substances into the drain, hoping maybe it was a hair clog. Although, I replaced all of the horizontal plumbing pipes in my home with copper and the vertical under the sink has been replaced, along with the sewer line, so that was actually kind of a stupid thing to do. Not only that, but the acid tarnished part of the brushed nickel pop-up drain, which had replaced the previous grid drain, because we initially thought the drain itself was causing the problem.
As a result, we had to replace the drain a third time. Since I’m too busy these days as a Sacramento real estate agent to replace the drain myself, I decided to hire a plumber. I hate working on plumbing because things can leak — with plastic you can’t tighten it too much or you’ll break it and with metal you really need more arm strength than I possess. If a plumber had to come out to do such a small job, then he or she may as well fix the drainage issue, too. The time had come. After much research, it became apparent to me that the problem was ventilation. There was no ventilation, no air hole in the vessel sink. If you plugged up the drain with a wash cloth and quickly pulled it, the suction would force the water to drain.
To fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain, install an air gap, on the left, with a black cap.
This is the same principal as the unhygienic backwash that can happen with a kitchen dishwasher and no air gap, and is why home inspection reports will note the absence of an air gap like a defect. An air gap can be installed under the sink or on top of the sink. In my bath, I opted for under the sink. This means attaching a piece of plastic plumbing that resembles a Saguaro cactus arm, like a right-hand turn signal bike riders use. You stick it in below your sink drain with a piece of plastic that connects the sink drain to the plumbing pipe below leading to the P-trap portion, and to this connecting piece of plastic, you screw in the arm. Then attach an air gap at the top.
Bingo! The sink drains perfectly now. I hope this solves your vessel sink draining problems. If you need to fix a vessel sink that doesn’t drain, this is the solution. If you have a real estate query to solve, I also hope you will call Elizabeth Weintraub, the #1 Sacramento real estate agent at Lyon Real Estate. *Nobody sold more homes in Sacramento last year at Lyon. 916 233 6759.
*per Trendgraphix 2014
