Hey friends,

I'll jump right back in where we left off last week. The tape and jointing went well but for a couple of small patches where the paper tape just hadn't stuck to the jointing compound. I've heard a DIY hack is to wet the tape first to avoid this happening. I had to cut these areas out and re-fill. It wouldn't happen with mesh tape so although it's not as strong as paper for preventing cracks I think it might be the better method for DIYers.

Once painted I could move the bath in. Our initial thinking was to go with a shower-bath (P or L-shaped) to get the extra width for the shower area but then we decided we'd get most of the benefit from an 800mm wide rectangular bath. We also decided to go for a longer than usual bath too so ended up with a single-ended 800 x 1800mm one from Carron.

They seem to be well thought of and have their carronite range which has additional insulation to keep the heat of the water in for longer but comes at a significant increase in price. I reckon that most of the heat escapes from the water surface rather than through the bottom and sides and you can always top up the hot water if needed so we went for the basic 5mm acrylic model from this supplier (£348 incl. delivery). It feels huge but it definitely works with the space. I followed Carron's video to install the legs and getting it level. Feels odd to drive screws into a bath!

The niches were pretty easy to create and I got a lot of advice from Marmox. The shelves are 20mm scraps I had left over from the external wall and the rest is 10mm, all glued together with the sealant/adhesive mentioned last week. I should have left the shelves 10mm proud. Doh! I think I can sort it though.

The niches are centred with the bath and the width leaves enough space for the shower rail to sit in the corner to the right of the niches. The height of each niche was worked out using the tallest shampoo bottle we use (Head & Shoulders). The top and bottom of the niches, once tiled, line up with the mirror and niche below so it should look nicely symmetrical. Lots of maths!

I'm hoping they will prevent bottles and bath toys being stored on the side of the bath or on the window ledge.

I've added acoustic wool between the stud work and boarded over where I can. The rest needs to have pipework and electrics run before I can finish.

Moving on to the opposite wall - with the bath now in I could close off the doorway. Because the stud work has a depth of 100mm and you can't get timber to match it these days I re-used the studs from the wall I removed.

To conceal the cistern for the loo I'm going to create a projection the full width of this alcove which will provide a shelf for plants or other trinkets.

I laid out the bottom plate using my folding square to get it at right angles to the wall.

The distance of this bottom plate from the wall took a lot of maths to figure things out. I looked at a lot of concealed cisterns, Grohe and Gerebit seem to be the most recommended. I found what I think is a great deal on a Grohe all-in-one from Builder Depot which includes the toilet. There are similarly priced deals on ebay but the toilet is unbranded. This toilet is by Grohe so I presume will work as intended with the cistern. Be careful if you're buying the cistern on its own, for instance this one on Amazon doesn't come with the fixings required.

There are two heights available 0.82m and 1.3m. The shorter one is good for situating beneath windows but you can't flush without putting the lid down to access the flush plate. Might be a clever way of forcing the men in your house to put the seat down though! As I'm in charge of this project and height isn't an issue I opted for the taller version.

Originally I intended to situate the loo in the centre but when it came to it I thought it looked a bit lonely. We could put a bidet beside it but we had one in Gran Canaria and never used it. Southern europeans probably think we're barbarians. Instead I decided that I would centre the loo with the bath which would still give us the recommended 20cm distance from left wall to loo and then use the space on the right for an in-built cupboard to maximise storage.

The cupboard meant having the cistern further out from the wall than the max 230mm allowable for the fixings but this was no issue as I was going to fix a horizontal timber to the wall anyway. The upshot is there is plenty of room for the plumber to get the soil pipe out of the wall to the left.

As for the height there is a recommended +/-10mm depending on how tall your household is; I went for the middle option. You also have to account for floor tiling and in my case the bottom plate too. Here's Grohe's installation vid which you just have to adapt to your own circumstances.

The cupboard is from my mum's old kitchen which I spruced up with some zinzer bin primer and white paint. For the cupboard door I can either buy a gloss white door to match the toilet/bath/sink or try to tile a plywood or MDF door. Open to idea here! Depending on which option I go for will determine how far in the cabinet needs to be so it's just sitting on a plinth and all fixings are internal (hidden behind the sides of the shelves) so I can adjust accordingly.

The timbers are a total mishmash of what I had in my garage, it looks weird but feels very strong. I'll wait for the plumber to do his thing before filling in the left side.

There are few things I need to sort still but the next big hurdle is plumbing and electrics to then get to the home straight of UFH and tiling. This is definitely one of hardest DIY projects I've done so far as there is so much to think about. Coming along nicely though 💪.

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