norcalmod

Vanessa's Second Bathroom

[This was posted a while back on our Instagram channel, but I've not done a full-post here on the blog.]

After successful completion of their first bathroom John and Vanessa contacted me about doing their second bathroom — the "guest" bath. As previous, Vanessa — with a background in retail/design — had a good number of the design elements and ideas sorted, including the idea for hex tile. When approaching the build, we still had a few extra things to sort out, including the reinforcement of a later-addition pocket door which joined a tiled wall — a terrible combination as there could be little/no structural reinforcement to the tile.

After a few design iterations and lots of structural steel later, we had reinforced the door-wall, created a nook for bath products, created a custom walnut vanity and medicine cabinet and worked the hex tile in an undulating pattern up the wall. It turned out well.

Mike and Mendi's Insta-kitchen

While not "instant", covering the renovation of Mike and Mendi's kitchen (and half of the garage) was a fun project last summer. Proper updates to come soon, but there was some pretty major structural and electrical reconstruction under layers of finished drywall... plus two new exterior doors and a window. Oh, and a solid butcher-block walnut countertop. #whew ...

Nicola and Wilson's bath preview

We've been on a roll lately with bathroom renovations... and I've one more still to photograph. This one is in Marin for a couple who requested a door a while back. It's been a fun project, but fitting everything in (including life with a 3-year-old) has been tough, especially when coupled with a commute across a busy 2-lane bridge.

However, having great* clients makes it worthwhile and the end result is also great... featuring a few neat touches that I'll detail with the full post after I complete the custom vanity (and bring my camera on-site). Until then, here are some preliminary pictures.

* What makes a great client? This is worthy of a blog post itself, but a combination of patience, understanding, trust-in-the-process, and positivity... it also helps that you're willing to take a chance on a few things along the way which I can detail here.

But first, the before photos, starting with the photo from the real estate listing and ending with the one after Nicola ripped out the vanity after she got sick of looking at it.

Vanessa and John's Walnut Accented Bathroom

This project marks the transition from Redneckmodern to Norcalmod ... it's been a long time coming, but in short: Redneckmodern was always meant to be about our renovation, not yours...

However, as things grew, my efforts became yours. Then Norcalmod came along to house the custom furniture that I began to build. Earlier this year, I decided to separate the two a bit: Redneckmodern = me / Norcalmod = you... and Vanessa and John's bathroom remodel is the first project wrapped since that transition... I'll still be making furniture, but now taking on a good bit more under the Norcalmod nameplate.

Welcome to the newly expanded Norcalmod.

[The "before" shot. John handled the demolition. Busting out a 60-year-old cast shower pan was no easy task.]

[The "after" shot.]

Now, on to the project: What started off as a more modest renovation grew into something a bit more complex as we peeled back the layers of past renovations and discovered both issues and opportunities: some bad electrical, some opportunities for additional built-in storage, and a few other extras that followed the "while we're already there" idea. Vanessa and John made all of the right decisions along the way, balancing long-term quality with practicality. Of course, this pushed timelines, budgets, and patience... but everyone persevered, and the project turned out quite well.

Meanwhile, outside of the workshop

As many readers know, Norcalmod was born from Redneckmodern ... and in time, it will likely be the entity that remains after the renovation that started *rnm is finished off. In the meantime, there are still quite a few projects to finish off and there's a good bit of overlap in the two worlds — namely in the world of materials.

One of the materials I've been using in the renovation is a wood-plastic composite from CaliBamboo called BamDeck. What first struck me about the products is that it is the only product of its type that is not grained to look like wood. It has always seemed odd to me that folks would take plastic and imprint a wood grain on it. The BamDeck material is striated like broom-finished concrete and is quite nice. It's also workable with Carbide-tipped tools and takes to machining fairly well.

So far, I've used it to mill a post stand-off for Mendi's door, topped a retaining wall and used it for its intended purpose: decking... all with fantastic results. I also expect to work it into a few furniture pieces as well and have plans to use it in the next rev of the ModKatBox since it is impervious to moisture.