Some Brothers' Thoughts on Bathroom Renovations

For most of the brothers currently living in house, the bathroom renovations were often a faraway dream. Brothers can be frequently heard complaining about the lack of functionality or cleanliness in their bathrooms, wondering how the money set aside for renovations will be budgeted, and explaining to non-brothers the posited extravagance of the future bathrooms, but many including me are still taken aback that the renovations will be starting in a week and a half!

For a sense of the current state of the house's bathrooms, I've collected a few pictures below.

4th Front Bathroom

3rd North Bathroom 

Most of the bathrooms are in much better shape than the two above, but as brother Chrisantha Perera says, virtually every aspect of every bathroom is somehow or sometimes suboptimal. Chrisantha lives in the 3rd North hallway, which fortunately for him is probably among the first bathrooms to be redone. But in the meantime, he lives across from a bathroom with many (nonsexual) stories.

The bathtub of the 3rd North bathroom is fully functional, but contains some residues that bear witness to previous stories involving murky water and a clogged drain (for details ask Chrisantha).

The sink lacks a plug for its p-trap and so is currently out of commission.

The medicine cabinet works, but the back board is always on the move downwards and frequently needs to be fixed. The orientation of the mirror also inconveniently doesn't allow for shaving in the shower. 

The toilet is fully functional (!). A brother a few years back saved The Tiger from the renovation of a different bathroom, and hopefully it gets saved again.

Chrisantha adds that the bathrooms of the house have undergone a steady degradation and hopes that this complete renovation will both renew the bathrooms and stop the cycle.

The scale and depth of the upcoming renovations is indeed historical--it will the most substantial work we've done to the building since ADPhi moved it. After this renovation, no more will contractors working on tiling the 3rd front bathroom find beneath the floor layer after layer of tile and linoleum. To brother and current house RA Andy Huang, the depth of the upcoming renovations mean much more than just shining up the exterior. He like everyone else is looking forward to the new bathrooms and hopes that episodes of leaking pipes and wet floors and ceilings, now pretty common, will soon be a thing of the past. His only regret is not being able to enjoy the new bathrooms for more than a couple months!

Bathroom Renovation Starting

Great news!  Our contractor just picked up our building permit today to start the renovation of 17 bathrooms plus one new ADA bathroom off of the library.  ISD reviewed the permit application, discussed the plans with the architect, and approved them without modifications.  This was our last big hurdle.  Now its on to verifying tile colors and picking the first stack.  As I tweeted previously, we're eyeing the North Hallway as it has only 3 bathrooms and gives a smaller starting point to get the process figured out.  We're going to keep 2 of the four stacks working at all points in time so that there are still enough for everyone to live there.  This is going to be a big change and the undergraduates are really looking forward to this upgrade.

City of Cambridge Construction Permit for Renovating All Bathrooms

The elevations below give a quick preview of the final product.  For durability we'll be tiling from floor up to the ceiling.  We will also be fully exposing and re-introducing the windows that were bricked over originally as WILG did with their own bathroom renovations a few years ago.  Bathrooms will have tubs or showers depending on the space available as well as built in cubbys to store personal items.  The most radical change will be the addition of an ADA bathroom on the first floor off of the library that will connect through to the first front of the front double.  This is required by code for a project of this size and will provide both public and private access options for handicapped guests and brothers.  The powder room off of the annex will be dressed up a bit with wood paneling and stone tile to work with our improved public spaces.

Bathroom Plans and Elevations: Back, Front and North Hallway Configurations

Bathroom Plans and Elevations: Front Double as well as Annex Powder Room and new ADA Bathroom off of Library

Front Entry Refurbishment 2009/2010

Our first foray into upgrading the chapter house look was in the entry way.  This is the first space that potential new members see.  Our goal was to raise/restore the level of finish to show the beauty of the space and to set the bar for other key public spaces.  The result is an amazing transformation.  Scroll down to learn more about the project.

Completed Entryway - View to Exterior

 One of the greatest needs was the doors.  These are enormous mahogany doors - about 42" wide, 2.5" thick and quite tall.  The existing ones were badly weathered after many decades of Boston winters and southern sun exposure.  You don't just trot down to home depot to get new ones.  The carpenter that we chose for this job, Jeff Bairos, is someone that I've known since about 2003 when my brother and I owned a triple decker next door to him.  I got to see some of the amazing built ins that he was building for some of his projects at that point and later had him do some of the finish work on my own house in 2008-2009.  Jeff does all of his own work, so you know that it's going to get the level of professional attention that you need for high end work.  I stopped by his workshop the day he was assembling one of the doors.  Each side is its own piece with huge mortised joints bringing the whole assembly together.  We worked with a door hardware specialist to select appropriate hardware for both the historic look and size.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but the doors are actually supported primarily by pivots (think hinges on steroids) due to their size and weight.  The closers are also sized to the magnitude of the job; LCN makes nice ones that even have built-in hold open capabilities so that you don't need a rock anymore.

The paneling is mahogany.  We were able to salvage much of the original wood, but Jeff did have to manufacture a few panels and some trim.  The panels are finished with a gel stain technique that our Architect, Rebecca Berry, taught to the painting crew.

We did a replaced the tile floors and repaired the green marble baseboard in the process.  Interior Stone in Waltham was able to cut and hone the marble to the dimensions that we needed to replace pieces of the baseboard that were broken or missing.  The tile flooring is new stone mosaic with white tiles inserted for borders and to put our own "1832" stamp on the building.

We replaced all of the lighting with period-appropriate polished brass fixtures.  They do a good job of lighting the space up.  An exit light is a required feature, but Rebecca was able to find a subdued fixture in white and green that doesn't interfere too much with the rest of the design.

The birch flooring was sourced from a manufacturer in Vermont that was able to make both flooring and treads to match.  This dresses the space up a bit relative to the carpeting that used to feature in parts of the space.  The photo below shows how we continued the work up the stair.  It goes up to the 2nd floor landing so that the look is consistent for anyone walking through at the first floor level.

Completed Entryway - View to Interior

New Accessible Ramp 2009/2010

The renovation really began in 2009/2010 with two projects.  One was the refurbishment of the 351 front entry and the other was the replacement of the rear ramp with one sized to current ADA requirements.  In the image below you can see the outline of the old ramp (red) and the much larger new ramp.  Times have changed and it takes quite a bit of ramp to get up to our first floor level.  Still we found a way to fit it while still preserving the all important parking.  Also we worked in some proper stairs for everyday use.

Overlay showing old (red) and new (black) ramp configurations behind the house.

We worked this project jointly with WILG.  It ran about $50K, but we were able to get much of that granted by the IRDF as an accessibility improvement.
Here's what it looked like once we excavated for the ramp foundation.  Foundations in Massachusetts need to go to about 4 feet below grade so that they don't get heaved by frost in the winter.

Excavated hole for new ramp.

And here's the finished product.  We went for the galvanized rails so that they would hold up without needing painting touch up every year.  (Wish I'd done the same for the spiral stair at my house!)

Final ramp.  Note the additional lower railing for wheelchair use.