I would stick a big chunk of foam in there. That’s what I do each winter with my duct in the bedroom. I don’t have to buy it as I save it from various things (like the memory foam topper I took off my bed. Then shut the register and seal the back of it with tape or vinyl shelf liner and reinstall it. Or screw a solid piece of white material over it and leave the register off. If you take the measurements places like home depot will cut what you buy there to fit. A white finished cabinet end panel might work. I’d also find a scrap plank of wood I could cut to fit and paint white.
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you can get cut some sheet metal to the bottom dimensions, and just glue it down, and then use some duct tape to seal; you can get sheet metal squares at Home Depot.
If you’re going to keep the louver vent cover then add some insulation inside the cavity
If you’re looking to use the space and/or create something more decorative (than a nonfunctional vent) you might build box that would fit in the recess, with painted white to match the brick. It could be either a recessed shelf or a “shadow box” with some type of art.
https://www.hunker.com/12275664/easy-way-to-seal-off-old-ceiling-vents-that-dont-close-tightly
Ooh, I’m envisioning a little, calming Buddha setting in there! Lots of good ideas from you and KCC, think I’ll keep it temporary, and it will likely involve an aluminum roaster pan I have on hand.
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE your flooring! I would like to put this in my house. No money now, but one day. What type of flooring? Can you be specific so I can make note of it? Thanks!!!
I can relate. A project that is really gratifying when it’s done. I have to fix my fence gate now because I’ve started allowing guests with dogs. Had to do something different to get business, and my back yard is fenced-in and HUGE! A dog’s paradise… 
This is a 16x24 wood look tile. It’s Interceramic Sunwood Centennial Gray. I’ve been told they have already discontinued this size and only have the 6x24 plank size in the future. Regardless you should be able to find something comparable.
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I had planned to do an “aging in place” reno of my personal master bath before I went out of ton in Feb. When I came back I initially told my contractor I wanted to delay due to covid uncertainty. But it was perfect timing since I had neither dog nor human guests. So we went ahead about a month later than planned.
The contractor’s part is done. I’ve got details and decor to decide. The budget is shot so some things may take months before they are “done.” But the important part is that if I become ill or injured I will have access in my bathroom.
The rock wall between my neighbor and I is about 75% done as well.
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Thanks for sharing.
Took a bit of analysis for me to figure out
- Toilet moved to where bathtub was
- large window above bathtub got replaced with smaller window above relocated toilet.
- New vanity now extends to where original toilet was
- Former Purple door is now the wood frosted glass barn door
Did I get that right?
Really thoughtful design with curbless shower. Well done. You should be very proud.
Yes! Perfect. I thought about labeling each picture but didn’t think most folks would be that interested.
I really do love everything about it and the contractor is someone I would hire again. All the design choices were mine, within budget constraints, which also why some things may not get done for months. (for example, I’d like a much lighter color countertop but this was the least busy of the choices they gave me.)
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Damn! That looks good. Love the tile work in the shower. Did you do that yourself?
No. I’ve done lots of tile and could have done it myself but not this time.
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Careful what you wish for, as is often said.
I’ve now got lots and lots of building materials, just as the cafes and bars start to reopen.
Bugger.
I’ve also now got the anti mould sealant to replace the caulking in the skirting boards in the old section of our building. Two apartments, which total about 120m2, which means an awful lot of linear meters.
A combination of Jerez being a very damp and humid city alongside a very high water table means certain areas have a virtually incurable issue with damp. It’s only ever manageable, which means our changeover involves checking for loose paint etc.
That said, if we didn’t have the damp, we wouldn’t have our Sherry 
JF
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I live in a super humid part of Mexico, as well. Constant maintenance. Do you have salitre coming through the walls there, like we do here?
I take you mean efflorescence, white fluffy deposits that can just be brushed off?
If so, yes.
Damp is a problem throughout Jerez and, in my naivety, when we first started work on our building I thought about ways to stop it, rather than doing what everyone else does, that is managing it.
Even new(ish) builds have issues in certain areas here, partly down to the geology and partly down to inexperience on the part of builders/engineers/architects when it comes to modern construction techniques for high humidity/damp areas.
The front section of our building dates from around 1779, although much of it is probably earlier as this was one of the first areas developed outside the old city walls, our street dates back to the fifteenth century.
The efflorescence in itself is easy to deal with, a small brush sorts that out. The biggest problem is that areas that suffer from heavier efflorescence are difficult to paint, originally I think a lime whitewash was used but that simply isn’t practical nowadays, especially for an STR!
So it’s simple white emulsion touch ups as and when required.
Going back to the task in hand, at the time our budget couldn’t stretch to ceramic or stone rodapiés (skirtings) so we put in plain and simple coated MDF to get the job finished and open for business. Replacing them, room by room with ceramic was a project scheduled for this year, but that’s been put on hold for now.
As a stop gap, I’m removing the acrylic caulk between the skirting and wall and replacing it with silicon, which has a fungicide and should stop any mould forming. And before anyone says “why aren’t the skirtings flush against the wall”, it’s because there isn’t a straight or 100% vertical wall anywhere in our building!
Keeps me out of the bar I suppose…
JF
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Joys of dealing with bloody old buildings! And when you need to find a builder, you want one that understands old techniques and not fill it up with plastic builders bog!
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Yes, that is so true. We’re lucky that we both have a few years experience in renovating old properties, however this one is a bit of a first as we’ve done a lot more ourselves then previously.
The oldest one was about twelve years ago, where we did a complete refurbishment of an old fisherman’s cottage in the south of Turkey. Part way through the project our builder came across older foundations and walls. Next thing we’ve got the head of the local museum up and a stop order on the job from the council.
There are a lot of relics from the Lycian times in that area and we had to get a certificate from the ministry of something or other to certify that we weren’t going to destroy some important artefacts. A few thousand lira lighter we got permission to restart about four months later.
Just after we finished the job, the Turkish government slapped an “area of archaeological significance” order on the whole area. This prohibited any further reformation work. Phew!
JF
We have a couple of stone buildings on Lemnos in Greece that we visit about once a year. They are on the beachfront. When renovating we were told by the local museum that we could dig here and here but NOT here. If we did we would have to stop and they would take their own sweet time to look in the hole to see if there was anything of interest. The stop work could have held us up for literally years!
Needless to say we were very very careful
Anecdotally speaking of course, in Greece the presence of a “small gift for your children” works wonders in many areas, assuming the gift fits in a small envelope 
Of the money we paid out in Turkey, I’d say about half was probably documented, so to speak. The combination of palms being greased, and our builder being “politically connected” locally helped smooth the process. Like Greece, it could have taken years.
The irony is that while it was an old area, the actual building itself was constructed with concrete blocks and had aluminium windows!
A little bit like saying “this brush is nearly twenty years old, and its only had two new heads and one new handle…”
JF
I always seem to have some renovations going on, the latest is we are putting rocks on the foundation of the new cabin, it is River Rock Retreat after all!
It is coming along nicely, I keep telling the guy who is doing it, remember these rocks are holding up the building! Which they are not, but the foundation on the 1938 cabin is rock and we want it to look the same.
RR
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