Bathroom, Day 15

Wait. Waiting. Waited. That's what we've been doing. Waiting for set times. Waiting for cure times. Waiting to do anything. I'll admit there was a few days that we didn't do anything.

What I did do one day was seal the tile and the grout. I thought it would've been fast but not really. It took me about a little over an hour for each coat. I did one coat on Monday night and then another Tuesday afternoon. The sealer only needed 4 hours to cure completely. I did a "test" after 4 hours, which was to put water on some spots and watch for beading and water being soaked in. Thankfully, it beaded and never seem to soak in. Success!

Then on Tuesday night I caulked. Again, I mistakenly thought it'll be quick. Ha! Prepping for it took longer. Using the gun took longer and more energy to use it. I don't even know what the process or term is but the removal of the excess caulk was WAY WAY more difficult than I thought. I read to prep the space by putting two parallel pieces of painters tape near your joints/adjoining planes and then you could just pull it off. Well, do you do as such when it's fresh? No because it seemed to take more off than should've. Do you do as such when it has dried for 15 minutes? No because then it left it looking wrinkled. Basically what I'm trying to say is caulking is hard, hard work. I'd liken it to painting the Sistine Chapel.

I've given you 2 pictures. One is of a bad caulk spot and the other is how I wish the entire project would've went, smoothly.

Forgotten pictures

See I'm tired.

Bathroom, Days 8-10

I've been neglecting my updates. Sorry folks. Well, actually let's be honest, I've switched to sending them to you via texts. And to be truthful I just haven't had any thoughts other than pure hate for bathrooms over these days.

Days 8 & 9 consisted of tiling. Tiling and more tiling. When I wasn't tiling I was tiling and then when I was tiling I was thinking about tiling. We averaged it out and it took me approx 5 minutes to lay each tile. What?! I can't believe it but, sadly, it is true. I thought I could have it tiled in a matter of hours, like 4 or 5. Instead it took me 15ish hours spread out over 2 days. I hate tile.

But I LOVE the look of it! Then day 10 we bought the vanity and sink. We will have that installed tomorrow. I also grouted the tile today and that was a bitch as well. Seriously, tilers must hate themselves to do this day in and day out. A friend told me it would take me 1 hour or so to grout. It took me 4 hours. I've learned everything will take me double, sometimes triple, the amount of time. As it slowly comes together and I get a few moments of rest I think "I should update my blog" rather than the constant hate.

The nice thing is all this hard work results in some pretty imaginative dreams.
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Bathroom, Day 7

We've got a toilet. We've got a toilet. We painted. We've got a toilet. We've prepped for shower tile install. We've got a toilet. Can you tell what I'm most excited about? Still lots to do but with each day that passes I feel more confident.

Bathroom, Day 6

As the number of days grows so does my exhaustion. The nice thing about today was I went to work and got to talk about all of this work. I got to use all my cool new terms I've learned and I felt like I sounded professional.

I got permission to take 1/2 days for the next 2 days so after being there for a bit I left to come home and finish this beast. We laid the last of our floor tile! Huge shout out to KJ for letting me borrow her dremel. We got that hole cut out! The air duct register was put in and I bought grout. Then we patched up all the wall joints.

I know it doesn't sound like much but it was. I want to tile the shower tomorrow but I also want a day of not dealing with tile. Plus I think I'd rather paint. Ugh I don't know. But tomorrow we get to set the toilet. Yay!!

Bathroom, Day 5

I get to send this one early as we won't do anything else to the bathroom today. The tile is drying.

We finally actually laid tile. It's no professional but I think it looks good. Would I tile again? I sure hope not. It's back breaking! Did I say I was going to tile the tub surround? Well I'm rethinking that statement. If we tile the tub it'll be until next week before we get a shower back. And technically I went about it the non-professional way that we still have 3 tiles to lay before we can put a toilet in. So we're still 2 days away from a toilet.

BUT...

It sure is looking good! If I'm allowed to say so.

Bathroom, Day 4

Houston, we have visible progress. What an extraordinary day! We showered.

Not in our own shower but a shower none the less. Then we started cutting the cement backer board but didn't have the right tool, so to Lowe's we goes. While we were trying to cut the cement backer board a replacement cartridge for our shower valve arrived. That solved our water leaking issue! So we turned the water back on for the house to discover we hadn't put the shut off valve for the toilet back on. Oy vey! We clamped and crimped that and success, water and hot water again.

As we were finishing cutting the cement backer board my brother cut his finger. I put a bandaid on it so we both had bandaids on our fingers. Mine was because of cuticle though. Still twinners. Our last piece fit like a glove and with that it was off to my sisters for a birthday party.

It was hard to play around and forget what all still needed to get done. I'm exhausted and playing with the nephews just exhausted me more. Regardless when we got home I laid out the tile for a dry fit. I discovered we'll only have 11 cuts to make. To cut porcelain tile we needed a diamond bit so we went to Lowe's. We got home 5 mins before Lowe's was closing to discover we didn't have access to a 1/2" notched trowel. Gah! So after searching and hoping Walmart or Smith's would have one, they didn't, we called it a night.

In all though, it was successful. I may have to take an extra day off though.

Bathroom, Day 3

No picture. It looks the same, really. Plumbing bites the big one. Never ever try to change plumbing. If your old tub had no overflow don't try and get a tub now with overflow. Oh plumbing, you and me will never be friends. There I said it.

Highlights of the day include finishing putting all but 1 piece of backer board. The piece that's still missing is the one for the shower trim/set-up. My brother quoting D.L. Hughley's stand up routine. The oatmeal breakfast that I had, delicious.

We had 2 upsets over the course of the day. One was forgetting the styrofoam that needed to go on the tub apron before installation and the fact that the new shower valve leaks. Lame! Stupid shower valve. Lame plumbing.

Let day 4 begin..
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Bathroom, Day 2

What did we do in day 2? If you look at it not much. It was mostly us buying things and conjecturing. I like to tell myself it's behind the scenes stuff. Yeah.

When the day started we had high hopes. We wanted to finish putting in the plywood, run the shower plumbing, put up cement board, install the tub, lay the hardie backer board and the tile. So out of that we did the plywood, the shower plumbing and 1 piece of cement board.

Things we did that weren't on our lists is cleaned the walls, give oneself a bloody nose and Tangled was watched. That last one was important. We ran into issues with plumbing and supplies. Hopefully we're set for a fantastic and productive day 3.

Bathroom, Day 1

We are a little behind schedule after 1 day but I believe we'll make it before the end of Monday.

Obviously our first day included demo. I'm not a demo gal. It was tedious and all I wanted was for the new bathroom to be in. I like the process of installing better than the take down. Everything came out with too much of problem. Once we had everything out though the cracked and warped floor gave way. This remodel definitely was needed.

After everything was out we bought some supplies but by the time we got home we were bushed and didn't accomplish much more. We got one piece of plywood subfloor put in. So now we have a bigger hole in the floor and it truly frightens me. But today it goes away. But I have to face my tiling fear today...

Bathroom Update

Today I, along with my brother, a friend of his and the comments of assistance from my father, are remodeling the bathroom. It's a bathroom we've had for 15 years. I'll admit I'm frightened of what we'll run into, the choosing of our materials and our workmanship. Please send us all your well wishes and I'll keep you updated.
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