Boys Bathroom Part18: plumber and finishing walls

finally...

November 19-20

Well the plumber was here and fixed the mistake he made the first time. He's a nice guy but super slow and he kept chatting at the end when I just wanted him to leave so I could move on to the mudding and taping.

I had to enlarge this hole and I didn't have my BIL tool that we used the first time. I drilled some holes with my kick butt corded drill and then I had to use my box cuter (i love the cool red color)






Now I was ready to mud and tape. I decided in a stroke of pure genius to cover up the tub "just in case" something dripped on it. I'm not sure if this counts as a total moron moment because I did the right thing, but I was totally naive. I thought I was being extra cautious. That's a total laugh. The mud (really just thinset) was freaking everywhere. The tub looked like a flock of birds decided to camp out above the area and then suffered from mass intestinal distress. And I learned a little bit about that tape. Like its super sticky. But it hates to stick to the wall. It would prefer to stick to your fingers. And it will roll down the wall and land in your hair because it like it better there.

And thinset, that tricky bastard. Everywhere I read suggested "only make what you will use in 15 minutes" That is the most unhelpful piece of crap instruction. How in the hell do I know how much I can use. And even if I did, how would I know how much to mix to make up that amount. I ended up with a 5 gallon bucket of thinset filled 2/3 full. This was about 600% more than I needed. I started by adding what I thought was a small amount of water to the bottom of the bucket. Then I preceded to add the mix. Then I needed to add more. I added 1/3 a bag (the 50 lb kind). The consistency was like choc milk. I stirred and waited, hoping it would thicken up. It did not. After an hour of this useless wishing I was off to the store again. The whole time I thought I would come back to perfect mix, like maybe it felt sorry for me and decided to fix itself. But alas no. So I added more mix and more and more. Finally it got to the "peanut butter" consistency that happens by magic on HGTV. I preceded with the mudding part, which wasn't too bad except for the above mentioned tape issue.

I had no idea was I was suppose to do with the left over mud. Even if I didn't have 2 gallons extra, I've haven't found any instructions on the proper way to handle left overs of this type of stuff. I guess that stuff happens via magic again. I decide to sacrifice the bucket to the garbage mound. I just let it set there until in solidified and chuck it into the trash.

Oh and I suffered another injury. I used my finger to smooth the mud in the corners (okay that was definitely a total moron moment) and the cement ate away at my skin. I had to stop and put a band-aid on half way through because it was so raw.

Boys Bathroom Part17: More Delays

i need to stop getting distracted ... and sick

October-ish

Bathroom is been on the back-burner. So I could work on this (white walls gone)

disassemble bed, repaint bedroom, buy new furniture

and deal with this (2 week cream skin treatment to burn off abnormal cells)

skin cancer treatment - super gross

Boys Bathroom Part16: Floor Tile

i will never quit my day job

September 21




On one hand, tiling was the first step that has actually made the bathroom look less like a disaster zone. On the other hand, this is holy crap back-breaking work. And of course because I'm an idiot, I was bent over most of the process (I can hear my mother yelling "Bend your knees! Lift with your legs!") 

My boys are off with their dad, so my niece was my co-tiler. We started off with a trip to Home Deport where I bought a tile scorer and a pair of nippers. This decision turned out to be laughable. The tile is 12 x 24 and 5/8" thick. The tile scorer was quickly defeated. So off to Home Depot! I found a tile saw for $80, so I decided to buy instead of rent. It worked great with the exception that I had it on the floor outside and this really killed my back.

Tiling itself is not too bad and after we got a rhythm down, it went pretty well. I only received one injury. I dropped one of the tiles on my toe and that stuff is not light. Oh and we ran out of thinset and had to go back to Home Depot again. (My niece claims we went to HD four times, but I can't remember a fourth time, but I will be going through my receipts to double check!)

Perfection!!!

The following weekend, my niece come over again and helped me grout. This task is easy but we had to have a never ending supply line of clean water. We were using three buckets at a time and we still had to make at least 15 trips outside for clean water.

Boys Bathroom Part15: Floor Tile

still waiting for plumber

September 7-9

Well work is still a bear and I can't take any time off to have the plumber come and fix the pipe in the tub, so I've decided to go ahead and do the floor tile. I've done some internet research and decided to lay down Ditra (the orange stuff). It's thin (1/8 inch) and is suppose to help large format tile not crack. Not too difficult. Precut (comes in large roll), trowel out thinset and lay down. The only issue is that I had two large pieces and adjusting them once they were in the thinset was almost impossible.

After the Ditra layer was dry, I did a little tile planning.

Boys Bathroom Part14: Lights

oh goodness, when can I take a day off so I can wait for the plumber???

August 31

Well work is a total bear and I can't take any time off to have the plumber come and fix the pipe in the tub, so I've decided to work on a few small things. (okay to be fair, I spent my vacation on my Alaskan cruise, so now I have to play catch up at work)

fixed the hole where the boys always throw the door open 

holy crap, why is the opening over there?!?

these are ugly, lets replace..

goodbye Nemo themed aqua and hello steel grey

so much better

The lights of course could not be easy. 1) I assumed (ha ha) that the cut out was in the center of the old fixture. 2) the double layer of drywall strikes again 3) the wires are long, super stiff, and hard to work with 4) holding your arms above your head for over an hour hurts. My new fixture had to actually attach to the electrical circle thing. But since it was recessed behind that second layer of drywall I couldn't use the screws it come with. Thankfully, my mom gave me my dad's box of odds and ends and I was able to find screws long enough. I was by myself when I did this (huge mistake) and having to hold up the fixture while connecting the wires was an exercise is mass frustration. I almost gave up. But luckily I'm majorly stubborn so after over an hour (absolutely not an exaggeration! - I had to stop and start a few times because my arms hurt so bad), it was finally up. The results are fabulous. This might seem like no big deal, but I need to take all the wins I can get.

beautiful 

Boys Bathroom Part13: The Walls

i really needed the push

July 19-20

Well one Saturday,  my brother-in-law shows up with some teenager help to tackle the cement board. I was a little surprised, I generally like to work at my own pace (glacier slow) but it worked out so great, I'm super happy. Not much to it, just measure, measure again and then cut (score and snap). Screw the piece in and start on the next. It took us about 4 hours to complete, with a pause for lunch.

i'm impressed with myself, this looks all pro-like

added a package with etch-a-sketch and note in the ledge cavity

Everything was wonderful, and the next day I had delusions of mudding and taping but something was bothering me. The pipe from the shower faucet doesn't look right. I dug around for the instruction guide (that the plumber had used to install it) and its totally off. Holy @#*& now I have to call the plumber back.

Boys Bathroom Part12: The Box

one small box shouldn't be hard right?

June 29

Ok I'm back on track and mostly injure free. Next step is to build the box for the ledge next to the tub. I have the 2x4s and my BIL's miter saw. My niece comes over to help. After 2 hours this is what we have.


It is not even or level. The miter saw is super old and keeps going off course, plus I clearly stink at this. So we load the lumber into the car and head to my sister's house. Ah! My BIL has just bought a brand new miter saw. With a built in work bench. And a laser!!!

Cutting is now a breeze and with all three of us holding the pieces, we screw it together. I realize at this point I had been missing two very important things. 1) a corded drill (much more power than my wimpy cordless one) and 2) upper body strength. I will be off to home depot soon to procure these. oh and a shiny new tool with lasers.

The box was nice and level but of course it didn't actually fix. But we partially disassembled and trimmed, with my wonderful reciprocating saw that I think I will name Charlie, until we were able to get it in. We drilled into the cement (floor and wall) to secure and one more piece complete!