Practice, practice, practice

Last night I felt so good I had the energy to get some tiling done after work. I find that I am getting so much better at getting the mastic on the walls and getting the right amount so that the mastic doesn't squeeze out between the tiles. Here is the before shot of the west wall. You can just see what was already installed at the tub. See that little orange area next to the tub? That is where I needed to start last night's tiling.



Here is the after shot of what I accomplished. It doesn't look like much, but it took me a half hour to get the mastic on just right, buttering the edges of the backer board next to the tub and the previous installed tile and cutting the tile to fit at the tub edge, before I could install the first partial sheet of tile.


I have worked out a schedule and if Mike can help me and we stick to the schedule the bathroom will be functionally done by end of day next Thursday! I will still need to take the door off, change the hinges, change the door handle, paint it, and add a shower door panel, but that is minor. Here is my schedule. I am still waiting to here from Mike. I sure hope he is available next week!

3/14 – Thursday – tiling
3/15 – Friday – work at the museum
3/16 – Saturday –
• Morning - sand and spot prime ceiling
• Install casing around door (it came Tuesday!)
• Tile between painting and casing until it is done!
• Afternoon – final coat of paint on ceiling
3/17 – Sunday
• Grout
• Paint trim on mirrors
3/18- Monday
• I will pick up countertop after work
3/19 – Tuesday
• Set vanity
• Set countertop
• Set sinks
• Set toilet
• Hook up sink faucets and shower faucets
Remaining items – Tuesday and/or Thursday
• Install switches
• Install sconces
• Install drawers – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on vanity – last on list – not needed for functionality
• Install doors on cabinet – last on list – not need for functionality

Another piece to the puzzle

I was so happy yesterday when the UPS man showed up. He brought me the PVC trim that I was having a hard time finding. I needed the casing that matched what I already had installed around the bathroom window, but I did not have enough for the door trim. I ended up buying 12 7' pieces which is enough for the rest of the areas in the house I want to use this trim. I did not want to run into a problem finding it again and you got free shipping if the order was over $45.00 so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone. I still need to buy the grout for the glass tiles and a light for over the shower , but I am getting close to having purchased everything I need for this project - thank goodness! I am going to the IX Center in Cleveland March 22 for the Sewing and Quilting Expo and I want to have some cash to spend on goodies!

Gathering pieces and parts

I thought I would go home last evening and install some tile, but I was too tired. I did go out to the garage and measure the vanity and transfered those measurements on the bathroom wall. The back of the vanity is solid so I don't want to waste of time or materials by tiling behind it. I did haul up the pieces and parts for the vanity and wall cabinet - doors, shelves, drawer boxes, and the bag of screws. My dad made this cabinet 4 years ago when he was 80-81 years old. He is now going to be 85 and there is no way he could do this now. He had gotten very feeble in the last few years. I am so glad I had him make it when I did.


Here is vanity that is still in the garage and lying on it's back. It is hard to see but there will be two drawers and then doors for the areas under the sinks. I bought those handles that are just a simple round bar. The countertop is suppose to be done late this week and if I work really hard this upcoming weekend, I think Mike and I can install the vanity next week. After that we will be very close to finishing.


Well, readers, only two more weeks and I can get back to the sewing machine! I have a lot of projects in my head and I am looking forward to getting started on them. Thanks for sticking with me during this bump in the road.

Beer and tiling

Friday night after work I went directly to the art museum and helped pour beer for the Art & Ale event. It was packed and the food was great! There were sliders, hand crafted cheese (so good), bite sized cupcakes, popcorn, wraps, and saled carmels. I was pooped out after standing on concrete for four hours, but I had a fun time talking to everyone.


Sunday was all about tiling the rest of the shower area. I finished the one wall and tiled the faucet wall. I was so lucky that all I had to do was cut out full tiles to fit around the openings for the faucet, shower head, and the valve. I have spreading adhesive down to a science. A professional tile guy would be horrified, but it works for me. I am so glad it was in the low 60's yesterday, because I could open the windows. The tile adhesive is so stinky! With the windows opened all night the fumes didn't bother me sleeping last night - just the aches!


Here is the floor grouted. It took me a little over an hour to do this including clean up. I will need to wash the floor down one more time to get the haze off, but I am really happy with how it looks. With the floor grouted the bathroom is starting look like I am getting something done.


All this week my efforts will be in tiling the rest of the walls and starting the grout. I do need to hem a pair of pants and put a label on a quilt, but that will be about all the sewing that will get done.

A sewing project and a bathroom update

I was on a search mission yesterday for a countertop for my bathroom vanity. This is the last big piece I need for the bathroom puzzle. I called around for prices and they ranged from $700.00 for stone to $320.00 for cultured marble. Guess which I am picking? I had to drive to the cultured marble place to pick out a color after work at rush hour. Luckly I left at the right time to get thru the central interchange without any problems with the rush hour traffic. I didn't get home until almost 5:45. Here is my vanity without the doors and drawers.


I was really tired when I did get to the house so I just chilled a bit and played around trying to get a new zipper pull on this case for Mike. I messed with it and messed with it and wasn't having much luck. I got up about 12:30 a.m. and played around with it again. I finally was able to get the pull on. The bag was very hard to zip so I put some silicone stuff on it and rubbed a bar of soap on the teeth. It works a bit better, but my fingers are so sore from trying to get this done. At lunch today I will hand sew a stop and sew the end of the zipper to that back piece of webbing to keep the zipper in place.

Let the wall tiling begin

First thing Mike and I did was sit down and have some hot from the oven homemade rolls as we discussed our work plan for the day.


Then it was onto installing the waterproofing material. We had a lot of issues installing this. The mortor was drying fast so the material would not stick. I was thinking about it last night and I think I figured out what we did wrong. It is water under the bridge now, so move on to tiling.



Mike and I got the large wall tiled. It is somewhat fussy work to get those little tiles which are on a mesh backing lined up, but I like the way this is looking.



After Mike left and I rested a bit I installed half the tile another wall in the shower area. I finally quit at 7:15, cleaned up and went to bed. I was tired. Tonight I will try and get the rest of this wall done. Little by little ...

The good, the bad, the ugly

The good is that I managed to tile my bathroom floor on Saturday! This is the first time I ever used a tile saw and install a tile floor. I have watched my brothers install floors at my houses and I have seen it done on TV, but my brothers never let me do anything but be the grunt runner and they would do all the cutting and installing. Between layout, precutting tile, morter mixing, cleanup and installing it took me 9 1/2 hours between Friday night and Saturday to get this done. My legs, abs, and behind hurt so bad!


I couldn't grout on Sunday because the morter was still not rock hard so I will grout after my brother and I get done working in the bathroom tomorrow. Yes, Mike is coming over for a long workday tomorrow so I have to get my energy back for tomorrow. By 5 pm on Sunday the soreness in my legs, and behind went away so I am feeling pretty good today. I can still feel it in my abs, but it is minor.

Saturday Michael played at the Battle of the Bands as the featured act and did not compete. The crowd love it and gave the band a standing O.


The bad - well, I used my drill to mix the morter for the floor and it was a mess! I will never do that again. I will spend the extra money and buy the premixed morter. I ended up burning up my beloved 25 year old Dewalt drill. Here is his replacement


So here is the ugly - my poor drill


I had to go shopping for all the stuff we needed for the bathroom finish. Another pile of stuff to go into the master bedroom, but at least I got to clear out the floor tile!


I did get my order from Fabric.com and I am very happy with buying fabric! They had a great deal on a bunch of Holloween fabric so I decided I need to make a quilt for my brother, Mike, who was born on Holloween.