Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Tile done tile done tile done!

Can you tell I'm a little excited about this???  We finished all the tiling this weekend, thanks to slave labor from Mary, Autumn, and Jaimee.  I need to grout it, caulk it, and seal it, but if all goes to plan we can shower in there this weekend!



I have no idea why the upper picture looks so blue - the reality is somewhere in between these two colors.  What can I say, it was cloudy this morning.  You can also see the cabinet on the left (it has an outlet built in, and will hold the hair dryer and electric toothbrush), and the doorframe.  The doorframe was SO MUCH FUN to put in - at Dad's suggestion, I used this project to justify a power nailer.  I got a cordless Ryobi 18 gauge, and it's my new favorite tool.  5 minutes to put up the frame (not counting cutting and chiseling), and laughter and enjoyment the whole time.  That thing is awesome.


There are still plenty of things left to do after grouting etc, but this feels like such a huge step towards completion.  In addition to being really close to a truly fully working bathroom, all the boxes of tile and bags of thinset are gone from the living room and hallway, and a lot of tools are actually put away and not piled in my office.  The house is much closer to just being a house and not a construction staging zone!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

It works!

Well, the last time the plumbers came to visit we had to go from this:

 to this.


Which was frustrating and exhausting.  But after a full weekend of work plus some late nights, we've managed to end up here:



I actually peed in the upstairs bathroom for the first time since early June!  (Ok, perhaps too much info.  Whatever.)  The bathroom walls are fully closed up.  I built and installed a cabinet for the wall next to the toilet, so the upstairs bathroom will actually have storage!  The tiling is completed on the toilet wall, halfway done on the opposite wall, and 2/3 done on the sink wall.

And speaking of sinks - if you look closely, you might see a lot of white on the wall around the sink.  That's caulk.  This is actually the second sink we installed - the first one was just too big in the space.  We found this one at Build It Green in Gowanus for a whopping $20 which was pretty awesome - except that the new faucet didn't fit in it.  So in addition to cleaning up all the caulking on the wall, I have to put the new faucet on the downstairs sink and bring the downstairs sink faucet up here to install (after I make sure the downstairs faucet is also not too big).  I think that can wait for the tiling to be complete and the door hung, though.

Still left to do - complete the wall tiling and grouting.  Have the plumbers back to fix the radiator pipes they messed up.  Build a small cabinet for the hair dryer outlet.  Finish the floor tiling and grouting, then caulk and seal.  Finish the ceiling drywall taping and paint the ceiling.  Hang the door frame and door.  Build shelves and a door for the big cabinet.  Explain to one of the GFI outlets that it WILL work, thank you.  Hang the stuff (you know, towel holders, tp holder, mirror).  Just keep swimming.