The saga of the wayward bathroom remodel – Part 2

The story continues from previous post . . .

My wife learned quickly that things are not exactly as they are shown on HGTV where things are wrapped up nicely in a thirty or sixty minute television show.  They do not show the time preparing, marking lines on the walls and floor to install straight tiles or that time needed to mix the sand and mortar mixes used in the deck mud (concrete shower base) in the bottom of the shower.  With each batch there is the mixing to get the consistency of something that looks like toothpaste.  The adhesive thin set is applied to the walls and the tile itself and pushed onto the wall with a little wiggle and tap to make them stick to the wall surface.  What should happen next is the waiting time for the thin set to cure.  For us it did not happen that way for us . . . the tiles would slowly creep down below the line I had drawn to align the tiles.  This led to some heated words and a scramble to cut wood to make a ledge to keep the tiles in place so it could cure and stay on the wall.  This happened I guess because I wasn’t prepared or my thin set mix was not exactly the right consistency.  There were a few somewhat heated words spoken but things did not go really bad until Monday night.

Everything worked out as between Saturday and Sunday we were able to install three walls from about waist high up to the ceiling.  I wanted to install the ceiling tiles but we needed to get some wooden support posts to hold the 12”x12” ceiling tiles up so as not to stand there and hold them for ten minutes until things start to set up. 

After all the work is done for the day there is another 45 minutes clean up washing tools, emptying the bucket of adhesive mortar and rinsing things.  It seems to never stop but once it was done it was time to pass out for the night.

Going to work on Monday was tough as I had worked all weekend with no real rest so it took everything to get through the day.  Once I returned home it was time for a short break for a cup of coffee and to continue putting time on the walls.  I cut a few pieces so we could start and then the first discussion on how the tile was to be installed. 

Things did not go well as one of the corner pieces did not fit exactly so my measurement was apparently off just a tad.  There was a discussion and the desire not to do anymore that night but my wife decided to end on a more positive note “doing something fun” putting the glass tile in the wall of the niche area.  That went better and while she was doing that I started the clean up process.  

(Shampoo niche – it is not totally finished as the border trim still needs to be completed)

We decided to give it a break for a day or two so we can rest, check our attitudes at the door and continue to get this thing completed.

The “D” word did not come up but there were a couple non-vowel words that got thrown out a time or two as things did not go exactly as planned.

What can I say . . . more later.

Ice