Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Full steam ahead...

June 8, 2008
After church hubby and I started working on the bathroom. I continued painting while hubby worked on the box supports for the antique pillars. He did a wonderful job of designing them with a bit of storage included in the design. It took several hours of cutting and constructing and then hubby came in for a fitting. (Now mind you, it was quite a daunting task getting to the pillars which were located in the library, aka the black hole, amongst a sea of bathroom stuff. I removed everything from the library to the small opening on the living room floor and then was able to locate and bring out the pillars and caps). I carried the pillars and caps to the bathroom and hubby placed all the pieces together and determined that the box size was correct. He handed me the pillar to lean back against the wall.

And that’s when it happened.

You know one of those slow motion moments when you want to move quickly but all you can do is stand back and watch the impending disaster that follows. Somehow during the passing of the pillar we did not make contact it was just millimeters out of my reach. I yelled for hubby to catch it but it was too late. CRASH!!!!! The pillar fell against the toilet smashing the toilet tank lid. Porcelain bits went flying everywhere! As the pillar lay against the toilet tank with porcelain shrapnel all over the floor I did the only thing that I could do…

I busted out laughing!

Hubby was not as amused. I told him not to worry that I was sure we could find a replacement. He replied with a ‘probably not’ since it was a fairly old toilet and that most of the toilets today are much larger (this is why we kept the original-because it was small and fit in the space). Hmmm, I hadn’t thought about that. All of a sudden it wasn’t quite as funny but then a new thought occurred to me! A most enjoyable thought! Now we could buy the expensive toilet that matches the pedestal sink! Hubby was not amused.
A little while later hubby went to the hardware store to get some decorative trim for the pillar support boxes and primer for the pillars while I continued to paint (have you ever noticed that the more you paint the more there is to paint)? Once he arrived home he applied the decorative trim to the boxes. Now they just have to be painted.

I sustained yet another injury when cleaning up the mess on the platform area of the bathroom. When removing the tile cutter a shard of glass cut my thumb. I cleaned and bandaged it immediately and all looks as if it will be fine.

June 9, 2008
There may be hope for the toilet! Our dear friends have replaced their toilets and they still have the old ones. These are older, small toilets so she is going to bring in one of the tank lids tomorrow for us to try on our toilet. Toilet trading, it’s a good thing.

June 10, 2008
Hubby finished the grout while I primed the decorative boxes for the pillars and patched some nail holes.

June 11, 2008
The toilet lid given to us is too small for the toilet tank. Hubby went out and bought a new tank with a lid for the toilet.

· New toilet tank and lid $50

June 14, 2008
St. Pauly came over today to replace the sink drain and to install the new toilet tank. We officially have a working bathroom but I refuse to use it until it is finished!

June 15, 2008
I am not sure if you remember (since it has been so long ago) that we purchased a raised decorative tile for the platform step. Hubby installed it a few weeks ago including the grouting. This is the first time that hubby has worked with tile that has a raised design on it and it was a learning experience. Did you know that when grout dries on a raised design tile that it is nearly impossible to remove? Yup, all of the grout formed a cement-like substance that fills in all of the intricate crevices of the design. Not a problem-surely there is some sort of grout removal product that will make the grout dissolve without damaging the surface of the tile. Sure enough there is! Unfortunately it doesn’t really dissolve the grout away-so we discovered after following the directions, and the grout remained. There was only one solution-scrape it off. Now I know what archeologists go through on digs! I had a small screwdriver which I used to carefully chisel away the grout after spraying the tiles with the grout removal stuff. I spent almost 3 hours working on this and was able to clean a little more than half of the tiles. I feel like a contortionist after being curled up and bent around in order to maneuver the screwdriver into all of the intricate nooks and crannies of the tile design.
It sure would be nice to soak in a tub right about now!

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