Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Still working hard...

June 1, 2008
It is now June, nine months since we began the bathroom project. The sad part is that we are still not close to being finished. Let’s see what still remains to be done; tile, wood work, siding, painting, and fixture installation. So basically it comes down to this: had I conceived and given birth I could have done it in less time than it has taken to construct this bathroom. Oh everyone likes to say-‘we’re almost finished’-but I have heard that for months now and am beginning to disregard all such statements. So for grins and giggles let’s see what else can be done in less than nine months: construction of a house, the making of a brand new car, a decision in congress, repainting an entire house both inside and out, landscaping a yard with irrigation and well, in the case of our good friends-a new front porch which was completely constructed, very well I might add, in ONE day, building the Panama Canal, taking a cruise around the world, the removal of yard sale signs after the yard sale is over (ok, well maybe that takes longer than nine months but you get the idea).
I know, I know, beep, beep, beep goes the bus!

June 5, 2008
Hubby worked for several hours this evening cutting, laying, and grouting tile.

June 6, 2008
Pauly and a friend came over this afternoon to install the pedestal sink and toilet. Although everything generally went well there was some problem with the drain mechanism so Pauly will have to come back out to replace it (you didn’t think everything would just work the first time did you?). The sink and the toilet, with its new toilet seat, look beautiful! Pauly told us to keep an eye, or should I say ‘an ear’, on the toilet in case it starts to run too often being that the rubber parts inside are a bit worn after having sat outside FOR SO MANY MONTHS in the weather awaiting installation.

Wooooooosh goes the bus!

At about 10:00 PM I got my second wind and decided to do some painting in the bathroom. I painted until 12:00 and then called it quits for the night but not without incurring an injury. Yes, I have now joined the injured ranks of those who have blundered before me. I have a dime sized burn on my right arm where my arm accidentally touched the light bulb as I was on the ladder painting.

June 7, 2008
This morning hubby and I went to the paint store to purchase another gallon of Sierra Redwood paint for the walls. After that we went to the hardware store to pick up a few more necessary supplies. Upon returning home hubby finished most of the woodwork as well as cutting and laying the remainder of the tile.
Last week was my birthday and many of my friends and family made contributions to the infamous bathroom project. Mom gave me an antique Victorian candelabra with dangling crystals which is absolutely gorgeous! Dad and Ann contributed an exquisite piece of artwork depicting plump, jolly flying pigs frolicking in the air with a red chicken. I framed the print in a heavily ornate Victorian style frame. Dad told me the picture was to remind me not to take the bathroom project too seriously (yeah right, when pigs fly…). My dear friend gave me some rose potpourri to scent the bathroom (it really does smell like a rose garden)! Of course, all of these things are stored in various places throughout the house until the bathroom is complete (living room floor, dining room buffet, kitchen table…).
Hubby worked late into Saturday night on the tile. However, a very disturbing sound came from the bathroom-a loud thump and then some irritated yells. I could only assume that something had happened with the bucket of tile cement and I was too afraid to go near the bathroom for fear that it may have been something too disastrous to handle. After some time of hearing slopping sounds followed by the flushing of the toilet I determined that the coast was finally clear. I entered the bathroom with a peace offering of beer to sooth what could only be a very tired and frustrated hubby. Much to my surprise the bathroom was clean and everything was under control. Hubby accepted the beer and told me that he had knocked the bucket of cement over and that it had splattered all over the wall. He did a great job of cleaning it up because there was no sign of it anywhere although I did have to question the flushing sounds that emanated from the bathroom. Being that there was no sign of spilled cement I can only imagine where he disposed of it. I wonder if hubby realizes that flushing cement down the toilet could possibly clog the pipes. I guess we will know the answer to that in a few years.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Moving right along...

May 15, 2008
Hubby came home from work and began working on the tile for the platform area of the bathroom. He installed the decorative tile on the platform step and it looks great! (No, I haven’t forgotten about the bluff thing-I probably won’t actually have an answer to that until the end of the weekend).
My friend, next door, gave me a beautiful antique print of a woman’s hand holding two long-stem red roses for the bathroom. It was an ad for a Corset Company in 1909. It is absolutely gorgeous and will look great in the bathroom!

· Gift from a wonderful friend- priceless.

May 17, 2008
Hubby called Pauly first thing Saturday morning to ask about hot water heaters as we will need a larger one in order to fill the tub. Pauly’s response was that hubby shouldn’t be worried about the hot water heater but should be concentrating on the tile! (This is why Pauly is the assistant project manager-he keeps everybody on task)! Anyway, hubby continued to work on the tile today. After much deliberation and discussion we have decided to use white grout instead of black grout. Even my friend sided for the white grout.

May 18, 2008
Ah yes, the day that everybody has been waiting for-would the bathroom be finished and would I, in fact, hire someone to finish it since it is quite evident that it is not complete!

Drum roll please…

The bathroom is not finished and I am not hiring anyone to finish it. Now before you go on saying that I was the one bluffing I have some clarification of the situation to share. I am currently house sitting for some friends downtown who happen to have a HUGE sauna tub. I have been soaking in it over the weekend and loving every minute! Because I am being pacified in this manner I was willing to allow for one more week of work on the bathroom. After all, I am not at home this week so to what purpose would it serve to have the bathroom complete when I am not even there? Hubby spent a good portion of the day working on the tile (or so I am told-I wasn’t there to confirm). Pauly has already stated that he will be helping hubby next weekend to finish the project! This should be very interesting indeed.

May 22, 2008
Well I have been house sitting for some friends this week so I have not been home to see the progress each day but hubby has kept me well informed. He worked on the tile Tuesday night and last night and has now completed the tile on the platform section, including the grout, and has been gluing the tile in the main section of the bathroom. He said that the white grout looks great!
In the meantime, I have spent nearly every night soaking in the huge sauna tub at my friends’ house. This has helped to appease me greatly and actually has bestowed some empathy within me for hubby's situation. Despite this compassion that I am feeling, as project manager I cannot allow my personal feelings to influence my primary goal which is to get the bathroom completed this year!

May 24, 2008
Hubby has completed the tile work on the platform and continues to work on the tile in the main section of the bathroom. He also began the wainscoting today. It looks great. Pauly came over and helped hubby with the woodwork as well as some of the plumbing work. Hubby sustained a pretty good injury when he stabbed his hand with a razor cutter. He went next door and our neighbor patched him up and recommended stitches but of course hubby refused.

May 25, 2008
Well today was a banner day for the bathroom! For the first time in seven months our living room is bathtub free! Can you believe it? Pauly brought a friend with him to help and they carried the tub to the bathroom leaving a huge empty space on the living room floor. We were all very excited, except for Kramer who is quite confused and disappointed that his toy box is gone. Not only was the tub removed from the living room to the bathroom but it is now hooked up and in running order! I know, pretty amazing isn’t it? (I can hear everyone as they read this saying ‘Oh my gosh, I never thought it would actually happen!). Needless to say the tub is beautiful in the bathroom.
Hubby and Pauly did some more of the wood work on the wainscoting.

May 26, 2008
Kramer continues to be depressed over the loss of his toy box tub. It is truly pathetic, he keeps lying in the area of the living room where the tub used to sit with a look of confusion and despair on his little kitty face.
Hubby sealed the tile grout on the platform.

May 27, 2008
Hubby worked again today on the wood work. He has installed more of the wainscoting and the center window sill. Now the center window is permanent and will no longer be used for passage from outside (the guys have been removing it and using it like a door during this whole process).

May 28, 2008
Hubby worked for some time in the bathroom last night. He finished cutting the tiles and has glued most of them down. He also grouted a few sections of the tile that had already been glued.

May 29, 2008
Hubby worked all evening on the tile flooring. He was able to get most of the tile glued and much of it grouted. It looks great!

May 31, 2008
I painted part of the baseboard trim and the walls. I also worked on getting the dried grout cleaned off of the decorative tiles.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Battle of Wits

May 3, 2008
My electrician came by today and removed the old bathroom light fixture (he also worked on our crooked hall lights and the living room ceiling fan with the spinning light fixture).
St. Pauly arrived to help hubby with the wood work. They spent the day installing the chair railing and moldings around the walls and ceiling. When I arrived home later that evening hubby was painting the newly installed wood work. I took over the painting from there and managed to finish the wood work in the old part of the bathroom. It looks great!
Another benefit of all this work is that the lumber is gone from the living room and kitchen floors-woohoo!!! Now you only have to walk around the tub and the china cabinet to get to the kitchen!

May 5, 2008
A lot was accomplished today. Hubby put down the rest of the cement board on the platform. After that he and I laid out the tiles on the platform to determine design and placement. We decided on using the small octagonal white tile with the 4x4 black square tiles bordering it under the tub. For the rest of the platform we will use the 8x8 black tiles for the border with the 8x8 white tiles on point for the rest. He will cut the 8x8 black tiles in half to border the step up to the platform.
I applied a second coat of white paint to the chair rail and moldings while hubby began installing the tile on the platform. He finished the white octagonal tile under the tub area.

May 6, 2008
Hubby worked on the tile again this evening. He installed the remainder of the white octagonal tile and the 4x4 black tile border around it. It looks great!

May 7, 2008
Ok, maybe I’m getting a bit optimistic here but I placed an order today for a bath pillow, drain stopper, and a bath topper. After all, one cannot soak in a tub with a mere 18 inches of water (thus the reason behind all of the insanity to install a claw foot tub-not to mention the fact that it just looks good)! Anyway, all of these things which make soaking in the tub more enjoyable should be here in time for me to actually soak in the tub.

· Bath pillow, drain stopper, bath topper plus shipping- $31

May 12, 2008
Well, my optimism seems to have been a bit premature. I was out of town last weekend and hubby worked diligently on the tile for the bathroom. He spent all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday cutting all of the intricate pieces for the platform area in the bathroom and gluing the border pieces down.
According to hubby the bathroom cannot possibly meet the finish date of this weekend (May 18th) because he still has tiles to cut and then he has to glue them to the floor which needs to set for a day. Then he has to do the grout which has to set for two days before it can be walked upon. What I would like to know is this-what kind of magic grout are they using on all of the HGTV shows that allows them to be able to completely renovate a room in two days including tile!!! I am beginning to believe that all of those shows are time elapsed!
While in Atlanta this weekend I purchased a beautiful iron towel rack that will look lovely in the ‘maybe-it-will-be-finished-this-year bathroom’.

· Ornate towel rack-$25


Hubby is trying to call my bluff about bringing in a contractor if the bathroom is not finished this weekend. Hmmm, this could be a very interesting battle of wits! Tune in tomorrow to see who is really bluffing!

May 13, 2008
No work on the bathroom today. The debate over who is bluffing is still in the works-neither of us have backed down as of yet!

May 14, 2008
Hubby worked on the tile for the bathroom floor for the platform section (cutting the tiles).

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Framing and moldings

April 27, 2008
Gary showed up after church and helped hubby with the moldings. He finished some of the caulking on the roof while hubby finished constructing the window sills. Hubby cut and installed the fluted trim and rosettes around the door. There was one small setback when hubby was hanging the trim work around the door- he accidentally nailed the door shut. Luckily it was only one nail so it was a quick fix. I patched, sanded, and painted while they worked on moldings. Unfortunately, the decorative molding proved to be more difficult to hang than anticipated. The molding itself was made at a different angle than most moldings which meant that the miter cuts had to be done differently. It didn’t take them long to find a solution and in a short period of time the molding was hung. Gary left once the molding job was complete. Hubby cut and installed the fluted trim and rosettes around the two smaller windows and then installed the window sills. I filled the nail holes and did some more painting. Aside from hubby nailing the bathroom door shut and the odd miter angles for the molding the day progressed rather well.

April 28, 2008
I did some painting and sanding this evening. I filled the nail holes on the window sills and sanded the holes that I filled yesterday on the trim work. Then I painted the window trim and the moldings in the old section of the bathroom. I must say that the carved decorative molding is beautiful but it is a bear to paint. It’s hard to get the paint into all of the carved lines. It was well worth it though!

One more addition, or should I say correction? Hubby read the bathtub diary updates last night and informed me that he DID NOT nail the door shut on Sunday but in fact the nail did it. He explained that the nail just went through the wood its own way and nailed the door shut. I just wanted to make that correction so that it was clear to everyone that hubby didn’t nail the door shut-the nail did it.

April 29, 2008
I arrived home today to find hubby caulking the rest of the moldings in the bathroom. Later I heard him grumbling. A short time after that he came into the kitchen with the fan vent cover which he had accidentally stepped on and broken (it was drying on the floor after being painted a few days ago). He calmly found the superglue and began gluing each of the little vent pieces back on.

April 30, 2008
Hubby finished caulking the moldings. I painted the moldings in the new section of the bathroom and put a second coat on all of the window and door trims and the moldings in the old section of the bathroom.

May 1, 2008
The switch plates and outlet covers arrived today-they are beautiful and will look great in the bathroom.
Hubby started working on the back board for the tile flooring on the platform. He finished about 2/3 of it.

May 2, 2008
My electrician came out to finish the electrical work and hang the light fixtures. This helped to clear a path in the Abyss so now hubby can get to his clothes easier (the boxes of light fixtures were stored in the spare bedroom). The lights look beautiful! He (electrician) also installed the switch plates, outlet covers, and the medallion for the center chandelier.