Fingers Crossed

Monday, February 8

The first thing today is to call the local Code Enforcement office and bump our final inspection another week to Wednesday Feb 17, so we have time to figure out how to center the vanity and then finish up all the final details. We have a long weekend coming up to really drive the project to the end.

Next, we call the plumbers to come back and center the vanity. it turns out that the rough plumbing is correct, but when they installed the vanity, they angled the P-trap a little (about an inch, actually). So, they agree to come back and "take a look at it."

Our electrician stopped by to pick up his final payment. So, I point out to him that the wall sconces are not quite level. The good news is that there is a little play in the mounting hardware, and he is able to move one of the sconces up a little and the other down a little, so they are now level. Sweet!

Tuesday, February 9
Not too much happening today because we are planning to do the rest of the work over the long weekend.

The plumbers show up, and they are able to center the vanity in about an hour. Hopefully, there's no charge for this visit since it didn't take very long and was part of the whole "install the fixtures" part of their original quote. Either way, the vanity is centered perfectly. That could have been a lot worse.

Wednesday, February 10
Whoa that's a lot of snow! There's a blizzard warning today, and that makes for a slow start. It just feels like a "snow day"--the day off kind of snow day.

Well, apparently it's not a day off for the inspectors. At 8:30 a.m. the door bell rings, and here are the plumbing and electric inspectors. I guess somebody over at the code enforcement office didn't pass on my request to delay inspections. Anyway, they're here; so let's get to the 'spectin'. Woot! Pass and pass.

An hour later the building inspector shows up. We don't have the base boards or radiator trim in yet, so we're a little nervous... Pass!

An hour later the fire inspector is here--the one who lobbied pretty hard for us to wire the whole house with wired-in smoke detectors. He is satisfied with the new wired-in heat detector in the garage. He makes sure that the rest of the house has battery-powered smoke detectors; and thank god they all have working batteries in them! Pass!!!

Woot! We completely passed our final inspections (with a little luck)! 'Nailed it!

Must.. Finish... Bathrooom

Monday, February 1
Now that we can use the shower, our sense of urgency has started to wane. The week of Feb 1 to Feb 5 sees us both focusing on our day jobs.

Tuesday, February 2
We pull out one of the vanity drawers and take it with us to Michael's (that arts-n-crafty place that's like kryptonite to dudes) to hunt for a nice frame for the vanity mirror. Although we were willing to spend a few hundred dollars for a nice custom frame, nothing custom really matched the wood stain on the vanity. So, we grab a stock frame for $29.

Wednesday February 3
We can no longer postpone the trim that goes around the two doors in the bathroom--the closet and the entry doors. For a variety of reasons (including that we have neither a table saw nor a great deal of confidence in getting all the casing details 100% correct), we sacrifice some of our pride and call in the carpenter to finish the casing.

A little more sanding in the closet, and we are ready to prime the drywall. I think we are finally done mudding and sanding!

We schedule final inspection for Wednesday February 10. Now we really have our feet to the fire!

Thursday, February 4
That $29 dollar frame gets a piece of mirror stuck in it at the local glass shop for another $30. It turned out well and saved us some coin.

Friday, February 5
Just our day jobs...

Saturday, February 6
We have a lot to do this weekend. First off, we forgot to put silicone sealer in the shower's supply through-holes. So, we have to pull the shower off the wall, and seal it all up.

First, we need to cut the access panel in the wall behind the shower (in the closet). We dry-walled that a while ago, so I hope we remember where to cut the hole... Referring back to a photo of that wall taken before we dry-walled helps us find the right spot. Bingo, no drama.

Now we can turn off the supply to the shower and take it off the wall. I hope the supply gaskets seal up correctly, because putting that shower up was a real chore the first time, or should I say the seventh or eighth time. Fortunately, no drama ensues, and that task is done.

...And here we go again--sanded caulk. The last time we used this stuff was a pain! And we ran out of the stuff! Now that we have more, it is round two with this awful stuff. Done, and the tub alcove is done done done done done done!!! Now we have to wait 48 hours before we can use the shower again...

We whip out the wood putty and finish off the window trim. After a short break to let the putty dry, we prime all the trim, and we call it a day while the primer dries.

Sunday, February 7
Though it doesn't sound like construction, somebody has to launder all the towels we bought for the "spa-like bathroom." Sue is kind enough to volunteer for that task. Then, she heads upstairs and pulls the bathroom doors down, so we can paint them.

Jake's job is to cut the trim for the baseboards; that looks pretty straightforward, there are only about 9 pieces to measure and cut. Hold on, though, that radiator trim needs some work--another detail that has fallen into the "we can do that later" category.

I'm sure people that do construction on a daily basis would have some quick solutions, but it takes us a couple of hours to come with a design that works for us. Most radiator covers (or companies that make custom ones) that you find online are concerned with the big bulky type of radiator (and are butt-ugly and expensive). Ours is small and is recessed into the wall; we really only need a panel and a means of sticking it on the wall. Also, we are in a hurry, so we don't want to wait for shipping or some sales guy to come out.

So, we come up with a design that we can make ourselves. We make another Home Depot run and pick up about $30 worth of lumber.

Next, we cut all the baseboards and paint them and the two bath doors.

It has been a long day, but we still want to get the mirror hung. We select the height where we want it, measure the center-point between the sconces, and grab the level to make sure it will be perfectly level and centered; voila.

Hey! That's not right! The vanity is about an inch to the left of where it is supposed to be. Isn't it great how only when you put the last piece of the project in place that you discover problems! That off-center vanity sticks out like a sore thumb.

We grab the plans and measure, the sconces are right, the electrical sockets are right, the vanity is off an inch. How could this be? Are we going to have to cut open the wall and fix the rough plumbing?!? Put a fork in me; I'm done for the day...

Starting to look like a home again

With the last of the sanding hopefully completed, this weekend is about bringing the house back into the state of being a home and not a construction site.

1. First step, tromp approximately 5,000 trips up and down the stairs moving the tools that have collected in the corner back into their proper place in the tool box.

2. Now that we aren't tripping on things, next step is to take out the cardboard floor that has been slowly accumulating Spackle and grime for several weeks.

3. Next is to suck up the foot thick layer of dust that has settled on everything upstairs. I haven't tackled the full final dusting, just that which is on the floors.

4. Next I can take all the towels and sheets that were on my bed and put them back into the hallway closet where they belong. I can actually see my bed again!

5. Now to get this giant bathtub cardboard box out of the living room. Yes, I know that sounds weird but we were using it as a shield to keep the puppies in the living room while workers came and went. This task seems easy except that the box doesn't quite fit down the stairs as I planned. So now I am pinned in the hallway with a big-ole box and a box cutter. While I hack and slash with my razor blade like I am in the Georgia swamps or Amazon or something, I finally break it down into pieces that can get to the garage.

5. Finally, the last step, taking down the plastic sheets that have been closing off the living room and kitchen from the rest of the house. It seems silly but when those buggers come down, it changes everything. I can't help but smile as I walk through the kitchen door over and over again, just because I can.

So, now we are in the home stretch. I am not sure how much we will get done this week but next weekend we are going to be done. Wait for the full before and after montage that will be coming soon...

Does it need to be square??

Tuesday, January 26
We continue our mudding and sanding in the closet. The drywall work is finally done.

Wednesday, January 27
Well, we've finally arrived at the task of trimming the door jambs for the closet and the entry door to the bathroom. They are in very close proximity, and the trim for the two doors will actually be touching. So they really need to be trimmed out as one big trim project.

The rest of the bathroom project was undertaken with a lot of careful forethought, sketches and pre-visualization of the final result. This door trim project has been a nagging afterthought that has been, well frankly, ignored for the duration. We have figured that we'll just "make it work" later on.

Uh oh. (yep, yet another Uh oh... but the end is in sight, it has to be.)

The top door jamb of the closet door is about 1/2" lower than the entry door. After a good period of contemplating a solution, we decide that we better call up the carpenter to come over and advise. Fortunately, he is available to stop by this evening. Due to the tight size of our bathroom, the dimensional tolerance for just about everything are unforgiving.

The carpenter is having a hard time coming up with a solution to the door jamb height issue, when he spots a worse issue--the wall that is to contain the door is out-of-square--the right side of the door is about 1/2" further into the closet than the left. This wall is sloppy, but could be tolerated, if not for the tight space where it is located.

It's my fault; I noticed the flaw when I installed that wall. Immediately after driving about 20 nails into the studs, I stepped back and saw it. Removing the door did not seem like a project I wanted to undertake; "we can make it work later," I thought.

The carpenter comes to the conclusion that the wall simply needs to be fixed; that is, made square and to the same height as the entry door. Luckily, he is available tomorrow to fix it.

Also, to add more drama, Sue has come home from work with a stomach flu (and to say she is sick is a very big understatement, she resembles a production of a B-rate zombie horror flick.) I hope I don't catch it. On top of that, Lisa and Peter are supposed to be showing up on Friday to have some fun in the city. Time to give them a call and let them know that we have a cootie-house, might need to reschedule.


Thursday, January 28
The carpenters are here. I am surprised to see that the wall fix requires chopping out our wall and doing it over. Fail. How embarrassing.

By the end of the day, the carpenters have rebuilt the wall and door jamb, taped and mudded the new drywall, and they even managed to hang the closet door.

Friday, January 29
The carpenters are doing all the work today. By the end of the day, they have both doors hung and have done a second coat of mud. Things just seem to go faster when call in the pros. Strange how that works, or perhaps it makes perfect sense, you certainly get what you pay for sometimes with do-it-yourself projects.

On a side note, Sue is still sick but she isn't quite the scary shade of green anymore.

Here is what the closet looks like without all the trim or painting in place...

We Took a Shower!!!

Sunday, January 24
We install the casing on the window, and now it's time to address the closet, which we've been ignoring in the push to get the plumbing and electric ready for final inspection.

We put in the last pieces of drywall, now that we no longer need access to the shower plumbing, and we have more taping, mudding and sanding to do. While the first coat of joint compound is drying, we make yet another pilgrimage to Home Depot, and in the rain we load up a van with our closet door. As an added bonus, on the way back, we are able to load the van up with $125 worth of unused stuff that we bought from the 'Depot and didn't need. We are a little soggy.

Monday, January 25
Since it has been raining, the joint compound is taking forever to dry, so not much gets done today.

But, it isn't all bad news... WE GET TO TAKE A SHOWER. It is like being in a rain shower, but not the same as when we were stuck in the rain at Home Depot, this is different and very very very very very nice. I could stay in there all day.

Those Pesky Germans Part 2

Saturday January 23:
The towel bars we bought are made by Danze. The installation is a real chore. Let's just say that the mounting screws have to be EXACTLY positioned. That is a difficult feat over the tub alcove tile. Even though the through-holes are in the right place, the tiles are ever so slightly out-of-plane, which makes screwing in the final set-screws a real challenge.

Using a lot of elbow grease, we finally manage to tighten up the screws.

Now, we're on to caulking the tub deck. We got some pricey sanded caulk that is specially designed to match our grout. This stuff combines the worst aspects of both caulk and grout. It is difficult to apply and a sticky mess to finish up.

Worse, we ran out of the stuff before we finished. That's going to be another long trek out to the tile supplier to get more. It is frustrating to have to wait 48 hours for the caulk to cure before we can use the shower.

Next step, casing, mouldings & closet...

Dim dim dim, bright bright bright...

Thursday January 21:
Jake tackles the shower, finds a few joints needing some soldering touch-ups but now that those leaks are taken care of, we now need to redo the teflon tape or get new gaskets because the thing is still leaking. If you look at our calendar of things we got done today it says

1. Fix leak in shower
2. Create new leak in shower

So, tomorrow we should be able to wrap this up.

Friday January 22:
Lenny the electrician shows up bright and early today to finish up the fixtures. In the garage, he installs the outlets, switches and two florescent lights, our shiny new garage heat detector and our new sconces by the garage door. In the bath, he installs the light in the shower alcove, the light/fan combo, bath vanity sconces and outlets. Oooh, and I can't forget the really cool dimmer switches that we picked out.

With all that electrical stuff in place, everything looks sweet. Sue gets home from work and we stand in the bathroom playing with the switches. Dim dim dim, bright bright bright, fan on, fan off, fan on with timer, dim dim dim. Maybe we are a little nutty but that was a lot of fun.


Oh, and to make things even more awesome, the shower leaks are fixed. We can actually take a shower! Woot!!!

A Whirlwind Day of Plumbing

Wed Jan 20
Up early to prep the work area for the plumbers. After pulling up the drop cloth, finishing up a little paint touch-ups and vacuuming up even more dust. The plumbers arrive. A quick spray of grout sealer under the vanity's future location clears the way for the pros to proceed.

Uh oh! That's not good. The radiator is supposed to sit on the subfloor when it goes back in. We laid plywood underlayment and tile too close to where the radiator needs to fit. After some discussion about pulling up tiles, the plumber is able to use his angle grinder to cut back the offending tile. Sounds risky but the plumber makes a fine cut, and the radiator can go back in. Whoops... another drama. We finished the garage below, but the plumber needs access from below to finish the closet flange drain plumbing. Ugg! Also, the heating system's new pipes weren't tested while the ceiling was open. Two choices--open up the ceiling, or cross our fingers and hope for the best. It's a conundrum.

Anyway, they install the radiator, toilet and vanity in short order. Nice!
With the radiator installed, we can turn the heat back on. Nope! That bang bang bang sound rattling the house is the seized-up water pump for the heater. The good news is that the plumber found a nickel behind the boiler. The bad news is that I'm going to need to find a lot more of them to cover the cost of replacing the pump. Ouch!

Our new pump is good to go, but our water heater pressure relief valve is leaking. We better get that fixed, too. This is looking like an expensive day.

The plumbers bleed all the radiators (and our wallet), and we have heat again. Yay!

After the plumbers are done, the grout on the floor needs retouching. I don't know how, but big chunks got pulled up... whatever. Grouting was a lot easier to do before the fixtures went in... Finally, the floor tile grout is finished. While it is drying, I manage to get a second coat of grout sealer over the tiles of the tub alcove.

Now, for the final thrust --the shower! It is late in the day, and this task has been punted into the future more than once. It is an "outside the wall, external mount shower". We chose it because it is the only all-in-one device on the market that provides: (a) safe thermostatic temperature control, (b) a shower/tub filler combo, (c) temperature labeled in degrees Celsius (not that that's really a feature we were looking for).

Anyway, it is very fancy. It is a "flush-mount design" of presumably British origin and is yet another item requiring precision installation. Regardless, it is really pretty cool.
In the process of precisely installing the shower, Jake manages to accidentally turn on the handle of the ball valve for the water supply... Squirt, splash, bloody cursing ensues...(though thankfully for less than a few seconds), I guess it would be out of place to install something without a little bit of drama.

The shower is on the wall, but the impromptu water-works makes sweat soldering the last few connections less than easy to do tonight. We drain out the house water supply to isolate the problem shower connection for fixing tomorrow. A long day deserves some rest... maybe tomorrow we can take a shower... maybe...

Paint Is On

Monday, Jan 18
Sue caught the head cold going around and so we begin the day trying out a new XBox game, Dragon Age Origins; eight hours evaporate. In the evening we pry ourselves away from the game, and we get some paint on the ceiling and walls. It looks great but we can tell our mudding technique might be coming back to haunt us. We will look again in the morning with fresh eyes.

Tuesday, Jan 19
In the daylight and with paint on the wall, the wall still looks lumpy. Sue takes some cold medicine and heads to work, but to quote Bugs Bunny "I shoulda stood in bed".

Another layer of mud goes on to smooth out the seams and patches. Ugg! After another round of sanding and cleaning, we try one more coat of paint to see if we finally succeeded with the drywall. I think we got it this time.

We call up the electrician and plumber to get them in to finalize their work. The end is in sight!

Grout's Done

Thursday Jan 14
Mud and sand 4th coat. That should do it. Whew. This is going a lot slower than expected. Cleaning up all this dust is a chore (note in the picture, our floor is actually a dark gray/blue color but you wouldn't know it).




Friday Jan 15

We are priming the walls, and are so very much looking forward to seeing some paint up there.

The carpenters are back to finish up the garage door exterior aluminum trim. The old, original door is history, and it is replaced with a fresh white door and trim. What an improvement to curb appeal (and I am having fun using the key pad... beep beep beep - Open Sesame!).



Saturday Jan 16
It's time to grout. Our subcontractor recommended using sanded grout--just like it sounds, the grout has sand in it. Supposedly it is less prone to cracking over time than un-sanded grout. But, the other side to it is that it is tough (or impossible being another word) to stuff the grout particles into tiny cracks between tiles on vertical surfaces. We've done this before on a floor, but on the tub alcove walls, it is much more difficult and time-consuming to get the grout to stay on the wall. Our grout also happens to have mixed-up very dry, which makes the job even trickier.

Once again, we have mixed up too much grout to get on the walls before it dries out. With thinset and grout, once you add water to the dry mix, the clock starts ticking. It is a race to get the product where it needs to go before it dries out. Taking a break is not really an option, which makes for sore arms and a sweaty, cranky disposition.

Sunday Jan 17
We are sore. Today we are cleaning up our work area. Just about every tool we own is a pile in the hallway next to the bathroom. It is getting to the point that we can't put our feet down, because there's too much junk in the area. We're taking a light day to tidy things up, pick our paint color and wait while the grout cures.

Mudding Ain't Me Forte

Monday, Jan 11

It's time to tape and mud the drywall. Taping is easy; So is slapping joint compound (mud) onto the drywall seams. The challenge is doing it correctly. Getting a nice smooth seam takes a little skill--skill that we don't quite have yet. This will take a while...

We are also able to prep the copper tubes for the shower, we cut the pieces to length, but we are going to save the actual installation until the tile is sealed, grouted and the grout sealed, too. We want to install the shower in one shot and leave it up on the wall when the time is right.

Three of our floor tiles came loose (hopefully it will remain at a count of three), so we have to mix up more thinset and stick them back down. No big deal, but another hassle.

Now, we need to wait for tomorrow to sand down the mud to get smooth joints. Two or three mudding and sanding stages are anticipated to get a final smooth wall.

Tuesday, Jan 12
We apply and sand the second coat of mud and spot some some pretty rough-looking seams. We'll fix that on the third coat. Sanding creates a ton of dust, and doing anything on the ceiling makes for sore and tired arms. Not much else to say...

Wednesday Jan 13
More sanding and mudding-- not there yet. the seams still need some work.

Also, the carpenters stop by to fix the window sill that got torn up pretty badly during demo. We'll finish up the trim later. Overall, we are happy the bath is closed up and looking like a bath, just need to finish up these walls and tile so we can wrap up the installation.

Huzzah!!!

So, we are at another weekend, and it is time to crank out the rest of these tiles. I think my sense of humor is starting to wane; just get this done already! Ugh.

Saturday January 9:
Of course, we can't just wake up and start tiling; there are more things to do. So, we do another pilgrimage to Home Depot and pick up some more thinset. I head out to the tile store to pick up three more tiles because we are coming up a bit short. On the same trip I am able to pick up our special-order sconces. The sconces are totally awesome. I just hope they look as good once up on the wall.

While I do the errands Jake is continuing with the tiling of the bath walls. At the edges (transitions from tile to drywall) we have to worry about how it will work with our window casings and also how to do a tiny little strip of tile down the sides of the tub. Jake has done all the engineering to plan out what needs to be cut and is ready to roll when I get back.



** Slight Interjection - Jake got a great candid of our pooches in the back yard. I think the caption of this pic would be "Yeah, I agree Wiley, our owners are nuts." **





Now it is 3PM, where did Saturday go, Geesh!! We start by putting in the floor tile next to the tub so we can install vertical transition tiles from the floor up (using that wonder of gravity to our benefit this time... see prior posting). Tiny tiles go up, then we round the corner, up up up and we are moving along nicely. But we have to stop because we have to drill holes in two tiles for the shower sprayer mount and the towel rack.

Tired and hungry we stop for the day since out thinset is turning into a brick.

Sunday January 10:
Now I am on a mission! I will not sleep until the last tile is place. It is now my personal medieval crusade. Take heed tiles and thinset, ye shall succumb to thine fates on this good day! But first, make some coffee...

Jake begins drilling the holes for the brushed nickel accoutrements which is a very slow and precise task. We get that done, and up up up, the tiles for the alcove are done. I beseech you, raise your goblets high and give a hearty cheer, for the alcove is done!

Now we move on to the floor. The first run of tile goes down quick and easy, but then we hit the dreaded toilet hole. This one is tricky because it has to be a big enough hole to fit the toilet hole thingy but small enough that the toilet hole thingy's edge sits on the tile. (Jake says it is called a "Closet Flange" but to me, it is a toilet hole thingy).

After staring at this for about 10 minutes, we say "A pox upon thee, toilet hole thingy!" and decide to eat something.

After stuffing some pizza in our faces we are back on the task, and Jake figures it out pretty quickly. We get those two tiles in place, and then it is a race against the clock. Bad news, the thinset is getting thicker... "and Leon's getting laaaaaarger!" (please tell me if you get that reference?)

Plop, scrape, chop, place, smush, repeat, we are brave tiling warriors. We are now down to 6 tiles left and the thinset is vexing us. But, NAY! We do not cower to thick-set. NAY I SAY!!!

Medieval curses follow:
May thou hammer be brittle!
May thou plow seize!
May thou cup be as unto a sieve!
May thou pigs be set upon by ravens and torne asunder leaving only bespecked bone and curdled fat for which the rats upon to feast!

We shall triumph on this good day!!!!! It is now 10PM, the last tile is done. Crusade complete. Huzzah!

Tiling Time

Now that the waterproofing is in place, it is time to tile. Unfortunately, we lost the long weekend so that leaves the tiling to be more of a solo job for Jake each day until I get home from the city. I am eager to help but by the time I get home, Jake is completely spent so I just make dinner and we regroup for the next day.

A few of my observations are:

1. Gravity is not your friend when tiling walls.
2. Nothing is quick nor easy
3. Tiling is messy

Here is a brief summary and photo montage of tiling a tub alcove. Jake I am sure will do a better analysis of the week's play by play when he gets a chance.

Monday January 4th:
Jake is up bright and early ready to start tiling. He lays out the plan and heads to the garage to cut some tiles but, lo and behold, the tile saw we rented has some weird saw blade on it and it is stuck. So, no tile cutting today.

Tuesday January 5th:
Jake gets the tile saw to the rental place and they bang on it and some how get the blade replaced. Jake gets it back and starts to tile. He makes nice progress getting the niche in place.

Wednesday January 6th:
More tiling. The back wall is pretty much done and we have turned the corner to the shower side. That means drilling a bunch of holes for the faucet. Looks very pretty.


Thursday January 7th:
Yet more tiles go up. Notice the fancy spacers, all our knives are now hanging in the wall including the really cool chicken shaped cheese spreaders. Hopefully we wont need to each a cheese ball until this tiling is done.



Friday January 8th:
We are almost done with the tub alcove, only the tub edges remain which will be wrapped up over the weekend.

Those Pesky Germans

Wow, it really is starting to look like a bathroom now. Although we didn't get the tile in over the weekend as we hoped, we have made some substantial progress since out last post. Here is what we've been up to.

December 31:
Our genius move to have the contractors put up the sheetrock in the bathroom is underway. This is going to save us time but most importantly, it is going to save my back a lot of aches and pains. In time for the year end, we are all set with real walls in the bathroom.


Time to pop some bubbly and celebrate the new year.


January 1:
We are going to take it a little easy today and work on all the prep steps before tiling. First is to fasten the underlayment to the subfloor. After a gabillion stripped screws and two chewed up bits, the underlayment is now down and isn't going anywhere again, ever. It took a while but it is done.

Time to prep the walls for waterproofing but we realize that everything we need is out in the freezing cold and needs to warm up before we can move on to the next step.

I think its time to stop and start tomorrow fresh. Time for a spell of Legos Indiana Jones II on the XBOX


January 2:
Okay, so now we are going to prep the walls and floor with the waterproofing materials. This stuff is supposed to be the bee's knees and help us make sure we have no future water damage, etc. Some stuff from a company call Schluter with products called Kerdi and Ditra, it is made in Germany and "you know Germans make great stuff"... (a little homage to the Sham-wow guy in case you didn't catch the reference).

So, this should go pretty quickly. We mix up the thinset that we got from the tile guys and slap it on the walls, then we put up this Kerdi membrane. Piece of cake. Except, of course it isn't.

First, the tile guys gave us the wrong type of thinset. So, I am off to the Home Depot to get the right stuff. Back home and mixing thinset in 15 degrees with winds gusting is no picnic.

Time to get it on the walls. First part, a small pieces at the edge of the tub, done. No problem.

Next, a few small pieces down the side of the tub, done. No problem. Then the bigger pieces need to go in. The trick is to make sure you have nice moist thinset and that there are no air bubbles when we are done. The problem is that we have cement board which is very very thirsty and wants to dry out the thinset before we can get the wall covered and put the membrane on it. We double back and put more on, still drying out. Ugh. Turns out we should be wetting the cement board a bit more than we thought before slapping thinset all over it.

We finally stick up the membrane and start smoothing it out. Now we turn the corner and continue to the next wall. See previous paragraph. Finally get 2nd piece installed. We look back at the first piece and see there are bubbles. Ugh. Now we pull back the 1st piece to work out the bubbles but now the thinset is dry again and it wont stick. Repeat ad nauseam.

So much for getting this up quickly and tiling today. We are covered in thinset and only half done with the walls and it is 9PM. We gotta take a break and pick it up again in the morning.

January 3:
Back to that darn Schluter stuff. How do you say curse words in German because I think I will need to know a few before the day is through? We need to mix up another batch of thinset and use our lesson's learned to complete the job.

Finally done at around dinner time, eat some meatloaf and then tackle installing the Ditra on the floor. This means mixing yet another bucket of a different type of thinset which again, involves going out in the wonderful weather (notice the occasional wind gusts of 50 mph).





But, compared to the Kerdi, Ditra is a breeze.Got that all wrapped up and time to clean up our mess before bedtime.Here is the before and after of all the work we have done (yes we were messy, but at least we clean up nicely).

Busy busy busy

Some more busy days, things are moving ahead quickly now. While I am off doing my commute to NYC, Jake has been busy busy busy. Here is his latest commentary...

Monday Dec 28th
The morning starts with hours of searching online for a laptop motherboard. How is a motherboard related to bathroom construction? It isn't. but for Christmas Eve, Jake's computer gave him a melted video card. That thing is not easy to find online.

With a good bit more work the ceiling is finally furred and level. The 1 1/4" drywall screws that we bought wont even touch the joists with all the shimming. Another trip to Home Depot to get longer screws. These 2 1/2" screws are going to be tough to screw in. It's 5pm and we can finally begin to put up the sheetrock ceiling.

Our drywall cutting technique hasn't been put to use for a couple of years, but there are vague recollections of it being a pain. It's 3 degrees F outside, so we're cutting this sheetrock inside in the entryway. It was actually not too bad, and we get a straight cut to go above the tub. We build a makeshift "T" out of spare lumber to assist in lifting the board, and put a cleat on the wall over the tub to hold it up while we put in the screws. Getting the sheetrock into the tub alcove and up to the ceiling (and over the window that is in the way) took a lot of strength. These screws are really hard to get in. Once the screws are mostly in, we call it a night. We'll tighten and counter-sink them tomorrow. We are tired.

Tuesday Dec 29
The carpenters are ready to put insulation in the garage in the morning, and they notice that the existing telephone line is going to get crushed when the sheetrock goes up.

I am able to disconnect the phone line in a 2nd floor bedroom and drop it into the garage where it can be run through holes in the joists. Another leg has to be cut, run through the joists and spliced back together in the wall. I wonder if anybody will ever use them. Does anyone have a land line from the telco?

I spend a couple of hours trying to get those sheetrock screws really tight. What a pain. Uh oh, the edge of the sheetrock is just short of reaching a joist; this looks wrong. I ask the carpenters who are working in the garage to give the issue a look. Yup, that's wrong. I appreciate their suggestion to cut the unsupported sheetrock at the joist and put up a 2x4 nailer to attach another sheet. It takes a little while to cut the board using a sheetrock keyhole saw, but it has to be done.

The contractor that's doing our garage stopped by and mentioned that his crew could sheetrock if we wanted them to (so we can make our timeline for tiling over the New Year's long weekend).

The quote for the sheetrock job was pretty attractive given that this work is tiring and we are running out of time before the weekend. We hire the crew to finish up the sheetrock and cement board in the alcove. The carpenters notice a couple of rookie mistakes that we would have made if we hadn't brought them in. A few missing nailer boards would have made sheetrocking the closet an issue. Oh well, sometimes you just have to call in some help.

I finish the bathroom insulation in preparation for the crew tomorrow and we get all the measurements for the underlayment so we can cut out the jigsaw puzzle pieces tomorrow. Another long day.

Wednesday Dec 30
The carpenters continue putting up sheetrock in the garage, as I prepare for the carpenters to sheetrock the bathroom. The underlayment floor needs to be cut which is a little tricky but fits nicely, and the water service fittings for the vanity faucet and the toilet need to be screwed in since they poke through the sheetrock. They wiggle quite a bit, so some blocking goes in to stiffen them up. A few pieces of blocking remain to be nailed in to support the shower mounting and some towel bars.

By about 2pm the carpenters take over in the bathroom. Sue heads off shortly thereafter to rent the tile saw with the help of our friend Mike while I stay back and "supervise." By 4:30pm the saw is here, and we call it a night.

It's nice to have an 8 hour day. Stay tuned, we should have some great pictures by end of tomorrow...

A Pain in the Butt in Any Language

Sunday Dec 27:
How do you vent a bathroom fan? Just put in a dryer vent kit. A Pain in the Butt in Any Language.

Outside vent cover, check. Pest guard, check. Flexible duct, check. Now to put the thing together.

The first step involves bending a piece of sheet metal into a tube and slipping it into the vent cover. The issue is that it has to be a PERFECT circular tube or it won't fit. 45 minutes later, and we've got it. Now somebody's going to have to go cut a circular hole in the roof soffit that's 20 feet up. We get to use our nifty ladder to scale up the side of the house.

OK, ladders are hard. Jake goes up first to drill a hole in the soffit. Carrying a drill while trying to jockey up a springy metal ladder with one free hand is unsettling to say the least. A few butterflies in the stomach later, the pilot hole is drilled and Jake is back down to get the reciprocating saw. Jake goes up again, slightly faster this time.

This stupid reciprocating saw has a "safety" feature that you have to use both hands to push a button while pulling the trigger to use it. The ladder was scary enough holding on with one free hand. Look ma, no hands. Now the butterflies in the stomach are freaking out. Jake has to lean out to the side of the ladder, look up, and hold the saw in about every possible configuration to cut a circle-- right hand, left hand, thumb on the trigger, pinky on the trigger; you name it. The hole is finally done.

Let's be smart and attach the vent duct to the vent cover before we put it up through the soffit. Then, we can just pull the duct into the bathroom from inside. The duct seems to actually be smaller than the perfect round tube we made earlier. With a lot of elbow grease we finally get the duct attached and clamped on.

This time Sue goes up the ladder to screw the vent to the soffit. The "secret" is not to look down. Four dropped screws later, Sue is back on the ground, and we are both getting grumpy. Sue goes back up again with a whole box of screws, and finally the stupid thing is in place.

From inside, pulling the duct through the space in the roof is like pulling teeth. The tube is slightly smaller than the space it needs to pass through, and it is pretty rigid, which makes pulling 5 feet of little round steel wire ribs a real chore.

Fortunately, the fan unit is more forgiving, and attaching the duct to the fan goes pretty smoothly. Done. Now, we can finish up the ceiling insulation and move on to furring the ceiling to level it.

There is nothing pleasant (well actually the wall niche in the shower makes a pleasant step for straddling the tub) about leveling a ceiling. Our ceiling happens to be a good inch out of level and not even close to in-plane. Furring basically involves a lot of shimming, measuring for level, and repeating.

Hours later, part of the ceiling is prepped up, and it's getting late. Jake's legs are shaky from straddling the tub and he can't lift his arms anymore. A rough workday is over.

I Do Not Like The Attic.

December 26:

After enjoying a day of playing with toys and eating Chex Party Mix, we are back to work. We are now on to the task of insulating the ceiling and attic.

This seems harmless enough, just throw some fuzzy stuff up there and call it a day. But that is what the formerly naive Sue thought. Now I am the old cranky crick-in-the-back-and-bruised-butt-and-knees Sue who knows better.

I suit up into my bunny suit and climb into the attic. The attic above the bathroom and bedrooms is substantially smaller than the one over the living room. I have about 3 feet of clearance at the highest point and all sorts of A/C vents to get in the way.

The first issue is that we don't get to just throw the stuff up there. We first need to put in baffles to ensure we get proper airflow or something like that. Another addition to my vocabulary. The baffles are just little Styrofoam ridged sheets that I am supposed to tack into the roof beams before I put in the insulation. Seems straightforward except they are thin Styrofoam so every time I try to attach them to the wall, the staples are going right through them. If I bump it, the staples go right through them. If I sneeze, the staples go right through them. There were quite a few inappropriate exclamations audible in the Collins home as I fought with these buggers.

Here is what it looks like after I was half done:
So, we proceed to get the full ceiling insulated with R30. The house is getting warmer by the second, I can just feel it. Jake feeds it up to me and I stuff it in place like a puzzle. If you never have dealt with insulation before, it looks all cushy and fluffy but in reality it is itchy nasty miserable stuff.

As we are wrapping up the 2nd bedroom part of the attic I notice signs that we probably had a little woodland critter living in the attic at one point in time. They relocated a bunch of the insulation into the back corner. So now I am freaking out waiting for some rabid ferocious monster to attack. But, alas, I think our visitor has moved out already. So, I throw the insulation on top of their fluffy bed and get the heck out of there (notice the bed in the back corner of this picture?)

That should be all I needed to do, right... wrong. We have extra insulation and we know that the attic space over the living room only has a thin layer of insulation on it currently. So, up I crawl to the other side and throw in a bunch more itchy nasty miserable stuff.

Attic Insulation - DONE. May I never have to go back up there again.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We took a few days off for the holiday and are keeping warm and playing with the puppies. We had a good chuckle after I put on some festive socks and then played catch with Pogo and Wiley with their new holiday toys. My socks are a perfect match!!!

Hope Everyone Had A Safe and Wonderful Day.

Ho Ho Ho,
Jake and Sue

Yo-Ho Yo-Ho, A Plumber's Life for Me

Time keeps on flying and we are way behind on our updates. Jake has been the champ with the tasks happening lately so here is his rundown of the recent up until Christmas:

Thursday Dec. 17
Sue stayed home today to help out. Although we could also begin furring the bathroom, plumbing the copper supply supply lines is the main job for today.

I used to do a good bit of sweat soldering in grad school, but it has been about 15 years, and I don't have fond memories of the efficacy of my technique. Also, the architect suggested using soft copper on a roll to avoid having to cut and solder small pieces of tubes to fit between the joints--that sounds really smart. Also, our friend Mike likes Sharkbite connectors over soldering; they are connectors that push-fit on to the tubes and make crimp-like connections--that sounds really smart, too.

I begin the day by going to the local plumbing supply, suitably named Nutley Supply. Imagine the bar from Cheers, and you get a pretty good idea of the peanut gallery seated at the shop counter--kind of like a bar, but no booze. I don't know why there are seats at the counter, but there are. I ask if they have the rolled copper tubing. Nope. The gallery says "use PEX" (PEX is a plastic tube that is flexible).

I return home to search the interwebs for PEX procedures. It turns out that the Sharkbite connectors work with both PEX and Copper tubes. I call the plumber buddies who are doing our drain, waste, vent work (DWV) and inquire about using both PEX and Copper with Sharkbite fittings. Apparently, that would pass inspection but good old copper is the "preferred method." I return to Nutley Supply and buy PEX. Then realized run to Home Depot to get Sharkbite connectors. Unfortunately, their stock was, lets say, depleted. I rent a right-angle drill for the joists and head home. Sue heads to Lowes to see if they have these Sharkbite connectors there.

By about 3pm, we are ready to begin, and we have Copper along with a plan to use PEX and Sharkbite for whatever contingency we may run into. I ponder the concept of Analysis Paralysis.

Sue is still at Lowes. They don't have enough connectors at this location but they have some in stock in Patterson. Sue heads to Patterson.

I drill holes in the joists for the copper tubes. While I begin soldering, Sue is roaming the lovely streets of Patterson (no, wait it is not lovely at all, it is very very un-lovely) as she gets totally lost and is driving around some industrial slum. She finally finds her way back to the highway and gets home with sharkbites/gatorbites/whatever.

We have dinner and then back to work. We realize though that we have the wrong elbow joints. Sue returns the drill to Home Depot and then goes on a quest back to Lowes for more correct elbows (that makes a total of 3 Lowes visits, 2 Home Depot stops, and 3 Nutley Supply Visits in one day, phew).

By the end of the day, we have a bunch of short lengths of cut copper tubes in the garage and enough random plumbing parts to open a plumbing supply shop.



Friday Dec 18
Copper pipes again. Just a lot of cutting and soldering. It isn't as bad as I feared; simply cutting and dry-fitting is arguably more work than the actual soldering.


Saturday Dec 19
More copper tube work. Sue nails in some 2x4s to fix up the framing, and discovers the virtues of the palm nailer. It's a small gadget that's powered by the air compressor we recently bought, and it drives nails kind of like a woodpecker drills holes. Once you buy a compressor, pneumatic tools seem to multiply.

Sue is unsure about doing the furring by herself, but wants to be productive. "What can I do?" she says. "Go whip me up some beef stew" is my facetious response. Sue gives me a look that I will not soon forget and stomps off to the kitchen.

By the end of the day we have a few pieces of the sink supply assembled and a very tasty beef stew.

Sunday Dec 20
A new task gets added to the calendar by way of a lovely snow storm and Sue heads out to shovel snow. More copper tube work.

Monday Dec 21
More copper tubes. On paper, this job looked like a cinch. In reality, I'm now a full-time newbie plumber.

Tuesday Dec 22
Rough-in inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, so today is "get ducks in a row day." The end of the copper tubes work is in sight--ten joints to go. I run out of solder with two copper elbows to go. Fortunately, the plumbers stop by to a give a pre-inspection check and spot me a couple of feet of solder. Copper is done.

Now to turn the water on, and see if my sweat soldering is sweet or fail. Fingers crossed... no leaks! Copper done!!!! (Now what am I going to do with all this unused PEX and Sharkbite connectors?)

The last remaining task is to frame a door for the closet. This shouldn't take too long. There is some contention about how deep into the closet to frame the door. So, I cut the framing for the door so we can play with it after Sue returns.

Wednesday Dec 23
6:50 am Ow, I am sore, tired and cold. We decided where we want that closet door, so I put it in there, and we're roughed-in.

9:00 am Plumbing and electric rough inspection passed. Yay!

Time to write blog. I'm pondering how it took me five days to get the copper supply tubes in... Maybe that's why the plumbers wanted mega bucks to do that part...

We can call it a BATHroom again!!!!

Monday, Dec 14
Jake blocked in the supports for the electrical boxes in the morning (and then tore them out and did it correctly in the afternoon). Our electrician is well under way finishing the rough-in work.

Tuesday Dec 15
Today Jake is framing the tub alcove wall. (notice in image, there is a wall there now) Our bathroom is so tight that fitting that 32" tub in there requires nit-picking over fractions of an inch. He figured out the best dimensions for the alcove wall, envisioning the detail trim that will fit at the front of the tub at the end. We don't want the finishing trim details to look crappy after all this work. It's amazing how many of these first steps have big ramifications later if we screw them up.

Those carpenters are busy guys. They fit us in by the end of the day and fixed up the remaining subfloor issues. They temporarily screwed the alcove wall to the existing wall. Now, the plumbers can finish up the waste lines and vents tomorrow.

Wednesday Dec 16
The plumbers are here bright and early. There's a lot of work to do putting drains through all those sistered joints. I'm glad that somebody else is doing it. The tub is in place (Horray!!!), and that temporarily screwed-in wall needed to move a little. I'm glad we left nailing it in until later.



The electrical inspector must be psychic. He is here before we even called him. Rough electric inspection passed! Yay! Woot!!

The fire inspector is here bright and early, too. He must be psychic, also, because we didn't know we had to involve him. Fortunately, under "rehab" building codes we don't have to install wired smoke detectors in every room in our house--our battery ones are OK, though he gave me a pretty strong look when he seriously recommended doing so. We would consider it, except the electrician gave a pretty strong look when he said "That is going to cost you."

What's this: mail from the code enforcement office. How sweet that they would send us a holiday card. It's yellow and looks like another permit card for electrical modifications. Should I be worried?

Plumbing drains are almost all the way roughed-in. We can start drilling holes in those 6" thick joists and running copper supply tubes ourselves. Jake likes working outside when you can no longer refer to H2O as "water."

Could we possibly dare to hope we can rough in copper plumbing for inspections Friday? Only time will tell.