The Great Bathroom Remodel of 2007. Day Two

Blood, Sweat and Dust (Sept 6th)

Sometimes we worked together, sometimes we took different jobs. All around, it was a learning process.

Primed the patched holes in the closet. Another trip to the hardware store for a rotary hand-tool bit we wouldn't break trying to remove grout.

I did my best to poke holes in the wall while removing tile.

Honey primed and sealed the ceiling over the tub. He also primed the trim on the closet and the rest of the room.

I finally learned how to remove a tile without poking a hole in the wall.

I learned that sometimes fate wants two tiles removed instead of the one I was planning on removing.

Curse previous owner for wrongful use of spackle.

I found out how sharp bits of glazed tile can really be. Especially when stupid me was walking around a worksite without any shoes on. I did find some before the day was out, though. Something needed to cover the bandaid.

Honey removed the door to the 'scary room.' Now, we have a room in the middle of a remodel that has limited priviacy. I think that's one the home improvement guys don't warn you about. We decided to improvise with the old shower curtain. Granted, it isn't a door, but it's better than an open doorway.

I finally get all the tiles that are really damaged, or the really wrong color removed. I continued to remove grout, wondering the whole time WHY? Small rooms are not smal projects.

I cleaned up all the tiles that were good enough to go back up. This also saved me from having to cut a couple to shape to fit around the faucet handles.

Finally time to start putting the tiles back up. Plenty to learn here, too. I find out I've broken way more of the old tiles than I calculated. I find out I'll need way more mastic than I thought at the store. Time for another trip to the Home Improvement store. Honey runs off to the store, I get out the paint for the closet. I'll make some kind of progress today if it kills me. Okay, it didn't kill me, but I almost found out how to read the poison label with one eye. Good news, latex paint scrapes off of glasses and pretty much comes off people.

Honey returns with mastic. Time to go back to tiling. Don't forget the soap dish! We begin adding the border trim, only four cuts to make it all fit. Of course, I measure poorly, Honey cuts correctly, I attempt to force the tile... Oops. I guess that one really wasn't going to fit. Can I have another cut, please? At lease I learned how to mark for cutting. We find that four of our 45 border trim tiles are not the same color. Granted, with the lighting in my bathroom, no one will be able to find the two we actually put up. The worst part? We can't return them because I didn't notice until I'd stuck them to the wall that they were the wrong color. Oh, well, I challenge any guest to find the two off-color tiles.

Operation T.I.L.E. (Tile Ignorant Lady Endevor) is complete for another day. Clean up the room, scraping up mastic that we apparently sling all over the place while putting up tile. Clean the tub. It's time to take a bath. Careful, don't splash around, most of the grout is missing!

Day Three is all about grout. Cleaning grout, putting up grout, wiping grout, cleaning up the grout I've dropped in the tub. Grout, grout, grout. I don't think the room will ever get painted.