Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Bathroom update: tub, walls, and floor!!


Ready to have your mind blown by some bathroom progress?  Despite fewer work hours in the past week there is more visible progress.  We now have a tub:



Some (non-mudded & painted) walls:


And a floor:


The tub went in about midnight last Tuesday which was after I had scheduled the last bathroom update post but before it was published.  But then it came back out again Wednesday and went back in again anyways.  I helped Matt move it out Wednesday evening before I went to shower at my sister's.  When I got home the tub was back in place.  I asked Matt how the heck he got it in there by himself. "With a lot of cussing.".  The tub isn't super heavy but it was incredibly awkward to maneuver, even with two of us.   It's now been caulked into place.

The walls went up on Thursday evening, again finishing around midnight.  I helped with some measurements and the hanging but Matt did all the cutting which is really the toughest part.

I mentioned some issues finding floor we liked and our small bathroom size did pay off.  We got these sliced green pebbles from The Tile Shop and are pretty excited about how it looks.  Matt & one of my BILs laid it Friday afternoon.  We worked getting the floor in around a lake trip since putting the floor down meant taking the toilet out and a lot of waiting for the floor to dry (which meant no bathroom work could be done).  So they laid it Friday afternoon.  The nice thing about these pebbles is that they didn't need any cutting.  They came on 12"x12" sheets but the pebbles could be pulled off easily when they had to work around the toilet or sink holes.  They broke a few pebbles to fit odd spots but really fairly easy floor laying (or so it appeared...I was on Luke duty)
 
floor pre-grout

Matt came home from the lake on Saturday to go to Mass and then grout the floor (had to be 24 hours after it was laid).  He was gone 8 hours to do those things.  This was also his first time laying tile or grouting (it was a horrible day for him).  We were back on Sunday shortly after the 16 hour grout waiting time was up.
pre & post grout comparison

At this point Matt decided he needed to grout again because he was running low the day before and then it dried even lower (this is the shopping trip he took Luke on).  He grouted again on Sunday afternoon which is why we ended up toiletless another 3 days (although we were gone 2 of those).  We now have a toilet and it shouldn't be out again.  There is no tank on it though since we'll be mudding, sanding, priming, and painting behind it.

The floor still needs a sealer coat but that can't go on until 72 hour after the grout has dried so hopefully later this week.  It's only 8 hour dry time (I think) so Matt can apply before bed and it will be ready by morning (and maybe we'll get close to 8 hours of sleep for once).

Besides that, Matt is working on plumbing.  He has all the sewer lines in - for the toilet, tub, and sink.  He's working on the shower shelf and then water in lines.  We still have to hang the cement board for the shower surround, get those prepped, and tiled before we can take showers but that doesn't seem incredibly far off.   The mudding, sanding, painting, and finishing touches seem like easy work once we can shower in our own house again.

The progress we (Matt) made this past week was huge.  It finally is starting to feel like a bathroom and less like a construction zone.  Every time I walk past I admire our pebble floor which turned out even better than I had hoped.  There is still so much work to be done but we've come a long way in 3 1/2 weeks considering Matt's still working full-time and I'm not much help with Luke.

4 comments:

Lauren said...

I love the floor! And omg a TUB! anf WALLS! Amazing progress Matt. He deserves some sort of award or vacation after all this ;-) (you too)

diana said...

I think our reward is going to be showering in our own house...that sounds pretty awesome now. =)

Pennylane4647 said...

I also love the floor - so pretty! And yeah, Matt gets major props for all the hours he is putting into that project for sure! I can't wait to see the finished project!

diana said...

I can't wait to see it either!! Haha.