Days 28-30: The Final Push

Well, it's Day 30. Only twice as long as my original "estimate" (HA!) was for. That David Doyle - he's a wise man. (Check this post for the reference.

Things were actually going fairly smoothly. On Thursday and Friday, I worked feverishly to paint and finish installing all the fixtures. In fact, it was almost like one of those TV shows - I was almost finished with everything just as Mom #2 got here.

Then things pretty much fell apart. When I installed the shower rod, I didn't think about how high it was, (DUH) and it ended up being too high to keep the water in the tub! Then, when Mom #2 tested the sink, the cold water had no pressure. (?!) Oh, but that's not all! I wanted to test the shower, so I reinstalled the curtains (without proper anchors!) and tried the shower. Unfortunately, it ran off-hot-warm-cold instead of the off-cold-warm-hot it was supposed to. (?!?!)

But wait, there's more! When we tested the solder originally, we ran water through the spout. The problem with that is that there's no pressure. When you pull the diverter up on the spout, that's when the line to the bathtub spout is pressurized. So, when I tested the shower this time, there was a nice leak. (?!?!?!?!?!?!)

At this point, I seriously considered committing arson.

But, cooler heads prevailed. A shower (in the temporary shower downstairs) helped cool me down, and our old friend Google gave some insight into the problems.

Solutions:
1. Drilled new holes with correct anchors (leaving 4 extras on each wall to fill!) for the curtain rod. Perfect. I'm a mudding expert - 8 holes means nothing.

2. After some searching, I found that the supply line had kinked. Remove it, attach it a bit differently - pressure!

3. The shower valves are actually made to be reversed, in case two are installed back-to-back. (Picture the supply lines - the cold and hot lines would each come up in pairs, so one side would be reversed.) Simple fix - just remove the valve and rotate it 180°.

4. Interestingly, the joint that was leaking wasn't the one I'd redone twice - it was the other side of that corner. After some trouble at first, (You try wielding a hot torch in a hall closet trying to solder a joint that's screwed to the cross support you put to hold it tight. Oh, and that cross support is flammable. And so is the closet. Have fun with that and let know how it goes.) I was able to get the joint soldered correctly.

Wow, I type too much. On to the pics!







You may have noticed that the window trim isn't installed yet. There are still a couple little things left to do. Nothing major, though.

One final note: This post has been particularly painful for me. Not in an emotional sense - I gouged my thumb pretty good on the table saw trimming off the door trim. (The new floor is 1/2" higher than the old one.) I've learned many lessons during this project, but the most important one was today - DON'T RUSH. IF YOU DO, YOU'LL END UP WITH A BLOODY SPACE BAR.

But all is well that that ends well. I'll be fine. I will, however, be taking a few days off to go on a little mini-vacation with my lovely wife. (Who, by the way, has been more supportive and understanding through this whole process than can be reasonably expected of any human being. I could not have done it without her.) Expect at least one more post with reflections and a couple more pictures with the door and window trim installed and finished.

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to leave any comments. I recently changed a setting (which I didn't know existed) so anyone can leave comments - even those without Google accounts.

Days 26-27: Grouting, More Mudding, Some Fixture Installation

Sorry for the long delay - it's been a whirlwind last few days!

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty crazy, mostly because of the pressure I put on myself to finish before my mother-in-law came to visit. Because Seth finished the tile at the end of the day, I wanted to be sure to give it plenty of time to set. We ended up waiting until the end of the day on Tuesday (24+ hours after tiling) to do the grout on the shower area. I did that part first, since it was the part that needed the most drying time before being sealed. (Ironically, we ended up not sealing for now - we decided to seal all the grout after we get back from our mini-vacation.)

The first two pictures show the grout job. I'm pretty happy with it. The walls look much better than the floor, because Seth didn't have any excess adhesive pop up between the tiles like I did. The problem with that is that the adhesive (thin-set) is grey, and it's too high up in that joint, it sticks out above the white grout. I had to fix a few spots by digging out the excess, but there are still a couple that show. I went over the entire floor pretty carefully with a Phillips head screwdriver, but I'd recommend being extra diligent and careful with that step for those who might want to try this.

Also, after doing some research online, we ended up going with sanded grout on the floor. The general rule is unsanded for gaps less than 1/8", and sanded for gaps greater than 1/8". The floor tiles were right at 1/8", but the thinking is that they get more use, and the sand in the grout makes those joints more durable. We'll see. It was a pain to do - much harder than the unsanded on the walls - so hopefully it was worth it!



These next two pictures show the bathtub spout. This thing has caused me so much trouble. The installation instructions say that the tip of the threaded end should be a minimum of 1" out from the finished wall. I thought I carefully measured this during installation, but I was obviously wrong. I ended up at about 3/4", so I had to get into the hall closet and open the access panel, (thank god we have one!) and heat the fitting up, pull out the old one, and solder a new longer piece in place. To be safe, I made it 1 1/2" long.


Apparently, that was TOO long. $^@$%@W$%^!!!!! So now I have to go back into the hall closet, heat the fitting up, pull off the old piece, cut 1/2" off, and solder it back in place. Finally, after my third attempt:


Here you can see the sink in place. (We're getting ready to paint, hence the plastic covering it. Everything was going fairly smoothly at this point. (Maybe too smoothly?)


Last picture of this stage - you can see the mudding here on that corner. Interestingly, my original hope (as stated in this post was for "not horrible", and I think I may have been successful. As Kristin mentioned - it's not professional - but I'm happy with it.


So now, with Mom #2 visiting in two days, I have to sand one more time, paint, install the toilet, lights, medicine cabinet, and fan, and whatever else I may have forgotten.

Is it possible? Only time will tell. (Hint: The answer starts with 'N' and ends with 'O'.)