How high is too high?

So, I got home from work yesterday, and painted the bathroom....

What?

Yeah.  You might have seen the unpainted corner in previous pictures.  I left it unpainted, because that's where the shower stall is going. 

Apparently, one needs to prime before attaching the wall panels.  Who knew? 

And yes, it would have been so much easier to prime that area when I was priming the rest of the bathroom (grumble, grumble grumble).  So let this be a lesson to you - always prime behind your shower :)

 

 Look!  Primed walls!! (grumble, grumble grumble)

And I had one of those special moments in the hardware store yesterday...

I needed to buy adhesive to attach the shower panels to the wall.  My first mistake was asking for help, instead of trying to find it myself.  I told the dude I was installing a shower stall, and needed adhesive for the wall panels.

"You mean a tub surround"

No, there is no tub.  It's just a shower stall, 2 walls plus a corner.

"So, a tub surround"

  Sure, let's go with that.

"How much do you need?"

Well, it's just two walls and a corner...

(With a very concerned look on his face, and in a very soft tone of voice) "Most tub surrounds are three walls..."

I'll take two, and return the second if I don't need it.

Back at the house... fixtures!  Mind you, they aren't actually hooked up yet, but still!!!

 

 

 There is that "bad" part of the flooring - the last area I tiled, where they didn't match up exactly right.  I'm glad it's behind the toilet, and really isn't that obvious :)


 And note about the bead-board.  Most "experts" say the panelling should be 1/3 or 2/3 the height of the wall, and never half.  The upstairs room are all around 93", so 1/3 would be around 31", 2/3 around 62", and 1/2 around 46".  I think 2/3 is too high, but 1/3 wouldn't work at all - I wanted the bead-board to be higher than the sink...

... but didn't want the outlet (and light switch on the other wall) to get in the way.  So, it had to be higher than the sink, and higher than the outlets... which put it right to the centre seam of the drywall.  If it was higher than that seam, then I wouldn't have to do that seam...

So, I had Dad cut the panels in half (to 4'), and mounted them at 50.5" high (the baseboard will hide the gap at the bottom).  Once the trim at the top is on, the entire height should be around 52" - not 1/3, not 1/2, not 2/3, but a height that works for the room, and for me :)

I'm in love... with Mr. Clean

I washed the bathroom floor tonight*, and fell in love with Mr. Clean - well, actually the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Since I pretty much suck at tiling, there was a noticeable grout haze left on some areas of the bathroom floor.  It's been in the back of my mind that I needed to find some way to fix this, but the floor has been covered with drop cloths since then (drywall seams, painting, etc.), so it was on my "One Day" list.

Well, today I did needed to clean up the floor where the sink and toilet are going (!!!), and realized today was the day.  

Also floating around in my mind was the fact that somewhere under the kitchen sink, there was an un-used Magic Eraser.

Being the scientific type, I decided to experiment...

 Before

 After

 Before

 After

It worked like... um... magic.  Really.  With almost no effort, the haze is GONE!  I love it when a plan comes together!  Of course, I killed the Magic Eraser:

Rest in Piece Peace, my friend! 

Oddly enough, I'm not the first person to realize this works well :)  And just to make it clear, I received no considerations, financial or otherwise, from the makers of Mr. Clean, or any other product I complain about review in this blog.  If I ever do, after I finish screaming, I'll be sure to mention it!

And in other news:  HEY!!  LOOK!!!  It's bead board!  And plumbing!!!

_______________________________________________
*Do you know how long it's been since I washed a floor?  Okay, I have mopped the floors in this house every so often, but "renovation" and "clean floor" don't really go together, especially when all the floors are eventually being replaced...

Never again

It is done. 
I have now tiled one bathroom floor. 

NEVER AGAIN.

I have this thing about not paying someone to do something I can do myself.  This attitude has led to some interesting times.  Building my own bedroom furniture springs to mind... however, there are also certain things I will gladly pay others to do for me. 

Tiling has been added to that list :)

I'm now off to soak my aching body parts (wrists and knees and back, oh my!), and enjoy a VERY large G&T. 

Enjoy!

I'm seeing spots...

Dad decided to be a Christmas elf, and come over today and help me with the bathroom floor.  I've had the tiles for a while - after a NIGHTMARE trying to find them.  I called almost every tile place in the phone book, and the conversation went the same way at almost every place:

Me:  I'm looking for black and white hexagonal tiles.  Do you carry them?

Store:  Oh, yes, of course.  

Me: They are NOT the octagonal white tiles with the square black tiles, are they?  

Store:  No, they are...  oh, wait....

Basically, EVERY store knew what I wanted, and yet none of them actually carried it.  This is what they have:

NOT hexagonal tiles.  

As an aside, there are an amazing number of people out there who do not know the difference between a hexagon and an octagon.  Schools these days :)

I made it all the way to the Ps before I finally found a store that could actually order the tile in for me.  Since it was a special order, I had to order it by the case, which means I have a lot left over.  Anyone want any?  Anyone know of uses for extra tiles??

But finally, I got it all laid out and cut, and we started laying it today.  I found out while doing the dry fit and cutting that the tiles are not symmetrical, so each tile needed to be laid one way, and one way only, to keep the pattern consistent.  I laid everything out, triple checked, and picked them up in order, making sure they all faced the same way in the stacks... so it would be next to impossible to make an error.  Ahem.  Yep.

 All cut and labelled, waiting to be installed.

 Dad put down the mortar, I laid the tiles.  Gotta love team work!

 First two rows!  Everything lines up perfectly!

Third row!

 Half way there... and no mistakes!

 And done!  Woohoo!

Oh bloody @%**@&!!!  

Neither Dad nor I noticed this, until we looked at these pictures.  Fortunately, I decided to do that right after we were done, and it was a quick fix.  Yes, that is actually a manufacturing flaw, not a mislaid tile!

Fixed!

The one problem area, and the last to be laid.  When we got to the last two rows to be laid, I did the tiles next to the right-hand wall and around the toilet first, then matched up the rest of the rows to them.  As you can see, it's not a perfect match, but as this is behind the toilet, I don't think anyone will notice!

The tile is manufactured by American Olean, and, while not really hard to install, I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't done tile before.

Oh, did I mention neither Dad nor I have every tiled before?  No?  Yeah.

I found it hard to match up the tiles perfectly, for a number of reasons.  The biggest?  Even though the manufacturer recommends a grout spacing, when you attempt to use spacers that size, you quickly realize the "internal" grout lines are MUCH smaller than the recommendation.  So, I did all the spacing by eye.  (That also helps to explain the bad area behind the toilet!)

The corner tiles of each sheet are VERY loose, which also makes lining the sheets up hard.  In fact, MANY of the ties were loose, leading to almost every sheet loosing 2-3 tiles, if not more, which then had to be placed by hand.  I did find some boxes seemed to have a thicker layer of glue holding the tiles onto the mesh - and those sheets were, by far, MUCH easier to work with. 

Added to the manufacturing flaws (we did catch one other before laying that sheet), I don't know if I could recommend this tile or not.  Over all, I'm happy with it, since it is exactly the look I wanted, but I am a bit disappointed by the lack of consistent quality in the product. 

However, I still think I'd buy it again, just for the look!!

And tomorrow, the deluge grout!!