I Did That

No, work hasn’t stopped completely on the house.  My blogging about it has due to delays and the fact that I have managed to misplace my camera (!).

The kitchen is finished, with new appliances, countertops and cabinet harware in place.  It looks great, I wish you could see it.  I’ve got to find that camera.  It will probably show up at some point in the move.

The master bathroom is coming along slowly but surely.  I have had to enlist a bit of help with the heavy stuff so as not to hurt my back more, but Robert Lee has helped me move most of the heavy stuff around.  Right now I’m leveling the floor and preparing to put down Hardibacker so that I can tile it.

The tub is in, the felt paper and Durock are up in the tub surround, and I’ve installed the valve assembly for the new tub faucet.  I need to paint on the waterproofing layer and then it will be ready for tiling.

The sheetrock is done on the walls, but they have yet to be primed.

I haven’t done any electrical work, which leaves me with one sconce and two overhead vanity lights to install.  Since it is a double sinked vanity with two seperate mirrors, we decided to go wth two vanity lights to keep the symmetry going.  The wall sconce is near the toilet and I’m toying with the idea of putting a very low wattage bulb in it and a photoeye to turn it on in the dark, thus making it a kind of night light.  For right now, though, it is staying on a switch.

So that is where we are at.  I am about to go check the mortar bed for level now and if it is, the backer board goes down, if not I will level it out and wait for it to dry.

There is an area of the floor tile that is starting to pop loose.  It is unfortunately in a very heavy traffic area very near the back door and dining room door in the kitchen.  I’m not entirely sure what the problem is, but my initial guess is that the mortar was either spread too thin or was too wet/dry at that point.  It is near the area that I stopped for the day at one point, so I’m leaning towards the dry mortar explanation.

What I will do to resolve the problem is pick a square area that encompasses all of the popped tile (I think there are five of them) and remove all of the tile in that area and scrape away the dried mortar and grout.  I will then relay that entire area and regrout it.  That should take care of it.

It is entirely possible (but not likely) that there is a problem with the floor at that point that allows the tile to flex too much, but I never noticed much deflection when walking across it previously, so I doubt it.  Once the tile is up and everything is scraped away, I will examine it closely to make sure.

Other than some minor odds and ends, the tiling of the Laundry Room, Kitchen and Den is finished.  The tile has raised the floor height somewhat, so the doors have to be shaved down a little to clear the new height and I need to put down quarter round to finish off the edges of the floor at the baseboards.  That’s it though.

I love to set goals for my projects that I probably won’t (and never do) accomplish.  It’s a sickness I know I have, but I rarely if ever try to do anything about it.  Most of the time my first reaction at not meeting my goals is to set more unattainable goals.  In that spirit, here are my goals for this 8 day break starting Thursday (not all of these are me specifically, some will be completed by others):

• Thursday-finish tiling through the kitchen (originally supposed to be completed by last Saturday), install Hall lighting fixtures.
• Friday-finish tiling the den (orig. to be completed last Sunday), install MBR light fixture, perhaps start grouting tile (probably not)
• Saturday-demolish the MBath (with my buddy Todd’s help), grout tile in Laundry, Kitchen and Den, eat Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom (I know that one will get done), install light fixture in kid’s BR.
• Sunday-finish anything on the list prior to here that is not completed, alter cabinet to accomodate new wall oven, install light fixture in guest BR.
• Monday-have appliances delivered, install wall oven, dishwasher and set refrigerator in place, go to Lowe’s to order countertops, set bathtub (or at least frame for it).
• Tuesday- (everything for remainder of week refers to Mbath) set bathtub for real, put up drywall and tub surround waterproofing.
• Wednesday-sand drywall, tile tub surround.
• Thursday-tile floor, have furniture moved in.

That’s my impossible goals.  I’m not sure what fraction of them I will actually achieve, it depends partly on how much help I have and what distractions (and there will be many) come up.