Shower stallin'

What's to say.

The wall tiles went well, with the exception of the shampoo shelf. It was the starting point because everything was built out relative to it. The tiles along the bottom of the shelf had to be set with a slight tilt to allow water to drain freely over the 'London Crown' accent pieces, without dumping the shampoo bottles!

Notice the strategic placement of the 'pencil' tiles under the window? ACCENTE!

Lots of careful cutting and setting!

From there the accent colour tiles were set in a level line. After that back wall was set, it was a breeze! Well, up to the shower valve hole, that was a trick as well. Thin wall tiles are inexpensive, but tricky to cut a large area out of them!

Here's a close-up of the 'tricky piece'...

Then came the not fun part.

The floor mosaic tiles were not up to the standards of these two...

... so I ripped them up!

I then laid a layer of 'Swift-set' cement as a leveling compound for the new tiles to go onto.

The problem was that the layer of thin-set tile mortar did not set properly, and I was not satisfied with the slope of the tiles towards the drain. I felt it would have been too flat of a grade.

"Mastery comes from experience, experience comes from failures...",

obviously said first by someone after a big mistake...

Lets hope the rest of the project creates less obvious 'learning experiences' :p

Tile Tiles and More Tiles

This post isn't too exciting but having something new to read is!

Last weekend I worked overtime which meant I didn't do anything in the basement once I got home. Then on Sunday it was Ryan's brothers b-day so we went out to celebrate which meant we didn't do anything on that day except for a little bit of tiling.

This weekend I am working over time again but I have my compressed work week day so I'll still get two days off from work.

Anything else? Not really. The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend! Let's hope it helps motivate me.

Enjoy the pictures!

Ryan tiling the "toilet" room. There are a lot of intricate cuts to do here.

It's growing!

Now to the shower stall where the floor tiles have been adhered. What a lovely shelf!

A closer look for those who are interested!

A view from above! I'm actually taking the picture from the laundry shoot above. Tricky me. Anything for a good shot.

Neato!

Ryan is happy!

April 7-14

We've condensed this week into one posting for lack of interesting content.

I've been working on the unglamorous job of tape and putty, daily. It'll be boring until, POOF!, it's a painted room!

Howwever, we've switched sides as far as what the focus is on. So, I've been working on completeing the more glamorous work on the shower stall by the sauna.

At Kristina's insistence, I have installed an alcove-type shelf to hold shampoos and the various girly-potions. I thought that I'd be able to get away with a couple corner shelves for soap and a shampoo, but it seems that would have been insufficient and easy.

I just hope the thing doesn't leak since my experience with tile showers is limited. Let's call it a learning experience.

The framing of the shower-stall redux!

Densheild being installed...

almost completely done.

Seams sealed and finising the outside.

Now to lay-out the floor tiles starting around the drain.

Nothing beats the control from a wet tile-saw. I hope it fits...

The Expert is in the House!

April 6th...

So the expert, my dad and his finance Cindy, came out to lend us a hand!

My dad who owns his own construction company, LAAR Developments Ltd. had a minute to help out his dear, wonderful daughter, that's me, and Ryan, in the basement.

So my dad and Ryan were in charge of anything that needed technical and experienced work while Cindy and I did all the grunt work.

The in-law suite bathroom ceiling and most of the walls were finished with drywall. The alcove in the spa area was being finished off. Cindy and I laid out all the kitchen cabinets to see which ones we would need and then brought the rest into the backyard.

Lot's of things were done, and things were moving fast! Much faster than the two of us could ever do.

It was a good time and it sure was nice working with my Dad again. We are great working buddies! It's like old times when I used to work on the construction sites with him, except now he was working for me!!!!! He's going to disagree with that last statement but we all know the truth...

Then the rest of the weekend we took off and slept and ate CHOCOLATE and slept a bit more and ate a bit more CHOCOLATE.

Now, my sister Kat just moved in with us and we have been concentrating to grocery shopping and making room for her stuff. She's already agreed to be our new chef. She says she would like to learn how to cook instead of coming home from work and doing hard labour! Ryan and I don't mind a bit, she's made two dinners and she's a great "learning how to cook" cook.

So now we are all caught up, well mostly. I'll let Ryan write a bit about what he's done...

The Expert?

Le Cuisine!

Covert Inspector Chance!

Nothing can escape the steely gaze of Inspector Chance!

La Salle de Bain! It's green!

Making headway in the spa area!

This job definately needed some extra hands!

Nice! Ready for tape and putty!

There isn't much to show you until all the tape and putty is done. I've also been fitting the french doors and frame in the Spa side. They needed the hinges to be mortised and stuff so it's a little more trouble.

Oh, and I connected some more plumbing. Fun.

Until next time, ciao.

It's Snowing! WTF?! (a combined title by Ryan and myself, guess what part was Ryan's?)

Good Evening,

Well, we didn't get exactly what we wanted done but we did get other things accomplished.

So on our list of accomplished tasks are:

- finishing the window frames

- adding insulation and finishing the drywall in the bedroom partition wall

- vapour barrier in the bathroom

- cleaning out some of the spa side

- buying various items at Rona including some water resistant drywall

- framing and drywalling the front hall closet

So not too shabby.

Enjoy the pictures!

The window sills...

The green drywall. We got it in just at the start of another snowfall.

The finished half wall. We put safe and sound insulation inside of it since the kitchen cupboards will be on the other side. This place is going to be QUIET!

The Blob cometh...

or, it's just expanding foam I put in and guess what? It expanded! Who would guess?!

The closet is looking more finished!

What are pictures without informative captions?...

A couple of doors hung and some more taping done!

Tomorrow I'm off work and Ryan and I are hoping to finish drywalling the windows, finishing the one half wall in the bedroom and bringing in the kitchen cupboards to map out the kitchen. I'll let you know if things go as planned!

The hung door.

Drywall anyone?

Well, I probably need about 12 to 14 sheets of drywall to finish all the other projects in the house. This would include the stairwell, kitchen and spare bedroom. The two bathrooms will be using the green drywall that is moisture resistant.

spacer

That leaves about ten sheets in the basement. Oy.

spacer

Tomorrow, I'll install the door frames and hang the doors for fit. Then it's back to the spa side of the basement to finish off the shower stall and the rest. Once that is done, It's time to demo the

upstairs bathroom so we can move the tub, sink, toilet and faucets into the bathroom in the in-law suite!

spacer

Halfway done all our reno's....maybe?

spacer

This is how much drywall I have left after finishing the basement...

Making use of the off-cuts inside the closet... no one will notice.

Kristina does an excellent job of applying the web tape to the seams...

I actually really enjoy taping! Thank goodness Ryan is the putty expert. He can apply just the right amount of putty so that you barely have to sand.

She's quite the "web-slinger"!

Just for those of you who have no idea what Ryan means by this, like myself, it's supposed to be a reference to Spiderman.