Anya McL

( What's my Seduction Style? )

Okay, so Day 5 (that being Wednesday) was a wash. Went to the One of a Kind Show (as planned). Spent a ridiculous amount of money, but I'm not sure on what... I think some certain relatives of mine owe me. By the time I got home, my legs hurt. Shopping with my mother is more of a cardio workout that doing a 20K marathon. Seriously. Take the Christmas Challenge and go shopping with my mother. You'll ACHE -- but have all your Christmas shopping most thoroughly done.

Day 6
Tiling did not happen. Dammit! Instead, I worked to finishing the walls. Sing it with me: "A muddin' we will go. A muddin' we will go... high ho the dairy-o..." never mind. Never could carry a tune. So. Of course there was problems. I had to pick up some 5/8ths inch gypsum board for one of the walls. The walls went suddenly from 1/2" to 5/8" and that showed badly. So, out came what had been done, and in went the new. And then the mudding.

On the upside, I don't mind this part of the process. One the downside -- one more coat. But I have walls! Walls that can be tiled, after one more coat. And sanding. And a damp cloth wipe down. And the Red Guard... err.

Day 7
Finished mudding the walls. I have one small area that I have to address (the newest 5/8" board wall), but we cut and laid the magicboard for the tiles, and I'm ready to rock and roll tomorrow. Part of the slow-down was waiting for the mud to dry. And sanding, and applying, and waiting for the mud to try. I filled the void of time with Star Wars (IV, V). Depending on time, I may watch Return of the Jedi tomorrow.

What? I got nostalgic. Hankering for those long ago day of yore when I attended this nice little tiny five-room school house in the backwoods of civlization, and would run around the playground playing "Star Wars". Since I was the only girl with a gaggle of guys to play with, I was always Leia. Figures, don't it? However, if the books HAD been out, I'd have been torn between Mara Jade or Leia, 'cause Mara is cool.

I digress... tomorrow. Red guard painting of the walls (waterproofing system). Then tiling of floor. Then tiling of shower area. Then grouting, but first tiling of floor.

Almost there people.

Bathroom Reno: The saga.

Day 1

On Friday the plumber came and uninstalled the tub. As in, removed the fawcett, the showerhead, disconnected the drain and overflow, and capped the water. Sweet. He also put new cut-offs on the sink, and then took the sink. Sweeter. So, brave girl I was, I went to remove the cabinet and countertop.

Note to anal dumb-arse builders who built this place - YOU SUCK!

The screws were 3" long. 3 freakin' inches long! To screw wood into a wall-stud. WTF? And corroded, because they didn't use galvanized. Gah. In the end, with much cursing, I removed them, and then with much force -- enough to make my upper body acknowledge no workout at the gym would be done this week on pain of well.. extreme pain, we got the cabinet out. It literally fell apart. Well. Yay. Easier to carry pieces out to the garage, after all.

I removed the toilet, popped off the floorboards and called it a night.

Day 2

Papa came over to help. I cautioned him that showing up before 7:30am was going to cost him his X-mas present. Good boy showed up at 8:30am.

Taking his recipricating saw to the dry-wall (and tile) he began making a LONG cut. And cut through an electrical line. There were sparks. There was smoke. There was no. power. Changed the fuse (blacker than night after that short!) and still no power. One electrician and $210 later -- power.

In the meantime, we went back to the OLD way of removing tile. Slegdehammer baybee. And what a mess. But, done. Gone. And then it was just a chore to tidy up the ruins of the drywall for even cuts to replace it. Exacto knives rock. So do hammers. So does patience. All in all, gutted.

So, with the walls gone we bent down to remove the tub -- and lo and behold the damn thing hadn't been screwed to the studs. Like it was supposed to be.

Note to anal dumb-arse builders who built this place: You really SUCK!

The space was so tight. Removing the tub involved the finer applications of physics (which I barely passed, but Dad did okay in), geometry (which I aced, and Dad's forgotten everything he knew in), and sheer brute force. It was my fine application of geometry, and the beautiful love of angles that won the battle. Out went the tub, and as it left my home it screeched in protest and sliced my palm open. The cut was a bloody mess. I have a tea-towel that will never be used on dishes, because the blood stains won't come out. Ah well. No stitches needed, just a prolonged case of "!@#$ that hurts!". It doesn't hurt on day 3, mind you, now it's nicely sealed up and looks red and ugly.

(And Claris the tub was steel, not cast iron. We're okay.)

Last item of Day 2 -- we ripped up the tiles and layered subfloor on top of THE subfloor. (Don't ask. There were peel and stick tiles, not ceramic ones, I have NO idea why they had laid two 5/8" plywood sheets on top of the other.) Finally, the water damage I knew was there shone up at us in all it's digusting blackened glory.

Enter... Day 3.

Dad came over with a small skill saw and we ripped up the subfloor. And replaced the subfloor. And I really should go put the batteries back in the fire alarm now, but I'm sore. And tired. And did I mention sore?


Day 4 is coming -- new tub install. And drywalling begins. I'm going to need a week off to recover from my week off. And it's only 3 days in.

*whimper*

Wish me luck, and low plumbing costs. But, on a side-note -- shop vacs rock.