Laurie's World

So WAHOO! I finished the shower tiling today…Long Day! I am very SURE I do not want to ever tile a shower again…

Here are some pictures. I have to wait a couple days and then I can grout. I suspect that I will NOT grout until I get the floor done…and then grout the whole thing at once…but who knows?? I may just need a change of activity to keep things fun  : )

So due to Rachael’s state meet yesterday–I did not get much tiling done–BUT today…I was able to get quite a bit done! Had a few hiccups…

Early on in the day–I dropped a tile and broke 2 of the little 2×2 floor tiles–so now I have to fix them–it could have been worse I suppose!! I do not know WHAT I was thinking making the decision to tile anything on the diagonal…I totally forgot how horrible and difficult this is. Anyway–all the cuts take 100 times longer. I also am putting in my little corner shampoo shelves. The first two were not too bad to install as they went in on the tiles that were on the horizontal. The third one was a great deal more challenging.  Maybe you can see in the pictures…

What a great day…Rachael had her state meet this morning at 8am…a little early for me! But we were up and on the road by 7am  : )

Rachael had several personal bests today–which is very exciting! She scored her highest bar score of the season (8.05), her highest beam score of the season (9.275) and her highest All Around score of the season (35.125) she placed 4th on Beam and 11th AA. (9.15 Floor, 8.65 Vault). She did a GREAT job, worked hard and best of all–had a really good time. Can’t ask for more than that eh? Troy took pictures, but i am not sure how to get them on here…I will work on that  : )

So other than hooking up the waste lines under the sinks (‘cuz I threw out some of the parts by accident–OOPS!) The counter area is complete–WAHOO!

Here are some pix..

The shower is also coming along. I got the floor in last weekend–then have been plodding away at getting the walls in. I do roughly a row a day…although today, I only got as far as putting in my first corner shampoo shelf (yes that is what it is called).  The debate rages on as to whether a soap dish is a good idea…we will see  : )

The shower is ready to tile–so now I have NO MORE EXCUSES!

The guys got all their part done today–so I let it sit for a day or 2 and then get working I suppose  : )

So the one thing we never got around to when we did our reno almost three years ago, was the Master bath. It is a horrendous mess of disgusting glossy, white 6×6 ceramic tiles. Just in case you were wondering  : )

So since I am given to taking these things on for myself (for the most part)…I started a couple weeks ago with prepping the walls. Had to take down all the towel bars etc. Had to fix all the walls (and ceiling) including the spots where the drywall was patched and repaired when we changed the window configuration during the reno. Got the first coat of paint on! I also stripped and refinished the cabinets and medicine chest–I HATE that white wash finish on the oak cabinets. I know oak cabinets are very “80’s”, but I am not interested in laying down a few thousand dollars for new cabinets…so it is what it is. And besides–I thought the 80s were GREAT! : )

I stripped and refinished the baseboards also–thinking I might reuse them. Might tile the base board–but want to keep my options open…

When I was ready to really dig in–I started with the countertop. It had the (in)famous white tiles on it–so as i was banging away on them…I was just gaining some steam and was about half way through when I make a mistake and ended up slicing my thumb open. So this stalled out my progress for a week or so while I waited for my thumb to grow back…

Anyway–got it under control and then last weekend I finished up getting the tile on the counter–I still have to grout, but it looks DANG good! I just LOVE this slate tile I am using. I wish I had the courage and the money to do the whole bath in it–but I am going with the safe choice of the tile I used in the other 2 bathrooms.

Anyway—making a short story long here!! The main obstacle for this whole project for me is the shower. So in the interest of having it done correctly and in less than 6 months…I hired some tile guys to come in and do the demo and build the shower pan, they will also hang the new backer board and get the whole thing ready for me to just come in on the glory train and get those tile on…

This is how it looks as of this morning…they will be back this morning to move onto phase 2…stay tuned…