Gonna be a while until I do much else.

I'm contemplating my next project. I'm going to get some laborers to clean up the the front and back yard and do some planting in the front planters. After that I'm not sure what I'll tackle.

I've got some pretty good neighbors. I'm good friends with the woman that owns the house(s) on one side. There are renters in both and they don't care. The guy on the other side is pretty cool.

You can't leave us hanging like this! Pick your next project quickly.

Taking a look at some of the original pictures from this thread you can see what a huge difference you've made. And the blog's been fun to read too.

Thanks JJ!

Back at it again. My goal today was to get the front and back yards cleaned up. The front had all of that leftover stone and a bunch of sand and rocks and stuff. The back is a total disaster. I've decided to just fill in the hole where the pond was. So, we dumped all of the leftover gravel, base material, and lots of rocks into the hole. I'm still going to have to get some dirt to fill it in.

I picked up 2 laborers this morning. The first one sort of just shuffled out. I was hoping he wasn't going to be as lazy as he appeared. He was. The other guy did OK but he was as old as me. My plan was to give them some basic instructions and let them work. But it was painfully obvious right away that I had to be working as well. I outworked both of them.

We got the front yard in pretty decent shape, but I ran out of gas working on the back. Neither one of them was working very hard so I just called it a day.

I may get Tomas to finish up the back. I want to use all of my leftover flagstone for walkways and I might just turn it over to him and his crew. We'll see.

Anyway, here's some pics.

Front yard before:





Front yard after





Back yard before and after. You really can't tell the difference. Still looks pretty bad.

After I dropped off the laborers I decided to get some grass seed. I'm pretty skeptical that anything will grow in this heat but I'll give it a shot. The guy there said the only thing that has a chance this time of years is zoyosa (sp.) or bermuda. They only had bermuda.

So, I spread it around pretty well and watered it as much as I could. The weatherman is predicting a lot of rain tonight so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Got a decent rain last night. Looks like the temperatures will be cooling soon as well. Hopefully the grass takes hold.

Decided to remodel the bathroom.

I did this bathroom on my last remodel and I never liked it. I tiled it from top to bottom and it just doesn't look good. I bought this really big tub that I almost never use. It takes up a lot of space. Also, it's a jack and jill and the door to Jill sort of takes up the wrong space. Between the door and the big tub I don't have any shelf space at all.

So, the tub is coming out. All the tile is coming off. I'm going to keep the shower. It's small but functional. I'll keep the vanity and the marble top. Both are in good shape. And the toilet. Everything else is history.

cont.

So, I decided I would start a little demo just to see how hard it would be. I hadn't really planned on working much since I"m sort of toast from yesterday. But, it was coming along pretty well so I decided to go ahead and remove the frame holding the tub, since the tub needs to go. But, the vanity was in the way so I figured I'd just take it out. But, since the mirror sits on the backsplash that had to come out first. Fortunately it came out pretty easily.

The vanity took a bit since whoever did the pipe work (possibly me) for the vanity ingeniously made it almost impossible to extract. But I finally got it and moved it out. This allowed me to get all the frame around the tub removed. By then I was sort of on a roll so I started on a wall. But the toilet needed to come out so that's what happened. The wall tile wasn't too bad. In some places whole big chunks of wall came off. It was actually easier than I was anticipating.

I got a lot more done today than I planned on. Mostly because I planned on doing nothing.

I need to get that tub out of there. I have it on craigslist now for a paltry sum but I may just give it away to get someone to haul it off.

I now have a vanity in my living room and a toilet in my bedroom. Gonna suck for a while to take a shower in one bathroom and have to use the sink in another.

pics coming

It's really hard to get a good picture but here's a couple of before pics.

This is the jill side.



Here's the jack side. Shower on the right.



Here's where the vanity and mirror were.



Here is the tub sans frame.



Tile removed from wall.



Starting yet another trash pile. Sigh.

Notice the big pieces of wall that came out.

Lol. Gl gl.

We added a bathroom to our house when we moved in over 20 years ago, included a similar bathtub. I think we used it three times.

I think Bigger may be addicted to home repair. Intervention may be in order.

Yeah. It's actually pretty awesome when you get in but it takes forever to fill and I run out of hot water before it fills up.

I put in on craigslist for $200 but no takers. I really want it out of there so I can get going. So I just put it out there for free. Emails came a'flyin' in.

Here's a gem.

What could possibly go wrong with a 50-something guy on partial disability from S. Austin?

craigslist is so tilting.

Some guy almost immediately replied to my ad. Like 3 times. I called then he called back like 3 more times. I think he said "I want it for sure" at least 10 times.

Didn't show up.

wtf is wrong with people.

I really think people just look at craiglist to troll you. Lots of people "want" this tub but nobody comes to get the tub.

And, a friend recommended a tile guy to me. I called him and he said he would stop by to give me a bid. He didn't.

People just suck.

I continued the demo. Got most of it done. I just have the walls around the tub and the floor around the shower. I managed to get most of it out without damaging the shower too much.

The tub is gone. woot

Two good ole' boys picked it up.

In other news.... That gunk that plumbers use to seal a toilet has managed to get all over every tool, my shoes, my clothes, my floor..... Basically every place it could possibly be.

Without actually sealing what you wanted amirite?

So, I'm looking for a tile guy. It would seem easy. There's only one on Angie's list. All the others that advertise tiling are really remodelers that ether charge way too much or won't take the job.

I may contact Lowe's again. I'm not sure they'll take this on, though.

My rule with craigslist is that I only hold something for someone for 1 hour unless they've already given me money. Stuff I'm giving away for free is the first person to show up gets it.

The grass I planted is starting to come up. woot

I made an executive decision to not rebuild my pond. So, I gave my koi away tonight.

More rain today!

aye aye aye

4 tilers down.

One said he couldn't get to me until December. One said not for another 5 months. 2 never got back to me.

I'm sort of afraid that anyone that takes this on will be super expensive.

sooooooooooo...................

I'm contemplating doing this myself. Probably not a good idea since I sort of suck at it. I actually did the bathroom floor that I just tore up but it didn't come out great. A couple of tiles a bit out of line. But I remember I was in a big hurry. I've never tried wall tile at all.

However, as it stands right now I have a lot more time than I do money. I can take off a week to do this. Maybe if I take my time I can make sure it's done right.

How hard could it be, amirite?

Gonna go to Lowe's and get some tile books and ask a bunch of questions.

Somebody talk me out of this.

zikzak - question(s)

If I'm going to tile half way up the wall and sheetrock from there up, how do I do that? Does the top of the top row of tile go right on the top of the backer? How do I deal with the line where the sheetrock meets the backer? Is there overlap? Tape and float it before the tile goes on?

Also, I'm saving the shower and the tile that goes with it. Only it butts up against some of the wall tile I removed. It won't break away along the grout line so I need to cut it I think. I think both the tile I want to save and the tile I want to remove are on the same piece of backer. How do I do this? Circular saw with a special blade? Am I screwed?

Go for it!

Use Schluter Ditra uncoupling membrane for the floor. It's awesome.