Jose called and said he could be here in the morning to do the tile work. So, I ran to Lowe's to pick up the tile. They don't sell this particular tile by the piece and for some reason there were a lot of loose pieces. Probably about 3 cases worth. And they were all sitting on the full cases. So I asked a manager if he'd make me a deal and he sold me all the loose tile for the cost of 1 case. Woot!

I ended up buying about 9 cases total. You might not think that's a lot of work but that **** is heavy. These were 16" tiles. By the time I loaded them on the cart, hauled the cart to my truck, loaded them into my truck, then took them out and put them in the house, I was pretty tired.

I also bought some white electrical switches and outlets since the existing tan one won't look right at all. And I bought 1 sheet of wainscoting to see how it would look. It seems sort of short (32") but I think that's fine. I was thinking 48" would be more like it but I stood this piece up (it is 48" wide) and that is way too much.

Things are progressing at least. I'm hoping to finish the bathroom except for plumbing by the end of the weekend.

Did you find it out if the plumbers placed the pipes properly?

No. I'm gonna just have the tile guy do his thing and when the plumbers come it's sort of their problem. Because it is a clawfoot tub I think it'll be OK. I'm hoping lines can be adjusted above the floor if needed. If not I guess I'll just replace some tile.

I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to post. I've been at Lowe's every night trying to get "stuff" to finish the bathroom.

Jose finished the tile. It looks fantastic. I'm a bit concerned because there is a loose spot in the floor right at the door but it isn't horrible.

Jose was here until 8:00 Thursday getting the tile laid. He finished up with the grouting yesterday. More on Jose later.

Here's the pics. It still has the grout haze on it and I have a ton of work to do still so I'll clean it later.

I'm getting Jose to paint the front door too. I don't trust my painting skills on this one.

The "red" I bought was waaaayyyyyyy too pink. Jose will put 3 coats on so I bought some darker red.

When I was buying the new redder paint I told the guy it was for my front door. He said "did you pay your mortgage off?". I said yes, but wtf? He explained it is some sort of tradition to paint your front door red when you pay off your mortgage. Who knew?

Anyways, here's my pink door.

Yesterday I bought the wainscoting and trim. I'm sure I didn't get everything but I have a good start. I decided to just go with the height of the pre-cut wainscoting (about 32"). The top will come about to the top of the sink counter so I think it'll be fine.

Home Depot called and they have my tile. I'm not sure I mentioned this but the shower tile was a bit hard to match. Lowe's couldn't do it, but Home Depot could order it.

I also replaced all the plugs and receptacles yesterday. Not everything is working right yet. One of the 3-ways doesn't work but I'm not fixing it. It was the switch by the Jill door that I removed. No biggie if it doesn't work. Somehow I didn't wire my new ceiling light properly and I was getting tired so I gave it up. I'll finish today.

Once again I forgot that the gfcis are on a different circuit than the rest of the wiring. I felt it but it didn't hit me too bad.

I really like Jose. He does fantastic work. He's personable and responsible. But, he's a one man show. I've been trying to talk him into expanding. He should be managing the business, not doing all the work. He said he tried that but he can't find reliable workers. He said they never do it to his standards. He seems to like doing the actual work so I guess he's happy.

Taking a little break. I spent waaayyyy too much time getting that light with the 3way switches working. It still doesn't behave properly. The Jill side switch has to be on for the light to come on. The other one works as it should. I'm not too concerned with it really. Just glad I got it to work.

I got a lot of the wainscot and trim up. I still need to do the area around the shower. But I need the shower tile before I can do that. Hopefully I get get it finished tomorrow.

The bathroom is anything but square. I'll be using a LOT of caulk to fill in gaps.

I also got the vanity back in.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with progress.

For Jose, the world needs more Jose's.

Unfortunately the Jose's of the world don't usually get paid enough to encourage more people to be like Jose.

Doing the work is nothing like running a business. Take it from someone who generally likes the work (and I think pretty good at it) and generally dislikes the business (and I've generally been bad at that).

ugh

Tiling is just not my thing.

I needed to replace a few tiles in the shower where the foundation guys cracked them. Getting them out was a lot harder than I thought. These are the tiles I had to special order from Home Depot. The color is still not quite right. But they aren't as noticeable as the picture makes them look.

I also had to replace the black edge tiles. I wanted to get bullnose but nobody carries them and I really don't want to wait to order them. I'll just put up a piece of trim next to them.

I had to cut some of the pieces and I really didn't want to buy a tile cutter so I did it with tile snips. I had one piece that I needed to cut a corner away from. I just kept breaking tiles. I was really worried about having enough so I just snipped teeny pieces off until I got what I wanted. Took about 30 minutes for one piece.

I had one bullnose that I had to replace and only had one replacement (and old one that I had removed). But it needed a little snipping but I didn't realize it until I already put the thinset on. So I thought I could snip it but then I dropped it - aaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I had to scramble to cut a regular one. I may end up replacing that one again. It looks pretty bad.

What a mess. I got mortar EVERYWHERE. The black edge tiles went in fine but the replacement shower tiles I might have to do again. That's fine. The goal was the black ones so I could get the trim up and finish the wainscot.

I still need to grout but I'll do that later.

Here's the tile I had to chip out. You might notice a spot of blood on one of the tiles above the removed ones.



Cause of blood



Replacements



Black edge

No guarantees, but for the most part you can just decide to stop hurting yourself.

When I was an amateur, it was ok, because a few cuts and scrapes or even a utility knife fully embedded in my leg weren't that big a deal. If you go full time, you just can't be getting hurt left and right.

Be careful. Wear safety equipment.

Yeah, I have a bad habit of just diving in and doing whatever it is. Sometimes leads to injury. I'm super careful with saws, though.

Finished the wainscoting and trim, including caulking.

I've determined that caulk is both the most glorious thing and the most evil thing there is.

No pics. Pretty much looks like it did before.

Paint tomorrow!

Are there any independent stores around on the order of "Tile King", "International House of Tile" or "McTile"? Somewhere you could pick up odd pieces?

Well, there's one but they didn't have it. There's a specialty store that might but their hours are ridiculous. Plus driving around Austin just to see if someone has it isn't worth just ordering from someone that does.

Finished painting the wainscoting. I also cut the window sill and painted it. Also painted the bathroom door. Pro tip - it's a lot easier to take the door off the hinges and put it on sawhorses to paint it than it is to paint it while it is hanging. Also put the blinds up.

I just suck at painting. Overall it looks pretty good, though. But the tape wasn't put on perfectly so there's some spots I need to touch up. I also tore some paint off when I removed the tape. Another day.

I think I could have gone up a few more inches on the wainscoting but I"m not going to sweat it. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Non-house related items. 1) never check work email while not at work. Put me in a bad mood all day. Another portion of my soul sucked out. 2) When I went to pee I realized I had on 2 pairs of underwear. I have no idea how that happened. I probably need a vacation or something.

Here's pics

1) is so true, no good comes of it.
2) is awesome.

Bigger has taken the first two steps to superhero status...
1) Do-it- yourself mentality
2) Wear two pairs of underwear

You only need two things now:
1) A mortal enemy
2) To wear your second pair of underwear over your clothes!

Not much done this weekend.

I attempted to grout those tiles I put in last week. I managed to grout them, but also grouted half of the rest of the bathroom. What a mess. I think the grout is darker than the old grout which will be quite noticeable. But, it hasn't dried yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I got a small brush and touched up the trim where I either missed or the tape was covering it. Definite improvement.

And, I sort of cleaned the garage. It was pretty bad. It was getting almost impossible for me to find any tools. Junk all willy nilly everywhere. It is nowhere near where I would like it to be. Much like my life it is an unmanageable cluttered mess that never seems to get straight no matter how much work is done on it.

Hopefully the plumbers come next week and I can finish the bathroom. Jose still hasn't come back to finish painting the front door.

Plumbers came today. They installed the tub and hooked up the toilet and sink. Not much left on the bathroom.

Jose is coming Saturday to repair the sheetrock and paint the master bedroom. I had the bathroom mirror in the closet so I needed to get it out of there. So, I decided just to finish up the bathroom.

This included hanging the mirror, putting the mirror lights back up, hanging the towel rack, and hanging the toilet paper holder.

I should never try to do work like this after I get off regular work. My brain is just not there. I put the hardware for the towel rack on wrong. When I fixed it it exposed a drill hole. But that wasn't the worst thing.

Somehow I didn't line the vanity up properly. It is off about an inch. This is pretty big since the mirror lights and the plugs are now off. I even had to trim a plug cover. You can see the difference in the picture. This really sucks.

I am rating the bathroom as almost a failure. It doesn't look the way I want it. The tile sucks. The parts of the shower I tried to fix suck. Lots of sloppy work. I really want a do-over.

I'm positive if I had done this first I would have done it completely different. I'm just remodel-tired (and poor). But, I'm leaving it for now. Maybe in 10 years when I'm ready for part 3.

Had to move all my bedroom "stuff" out of the bedroom in preparation for Jose. My living room is now my bedroom.

In other news, I came home and there was a blue bag on my porch. I mentioned a while back that they are doing a major construction project on the highway in front of my house.

The bag was a Mopac care bag, courtesy of whoever is in charge of the project. It had a pack of seeds, a description of the seeds, a little hardhat, a nice letter and a cool flashlight.

I have to say, for what they are doing the disruption has been minimal.

I like the smurf hardhat. Your tax dollars at work.