… stays in the shower. Pretty sure that applies to the fancypants aluminum edging that now divides the tile and the cork ceiling, because I can’t imagine it escaping its new confines…
Looks good, no?
There’s still more to be done, so don’t be too judgmental yet. The niche will be tiled soon and there’s more metal edge to come. And grout, of course. But I’m loving how it’s coming together so far!
Overdue for a check-in on the tiling progress. Let’s see how it’s going down there…
Mark and I figured out the placement of the niche. Actually, the placement of the pipes in the wall figured out the placement of the niche for us…
I really had my heart set on a long, skinny niche like this one, but the pre-made offerings were laughably short… we would have had to lay our shampoo bottles on their sides. Once again, had to settle. Sigh…
However, it is mudded up and ready for tile, so there’s that.
Meanwhile, the tiles on the end wall almost reach the ceiling…
And did you happen to notice the aluminum edging?
Will make a nice, crisp line between the tile and the mirror above, and between the tile and the walnut built-in going to the right of the sink.
The sink, if I can remind you, looks like so…
Speaking of which, I suppose you haven’t seen the rough layout yet…
We probably have a nicer scribble than this somewhere… I’ll see if I can dig one up.
Anyway, the top of the white vessel sink will be on level with a walnut box/countertop — the wood will get a heavy-duty coating of something you’d see used on boats. Green? Unlikely. Impervious to water? Most definitely. The box/countertop will be open on the end next to the toilet, so we can stash magazines and toilet paper rolls where no one has to look at them. (No more toilet paper holder like in the drawing.) A walnut shelf will stretch from underneath the counter to the corner of the room where it will also serve as a bench. Behind the bench is a floor-to-ceiling wall of walnut with a few hooks up high for hanging clothes. Built-in storage is planned for the intersecting wall — details later.
So that’s that. Did I mention that the wood for the bath built-ins arrives TOMORROW? Woot!
With the tile, I mean. Like so…
And thusly…
The tile now wraps around another wall — the wall opposite the shower where the wall-hung toilet will be. The yellow bits in the back corner are plumbing related. Above the yellow bits, that square will be the flusher. In the foreground, the pipe is where the wall-mounted faucet will go above the sink. Trying to maximize our space here wherever we can.
Mark was back at it yesterday, tiling those walls in the bathroom downstairs…
That shot doesn’t really show off his handsome side. I apologize for that. By the end of the day, tile stretched across the full width of the room…
Eventually it will meet the ceiling and this will really start to look like a bathroom. Thanks, Mark!
Not too much to show yet but this should give you an idea of how the downstairs bath is coming along since we last checked in. First, Mark “mudded” the walls of the shower — mud is basically a sand and cement mix used for setting our porcelain tiles …
I’m sure there were steps that I didn’t catch on camera through most of this time-consuming and exacting process. It’s a tiny bathroom with tiny tiles that require a bit of concentration… I don’t like to interfere too often.
After the mud dried, the first tiles went on…
And by the end of the day yesterday, a roughly 3′-band all the way around was set…
Nowhere near finished but it’s well begun. Thanks, Mark!
I bring up our recent trip to Palm Springs yet again. Last time it was the use of concrete at our vacation rental. This time it’s the tile in the bathroom of the casita next to the pool. Here, the owner took a better photo than I did…
Swank, eh?
Here’s my shot. A bit dark but you can see the tile better. Don’t let the reflection of me in my swimsuit frighten you… it was 115 degrees by the pool, you know…
I’m sharing this for Mark, our tile superhero, who’s got the downstairs bathroom prepped and has thus far politely entertained our aspirations. By this Friday, the finished cork will have had its full 10 days to dry, and he’ll be back at it again.
So what do I like about this bathroom? It’s light. It’s minimal. The aluminum strip is a nice detail…
And I like the way they used the aluminum as edging around the shower shelf inset, even if the grout could be a little neater…
And the edges of the shower stall step…
And the edge of the end tiles…
I’m not suggesting we add an aluminum strip everywhere, no. But I did think this was a nice detail and solved some of the issues about how to deal with the corners around the shower shelf inset. That is all.
That, and nice tile.
The painters are here again! The painters are here again!
Rejoice! For the problem is being corrected.
Want to see something that turned out perfect? The floor and ceiling, finished. TA-DAAAA!
It’s so great when a project turns out the way you hope it would.
And now that that’s out of the way, want to see something that turned out craptastical?
Sure you do…
Yup, when the plastic held on by the paint-friendly blue tape was pulled down, it took the brand-new paint job with it. All. the. way. around. the. room.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF…
Why did the paint fail? Who knows. But one thing is for sure: it’s not a simple fix. It probably means sanding and another full coat. Kill me now.
Finished just yesterday, the floor downstairs has to dry for 10 days, which makes this the perfect time to re-deck the undeck.
As you may recall, the rotting deck was pulled out on November 15 and its replacement has been on hold since the end of March while we waited for our engineer to get back to us. So we’ve been living with a harrowing two-story step from the upstairs slider for the last 5 and a half months…
In all that time, nobody tried to step out onto the deck. Good thing.
Today Joe and his nephew Josh started dismantling the exterior of the deck…
The plan is to do some spelunking on the inside of that wall in order to see what the structure detail is.
The engineer drew up a concept for supporting the deck without the posts, which David says he’ll share with you tomorrow… The question is how much rejiggering will the current structure need in order to accommodate the engineer’s design. A little? Or a lot?
Well this is going quickly! David and Joe are putting four coats of finish on the cork flooring downstairs. The first two coats went down yesterday. This morning there was sanding, vacuuming and dust mopping…
And now the final two coats are going on…
More later!