These posts seem to be getting farther and farther apart, don't they? There is a LOT of good news, just not THE good news that the bathroom will be finished any time soon.
Lack of blogging this week has been due to the fact that most nights I have been able to get the kids to bed at home around 8:30pm and then we have been heading back upstairs to work on the more quiet tasks till about midnight or so. This means NO SHOWERS and NO BLOGGING for days. As you can imagine, by yesterday you really wanted to stay up-wind of us. So, for the sake of both ourselves and others, we took an enforced shower trip last night. We were still back upstairs to finish the floor tiling and do some clean up when we got back.
Yes I said "finish the floor tiling." At one point on Thursday we thought we'd get it done after the kids went to bed but all we managed was laying out the tiles and cutting as many as we could on our own - laying out tiles on a perfectly level and flat surface is so much nicer than most situations! Friday I took a few trips to Tile town for the the rest of them and the floor is now TILED and setting. This is good news. The not-so-good-news is that we still need to finish and install the built-in, frame the window and door, and install the medicine cabinet, and seal the drywall, BEFORE we can do the wall tiles. And the wall tiles have to be laid and the grout for both floor and wall completed, PLUS all the painting, BEFORE we can install the tub. And we have to install the tub BEFORE we can install the sink or toilet because having large porcelain objects in the path of a very large and awkward three-hundred-plus-pound item is a recipe for disaster. We have definately reached the portion of the renovation where TIIMING is EVERYTHING and the littlest things can take so much time.
Given all that still needs to be done, today has been fairly productive. There is something about a fresh coat of paint that serves to lighten the spirit and make everything seem just a little bit better than it did before. Besides, I was feeling a bit daunted by the idea of having to do all the painting AFTER the tiles were in. As it turned out, with all the construction Steve still needed to complete, it was fairly easy for me fit in a coat of drywall sealer here and there, and then the actual wall colour. An extension pole is just the thing to make painting fly! I don't know how we ever painted without one! By bedtime, the window frame was nearly complete (just some finishing that will wait till after tiling), the built-in has been installed (also a little bit more finishing left), as well as the fan cover, light cover, medicine cabinet (sort of).
More good news in that now that the bathroom is a 'clean room' we should be able to start moving back upstairs tomorrow later in the day. The upstairs plastic barriers have been removed and the hall has even been swept and tidied awaiting the arrival of the footed tub.
Oh yes, the tub. How could I forget the tub? It was delivered by the very talkative Bathtub Doctor earlier in the day (and looks AMAZING!) and then camoflaged under a pile of blankets and rubble at the side of our house. We will be moving it upstairs in the morning - but only into the hallway. The bathroom is still probably days away from completion now that we won't have full days any more. Although we have completed or nearly completed a large number of jobs we still have the daunting task of all those subway tiles. There are a lot of subway tiles! At least a lot of the little things are almost completely out of the way. So close we can almost taste it!
