It's been an 'interesting' week - the kind of 'interesting' one uses to curse one's enemies.
Steve was back at work this week. This meant an adjustment period and a whole new schedule for pretty much every aspect of our lives. And then there has been the never ending saga of the baseboard tiles. A saga which was supposed to end last night but continues nonetheless due to various complications in the process itself as well as unforseen events outside of the renovation.
First of all we thought we were going to have it done on, um, Monday was it? But then, at 10:30 at night, we realized we didn't have the faintest clue how to work with the capping strip; how to cut it, how to install it, what mortar to use, how big a grout line and where. So we focused on prep work for the door frame and cleaning things up for future tiling instead. On Tuesday I made yet another trip to Tile Town for more advice (they also know Zoe and I by name and want photos of this bathroom when we finally finish it). This should have meant that we began the process Tuesday night but the disruptive influence of unwelcome and unsolicited phone calls to Steve at work, by a certain female we have cut out of our lives, made tiling less of a priority than it would otherwise have been. Wednesday night, after a day without further intrusions on our lives, we began the process of installing the capping strip, only to have the plastic innards of our staple gun disintigrate about twenty staples in. Once again, as this occurred at about 10pm at night, there was nothing to be done until the next night. Thursday brought us a new, heavy duty staple gun from Sears, but also more intrusions in the form of emails and more implied invitations for Steve to meet with the aforementioned person. For this reason - just to stave off any rumours that this confrontation was unprovoked - we BOTH met with her and told her to leave us alone for now and forever. Maybe this time she got the message. Whatever the outcome of that event, we did get the capping strip installed Thursday night. And Last night should have seen the last of the base board tile saga. But alas, we ran out of mortar with only 6 tiles left to install. So today we go to see just how small an amount of mortar one can buy. Perhaps we'll take a yogurt container to a job site and scoop a bit in - that's how little we need. It's so frustrating!!
To top it all off I finally got some answers as to the fate of our supply tubes, shut offs and shower curtain rod from 'TransAtlantic' - ordered three weeks ago with a $20 expedite fee to get them here in three days. Apparently the tubes and shut-offs DON'T actually work together. So instead of trying to contact Splashes, the supplier put the order on hold indefinately until somebody called with the right questions. And there are no other options through that supplier - their only suggestion was definately NOT workable given our plumbing. So Thank The Goddess for the internet! Two hours later I had supply tubes, shut-offs, and escutchions ordered and today I had confirmation that they should be arriving next week by fed-ex to our door!!! We're not exactly sure what use Splashes has been to us in this whole process actually.
Hopefully this weekend will see a goodly amount of subway tile installed because after that there is very little standing in the way of plumbing in the fixtures and getting a functioning bathroom back. Stay tuned for the next update - who knows what will happen between now and then. Anything is possible!!
