Minnesota

Brion inspired me to post some pictures of our trip thus far on the blog. The kids are having a great time and are behaving very well! Colson caught a cold yesterday, so he and I were up all night (especially after his 1am "I want to play" episode). Poor guy is getting more teeth, and possibly his molars! The kids love to play in the backyard-lots of grass. Colson played in his first sprinkler, and they both played golf. Having fun so far!

Bath Remodel - Day 6

I didn't do anything yesterday, silly work stuff got in the way...

Today I spent 4 hours and it doesn't seem like there's much to show for it. But... I removed and replaced all the shut-off valves and the metal pipes feeding them (they were almost completely choked off with rust - yuck), then carefully measured and cut all the holes in the drywall. The measuring and cutting took a long time as I had 5 different holes (3 water supply pipes, the output pipe for the sink and the opening for the toilet) to deal with.



Doesn't seem fair that all that work resulted in just one lousy picture... Oh well... The wall with the new drywall and shut-off valves.

Remodel - Day 4

Nothing very exciting today. After two hours of trying everything I could to get 4 square feet of vinyl tile out of the linen clost I broke down and bought a tile scraper today. Let's just say that after I had the tile out in about 5 minutes I was wondering why I hadn't gone to buy that tool sooner.

Next came cleanup - scraping old caulk off the tub, getting the last of the old tile from under door jambs, and lots of vacuuming, sponging, etc. to get all the dust out. Then I spent hours laying out, cutting, and fitting the concrete backerboard for the floor. After I got them all sized and layed out it was time for thinset and... the mixer I bought doesn't fit my drill. Great... Tomorrow I'll be buying a new mixer because mixing 10 pounds of thinset by hand is a giant pain... After laying the board then I drove in at least 100 screws to hold it down...

So pics below aren't much to look at - one picture shows the growing mess in the hallway and the other shows the backerboard on the floor. The thinset has to dry for 24 hours before I can walk on the floor so tomorrow night I'll either catch up on work or attempt to renovate the linen closet door.

Bathroom Remodel - Day 3

Well, the end of Day 3 now. Today I went to a tiling class at Home Depot that was actually very informative - way better than just reading a book. The insulation went back into the non-plumbing walls. Black roofing felt went up where the concrete backer board goes and then I put up the wallboard and concrete backer board. It was a long day...


Insulation is back in and roofing felt is around tub


Bottom backer board piece is in.


And two walls are done!


Another pic of the wall.