We Have Walls Again!

Before I go into what I did over the weekend, I just want to report that after a full week of working at my new job, I really feel good about it. I think I'm in a good position to be very valuable and I really like my co-workers! Not to mention I'll get to use my brain again!

Anyway, after the numerous slowdowns and weekends with no progress lately, I was determined to get the walls up this weekend! My goal for the whole project is to be done (or at least tiled) by the end of May. Each weekend I'm able to actually able to get some work done, the bathroom starts resembling a bathroom more and more.

Last weekend Cass and I bought the backer board but then it sat in my truck for a whole week because I was sick and totally drained over that weekend. I started this weekend by putting up the three sheets of board on the widest wall since it was the easiest wall. No fixtures to cut out or anything. Just three 4' sheets.

After doing that and before I got stupid, I capped off the plumbing for the shower and opened the shower valve to make sure that every bit of plumbing I'd installed would hold pressure. Not just the valves and water hammers I installed back in March, but also the pipe and elbow running up from the valve to the showerhead. Not a drip! That made me happy.

I then got started on the wall opposite the showerhead. This wall is going to have recessed, tiled shelves. We bought these prefabricated shelves from the Tile Shop because we really liked how the finished product looked in the store. This of course meant I got to use my rotary cutting tool again! Man, am I EVER glad I bought that tool. Cutting the holes out for the shelves and shower fixtures would've been a nightmare with regular hand tools. The circular saw and the cement board blade were even more worth every penny. I'da been cutting cement board until I turned 40 if not for that well spent $80.

I stopped on Saturday after putting up the first shelf (the red one) and the surrounding backer board. Sunday I started right back where I left off and finished the recessed shelf wall. Because of the configuration of the shelves, I ended up cutting a sheet of backer board in the shape of an "H". I was a little worried about the structural integrity of the crossbar in the "H", so I ran a stringer between the studs so it'd have some extra support behind it.

That wrapped up the shelf wall. Finally, I had the showerhead wall. This wall turned out to be quite simple despite my own expectations. I measured twice (as the old adage suggests) and cut once and Bingo! The fixtures fit the holes I cut like a glove. Before I closed up the last bit of the wall with backer board, I wanted to leave my mark on this job. I know the bathroom's not done yet, but it was my last chance to do this.



After nearly killing myself standing awkwardly on a step stool so I could get leverage on the last few screws, I got the last piece of backer board in place! Apart from the door frame and a couple slim pieces of drywall I need to hang again, there are no more studs exposed! It's amazing how rewarding that accomplishment is!

More exciting developments are sure to follow! Stay tuned!

Cass's Craftiness!

Hello followers. I don't have any news for the bathroom remodel right now. I haven't done anything except buy a bunch more cement board. This week was my last week of working at the Help Desk. Since I fell ill late in the week, my energy's just completely gone to be working on the bathroom.

Anyway, I just wanted to update everyone to say I start my new Business Systems Analyst job this week. If you're thinking that title sounds familiar, it may be because that is the same title my wife has. We now have the same job just in different departments of ITS. I'm über excited!

I also wanted to show you a cool wall hanging that Cass and her craftiness made. Cass found this idea on Pinterest and we both liked it enough that she wanted to give it a try. The idea's really simple but time consuming. You drive a whole bunch of nails in the shape of a state and a heart (or whatever shape you want) inside the state (like where your hometown is) half-way into the wood plank and wrap a long continuous thread around all the nails between the inner shape and the state outline.

We bought a few 2oz boxes of 3/4" long 18 gauge wire brads. They're about $1.30/box from Lowes. Cass started hammering the nails in and quickly discovered she didn't enjoy doing this very much. Needless to say I hammered a bunch of nails in for her, probably about half of them. There were a bunch of really tight areas where it was really hard to hold a nail to get it started. This is where a pair of needle-nose pliers comes in really handy.

Cass recently bought this Silhouette Cameo cutter machine that she used to cut out the shape of Michigan which she just taped to the board temporarily to use as a template to follow for the nails. We're really happy with how it turned out. Cass is going to do two more. One of Texas (where she was born) and one of California (where I was born).

I hope you have an awesome week! I'm expecting to! ^_^

Slow Goin' These Days

Ok, many folks may be wondering why the renovation (if you've been following the blog) has suddenly grinded to a snail's pace. Well, there are a few reasons. Two weekends ago, I did absolutely nothing on the bathroom because I was told that Friday that I had homework that was due on Monday. By homework, I mean I was given the chance to do a presentation as a job interview and they wanted me to present on Monday. So I worked on the presentation all weekend and the bathroom got put on the back burner. More to come on that in the very near future!

Then of course this was Easter weekend which meant I had limited time to do anything. We had Memaw and Papaw over on Saturday and we were going to Cass's parent's house on Sunday after church. I'm not complaining, though! It was a great weekend.

I was able to get something done on the bathroom, but it was waaaaay less than I was hoping. Hence I didn't really take any photos. I wanted to do the pre-pan for the shower floor. I got as far as you see in the picture. I got the drain installed and put down tar paper and the wire mesh.

I bought the mortar mix that Home Depot said I should use for the pre-pan. When I got home, I got everything ready because the stuff I was told to use was called "Rapid Set Mortar Mix" which worried me. So, I get started mixing the stuff using the recommended amount of water. As I'm in the middle of mixing it I start to notice this stuff is already setting and I haven't even got it out of the bucket yet! It started hardening into concrete rocks before I even had the entire thing mixed! Unbelievable. I tried to put some down and see if I could break up the rocks that had already started to form, but there was no chance of that. So I had to abort and put the mix back in the bucket. So, I've now got a bucket of a whole bunch of hardened concrete rocks! Awesome.

I'll be re-grouping this week, and probably take another stab at doing the pre-pan next weekend. Stay tuned!