Continued Home Improvements

How is it that you have success with one home improvement, look forward to the next home improvement, and start wishing you never went there!

Second on the list was the First Floor Bathroom and Master Bath. Both had a deadline to meet...Monday, 11/12, as that is when the tile was being installed.

Well, the 1st floor bath required removal of the carpet & tack strips, removal of who knows how old wall paper, prime & paint. Well after a two- day process of removing the wall paper...they must have used all the glue in RoHi at the time of installation, I find out why they put wallpaper on the walls to start...not only were the walls painted avocado green (like most of the rest of the house at one point), but they must have had umteen items hanging on the wall where they didn't even bother to patch. So then came the three days of patch, sand, repatch, sand, repatch, & sand work.

In the meanwhile, Richard is upstairs in the Master Bath with the sledge hammer performing demolition work....we have to get the black tile platform removed, fill in the walls, remove the carpet, and the linoleum underneath the carpet...just took out the top layer of the subfloor. The tile guy is removing the tile wall surround.

Now it was Sunday before d-day...we had finally gotten as much glue off the walls as we could and were ready to paint. Well, have you ever wondered why in the world the color-swatch pieces were really small for paint color...so when you go for it and buy the paint and paint your walls...then you start thinking you made a horrible mistake and you can go pick out more paint...I think it's another conspiracy theory right along with the spices.

So, I told the tile shop that I would be home by 10:00 am. I had to make sure I had another torture session of Hydro Training before they get started. I rush home...still smelling of chlorine and make it home by 10:05...then the waiting started...called the shop at 11:00 to find out what time are they arriving...they call back at noon stating 1:00 p.m. So at 2:30 I open the front door finally to meet my tile guy....spend an hour with him on all the highlights of the project and since he doesn't have everything ordered/prepared, guess it's not going to be a two-day job after all...bloody buggers.

So Steve, the tile guy, gets the tile installed in the 1st floor bath & entrance way off the garage in two days, one day to lay the tile, one day to grout...on the 3rd day I get the paint back out and tape off everything, toss the drop cloth on the floor, and get back to work...still thinking I don't like the color. I get the second coat up & then on the 4th day I get the glaze up....and I'm still thinking I made a mistake on the color...Touch of Italy...more like Tuscan...and NO, I didn't learn my lesson and went with another yellow type of color.

The tile guy starts with the master bath, first he has add a subfloor, then he has to get the heating coils, then he has to install them, then he gets to tile, then he gets to grout, then he gets to start all over on the tub surround since the tile wasn't ready at the same time...and we are still working out of one bathroom as the toliets haven't been installed yet.

So over the past weekend, just when I went to get new paint swatches, I ask Richard to install the light, maybe I'll like it better if I see the planned lighting. By now, I'm just plain tired of being in that 1st floor bathroom so I decide I can live with it....lighting changed everything. Whew, what a relief, now we can spend all day Sunday installing the vanity! Still need to find a mirror & some other accessories. Pictures aren't the best...guess you need to see it in real life.

So now it's the week of Thanksgiving...Richard's mother flew in on Monday, I cut to the chase with tile guy & tell him toilets have to be in before he leaves on Monday! Mission accomplished. He spends Tuesday doing some grout work, hooking up the electricity to the heating system, and then calls it a day, as he doesn't have the other stuff he needs....he'll be back on Monday or Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

So my two-day tile job is now a full two weeks...and things are not all in place so we can move onto the next home improvement & the program timing calendar needs to be readjusted with all the rest of the "hired help"....but on the bright side, I'm best friends with the tile guy now and although he doesn't clean up as well as I would expect (being the customer), he does fabulous work :)

On a side note...I don't think I've spent so much time in a bathroom in my whole life...