June 11, 2007
Behind on the Bath
I am so far behind in chronicling our master bath remodel that I've completely given up hope of catching up. Part of the problem is that I hate spamming my Flickr photo stream with bathroom photos, and I'm too lazy to just embed them directly into my posts. Nothing much has been happening lately anyway; we had cause to call our contractor from Seattle before Memorial Day Weekend (there was a problem with the alarm), and he said that...
April 26, 2007
Days 30 & 31: Final Drywall Touches
At least, I think these are the final drywall touches. I combined Days 30 and 31 because I have only 1 and 2 photos from each, respectively, and because essentially the same thing happened on both days: Ken came and worked on the last bits of drywall in preparation for painting and setting the cabinetry....
Day 29: Duct Mystery Solved
The weather was beautiful in Philadelphia this weekend. I seriously considered that Philadelphia might be trying to woo me back after a delightful week in San Francisco (remember that when I left, it was SNOWING). In any case, one drawback of the warm, sunny weather is that the upstairs of our house—where I work and we're all sleeping during the remodel—got unbearably hot. It's normally hotter than the rest of the house, especially in the middle of summer, but...
Days 22-26: Finished Tile
I was away in San Francisco for Days 22 through 26, and when I returned, the tile was fully laid and grouted. I'm not sure what happened on which day (it might have all happened on day 22 or 23, for all I know); what I do know is that I was thrilled to see it finished. I'm also really glad we went with a diagonal layout on the floor. I think it looks nice—interesting without being busy—and something...
Day 19: The Niches Go In
Day 19 was all about getting more of the floor tiles laid, and the soap/shampoo niches finished. That's about all there is for news—not sure what took me so long to write such a boring post. :) To pad it a little, I will sneak in something the Beaner just said to me, after the photo....
April 24, 2007
Day 18: Real Progress on the Tile
I took a couple photos while Steve was working on Day 18, but when I went down at the end of the day to see what he'd gotten done, I found my way blocked by blue painter's tape. It looked like he'd finished setting the tile for the tub/shower, but I wasn't sure until the morning of Day 19, when I snuck in to get a couple more photos while Steve was out back getting some supplies out of...
April 11, 2007
Day 17: The Tiling Begins...Kinda
Steve the tile guy (as opposed to Steve the Bearded, who I believe works directly for Jack rather than as a subcontractor) came today. I consulted him and Jack about the advisability of placing the floor tile diagonally, after Al agreed to consider it if I'd be willing to Freecycle the black four-drawer filing cabinet that he loathes. (This was a no-brainer for me; most of the files that are still in that cabinet could go into storage boxes...
April 10, 2007
Day 16: Still No Tile
The tile guys were MIA again today, but Steve came in the morning to remove some of the drywall scraps from the bedroom, and Ken came later to tape up the seams on the greenboard. That's pretty much the whole story....
April 9, 2007
Day 15: No Tile
Nothing happened on Day 13 or 14 (a Saturday and Easter Sunday), and I was starting to think nothing was going to happen on Day 15, either, when Steve arrived around 3pm. He was looking for Ken, who arrived a few minutes later. Neither of them knew what happened to the tile guys; I suspect I knew more about that then they did, in the sense that Jack had mentioned that the tile guys would be here on Monday...
April 8, 2007
Day 12: Trouble, Involving Water
Day 12 was a short one (for both us and Ken; he left for the day a couple hours before we hit the road for Maryland), but I gather it wasn't a smooth one. I was in a meeting when Ken motioned from the bottom of the stairs that he needed my attention; after I put the phone on mute, I got the news that there was a problem that necessitated turning off the water. I said go ahead....
April 6, 2007
Day 11: Lights Out
I know some of what happened on Day 11 thanks to a couple discussions with Jack (namely, that he roughed-in the plumbing for the tub and shower faucets), but the rest I'll have to guess from photos taken in complete darkness. Seriously, I had no idea what I'd pointed the camera at until I saw the result come up on the screen for two seconds after the flash fired....
April 5, 2007
Day 10: Wiring and Wonderboard
Day 10 was a long one for Ken; he didn't finish up until about 7:30pm or so. I can't remember how the day started, but by mid-afternoon Jack had e-mailed over a wiring diagram so Ken could figure out where to cut holes for switches and recessed lights. Currently the only lighting in the room comes from a single recessed canister and an early-80s vanity bar. In the new plan, two sconces will poke through the full-wall mirror, and...
April 3, 2007
Day 9: Tub Installation and Cabling
Jack's son Rylan and Rylan's friend (or just associate? I'm not sure, but he was nice) Jeremy showed up around 9:30 this morning. When I saw the two of them at the door, I knew that they were the reinforcements necessary to move the tub upstairs. Jack and Ken came a few minutes later, and together the four of them shimmied and tugged and hauled and wedged the tub up to the living room, then up to the master...
Day 8: Tile Planning, Pipe Re-Routing, and Tub Delivery
Nothing happened on Day 7 (a Sunday), so I skipped it, but today there was a flurry of activity in the bathroom. Jack consulted me about how I wanted the tiles to be laid (I'm leaning toward diagonal on the floor and straight on the wall, but Al thinks straight for both would be better), and where the soap and shampoo niches should go in the shower; Ken worked on making the two left and right sink hookups into...
April 1, 2007
Day 6: A Brief Trip to Gravena
We went out to Gravena yesterday before the baseball game to see if we could find a slab of granite that matched the sample we liked, but we struck out. You need an appointment to see the slabs in the yard on Saturdays, and we didn't have one. We did look through enough samples in the showroom, however, to know that the sapphire blue sample that's at the top of our list... well, is still at the top of...
March 31, 2007
Day 5: Tile Delivery
The tile showed up today (though Steve, the guy who delivered it, wasn't sure when it would be installed). I *think* the tub has to go in first, but I'm not sure myself....
March 30, 2007
Day 4: The Mysterious Bag of Granite Samples
I assumed that Day 4 would be another Day of Waiting for the Tub, but when I came down to the kitchen to get something to eat around midday, I found a bag of stone and wood samples on our kitchen floor. I hadn't heard anyone come in, which is either frightening (I should really lock the front door when I'm here by myself*), or it means that I've gotten really good at tuning out the daily childcare antics...
March 29, 2007
Day 3: Waiting For the Tub
One of the workmen stopped by this morning to pick up some tools. I should have introduced myself and gotten his name, but I didn't, mainly because I had no voice at all when he arrived, and I didn't feel like trying to make myself understood....
March 28, 2007
Day 2: It Should be Obvious Now Why We Moved Upstairs to the Guest Room
Between doing some research for work on Friday and attending meetings, I was frantically moving all the stuff I thought we would need from the master bedroom upstairs to the guest room. Jack had suggested we move up there during the remodel because of the dust, and I realized that with my parents coming to visit for the weekend and a flight to Boston looming on Sunday afternoon, Friday would be the only day I could do it....
March 27, 2007
Day 1: Demo
Al came through with some cameraphone photos of the Day 1 work, which consisted entirely of demo. I don't know why I'm surprised that they managed to strip most of the bathroom (save for the tub) to the studs in such a short time, but I am....
March 26, 2007
Day 1: Not There
When Al asked me last night if I'd taken any "before" photos of our master bath, I realized that I wouldn't be around to take Day 1 and Day 2 photos and describe what happened, as I did with our kitchen remodel. Yes, that's right, our master bath remodel is STARTING TODAY!!!...
January 13, 2007
A Leak of Faith
I never would have guessed when we met with our contractor in May 2006 about re-doing our tiny master bath that we wouldn't have a completed, more usable (but no less tiny) bathroom by the end of the year. Well, here it is January 2007, and not only do we not have a completed bathroom remodel, but we haven't even STARTED yet. Heck, we don't even have a PROPOSAL from our contractor....