Monday, May 21, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Floor fun
Monday night we made an outline of our bathroom floor with masking tape in the dining room so that we could figure out a layout for our stone floor. It was a really fun and non-stressful job (finally!) and we are getting very excited to set this!
This floor layout does not include the tub (tub would be to along the right wall in the first picture). The door frame is that rectangle jutting out at the top. Toilet is represented by the 4" pvc, and vanity is represented by the taped rectangle, and windows are represented by the doubled tape along two edges. These were important "landmarks" both for engineering and aesthetic reasons.
Anyway, enjoy! We stood around for quite some time afterwards, grinning and giggling!
This floor layout does not include the tub (tub would be to along the right wall in the first picture). The door frame is that rectangle jutting out at the top. Toilet is represented by the 4" pvc, and vanity is represented by the taped rectangle, and windows are represented by the doubled tape along two edges. These were important "landmarks" both for engineering and aesthetic reasons.
Anyway, enjoy! We stood around for quite some time afterwards, grinning and giggling!
- John
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
We're so tiled
Sunday, a beautiful day to finish up tiling the bathroom. Warmed up from the day before, we mixed up the day's first batch of thinset and got to work. Erika working the trowel and setting the tiles, me taking end measurements and working the wet saw.
We took a lunch break, sandwiches in the side yard, a hillside siesta in the sun. Then back at it. Eventually we came to the areas that would require tricky measuring and cutting - the tub spout and valves. My first cut wasn't the prettiest, but it was going to work. The tile cuts for the three shower valves came out quite nicely though. My "trick" to notching the tiles with the wet saw was to cut the two edges of the notch first, then make a series of 1/4" cuts to depth, which then broke off with the friction of the blade. I'm sure this is no trick, rather it's the way to do it - but when you figure it out for yourself it feels like a trick! We cleared that obstacle field and were on our way up the final wall.
It was about this time that I removed the cardboard insert from the clear plastic box of hollow leave-in tile spacers. I was going to use it to scoop up the stray scraps of hollow leave-in tile spacers on and around the tub because we were running low on hollow leave-in tile spacers and needed to improvise. Standing around awaiting my turn to move in and measure, I browsed the product details of these hollow leave-in tile spacers on the underside of the insert. Says here that the 1/16" hollow leave-in tile spacers are NOT hollow and should NOT be left in.
Dude.
Seriously.
Look:
Our hollow leave-in tile spacers were pushed down to the substrate, as directed, three of 'em per tile, which is like, what, a bazillion tile spacers? All cemented, and not budging. Oh well. We're leaving them in.
It was getting late. Afraid to see what time it was. Gone was the idea of getting home early enough to relax a bit and prepare for the week. We pulled the plywood off the top of the tub to reveal the final three rows: the bottom row of each wall.
The long wall went smoothly because the tub and walls were in perfect position there (walls ending 1/8" off the tub, tub flange sitting 1/8" behind the surface of the wall). But the two ends were tricky because the tub was 1/8" or so off with the wall so the bottoms of the bottom row of tiles were being pushed out a bit by the tub flange. It was worst in the corners, but by that point in the process, my wet saw skills were getting smooth enough to eye up and grind curved notches in the tile, which took care of that. Every tile in the far end of the tub on the bottom row needed to have an eighth inch cut off it's length. Don't ask me why. Besides, you and us are the only ones who will ever notice!
We didn't look at the clock until we got into the van, I think. Bodies covered in dried thinset, my hands wrinkly with milky wet saw water and ceramic dust. It was late. 12:30? At least. In total, we put in 24 hours tiling over two days.
But it looks great!
We took a lunch break, sandwiches in the side yard, a hillside siesta in the sun. Then back at it. Eventually we came to the areas that would require tricky measuring and cutting - the tub spout and valves. My first cut wasn't the prettiest, but it was going to work. The tile cuts for the three shower valves came out quite nicely though. My "trick" to notching the tiles with the wet saw was to cut the two edges of the notch first, then make a series of 1/4" cuts to depth, which then broke off with the friction of the blade. I'm sure this is no trick, rather it's the way to do it - but when you figure it out for yourself it feels like a trick! We cleared that obstacle field and were on our way up the final wall.
It was about this time that I removed the cardboard insert from the clear plastic box of hollow leave-in tile spacers. I was going to use it to scoop up the stray scraps of hollow leave-in tile spacers on and around the tub because we were running low on hollow leave-in tile spacers and needed to improvise. Standing around awaiting my turn to move in and measure, I browsed the product details of these hollow leave-in tile spacers on the underside of the insert. Says here that the 1/16" hollow leave-in tile spacers are NOT hollow and should NOT be left in.
Dude.
Seriously.
Look:
Our hollow leave-in tile spacers were pushed down to the substrate, as directed, three of 'em per tile, which is like, what, a bazillion tile spacers? All cemented, and not budging. Oh well. We're leaving them in.
It was getting late. Afraid to see what time it was. Gone was the idea of getting home early enough to relax a bit and prepare for the week. We pulled the plywood off the top of the tub to reveal the final three rows: the bottom row of each wall.
The long wall went smoothly because the tub and walls were in perfect position there (walls ending 1/8" off the tub, tub flange sitting 1/8" behind the surface of the wall). But the two ends were tricky because the tub was 1/8" or so off with the wall so the bottoms of the bottom row of tiles were being pushed out a bit by the tub flange. It was worst in the corners, but by that point in the process, my wet saw skills were getting smooth enough to eye up and grind curved notches in the tile, which took care of that. Every tile in the far end of the tub on the bottom row needed to have an eighth inch cut off it's length. Don't ask me why. Besides, you and us are the only ones who will ever notice!
We didn't look at the clock until we got into the van, I think. Bodies covered in dried thinset, my hands wrinkly with milky wet saw water and ceramic dust. It was late. 12:30? At least. In total, we put in 24 hours tiling over two days.
But it looks great!
- John
Baby's first tiling job
After an amazing 9 hours of sleep Friday night, we were ready to learn some serious new skills.
Materials: tile, thinset, spacers. Plywood on the tub to make it like a work table. Since we're doing a brick pattern rather than a grid, we needed T-shaped spacers but accidentally bought crosses. So one little job was to use a utility blade and cut off one arm from each spacer.
Also, our awesome friend April came over to volunteer for the day, so we set her up with vice grips and asked her to take out the rest of the screws from the ceiling joists in the kitchen.
After much procrastination, we finally got down to it. Mixed up the thinset, put a batten board on the wall to support the first row of tile, troweled some stuff on and set in Tile #1! Worked outward from the center until we hit the edges, at which point John measured up for the first two cuts he'd be making with the wet saw.
And it went on from there--we developed a rhythm where I'd lay down whole tiles and John would cut the little ones for the ends. He was back and forth to the saw outside the kitchen door; I was up and down grabbing tiles, spacers, screwdriver and trowel. It went pretty smoothly; the bricks climbed up the wall. The more we tiled, the more exciting it was to behold!
Meanwhile, April was mowing our entire yard. Did I mention she also brought over a big excellent meal of sandwiches, potato salad and green salad? She did. It felt like the first real food I'd had in weeks.
Tiling is slow, at least for us. We've had it with these tiling books that say "leave most of a day for tiling a tub surround" and then it winds up taking two full days. Maybe it's just because we're newbies at it, but I'm not sure how we could have gone faster. Anyway, it was late in the evening by the time we finished the big wall. April, after joining in the tiling for a while, wisely went home. John and I slogged through four rows of a short wall before calling it quits.
We were exhausted, but it was one of those nights where we finish a task and then get really happy and excited envisioning how the house will be in a year or so. We stood out in the yard, looking at our tile through the window. And I also realized that, when we get around to tearing off our back screened porch and making it a patio someday, it will make a perfect amphitheater. We can have music or movies (!) there and the yard makes a nice natural bowl sloping down to it. Start practicing yer banjos, folks.
Here's a big shoutout to our patient and helpful friend April! Thanks!
Materials: tile, thinset, spacers. Plywood on the tub to make it like a work table. Since we're doing a brick pattern rather than a grid, we needed T-shaped spacers but accidentally bought crosses. So one little job was to use a utility blade and cut off one arm from each spacer.
Also, our awesome friend April came over to volunteer for the day, so we set her up with vice grips and asked her to take out the rest of the screws from the ceiling joists in the kitchen.
After much procrastination, we finally got down to it. Mixed up the thinset, put a batten board on the wall to support the first row of tile, troweled some stuff on and set in Tile #1! Worked outward from the center until we hit the edges, at which point John measured up for the first two cuts he'd be making with the wet saw.
And it went on from there--we developed a rhythm where I'd lay down whole tiles and John would cut the little ones for the ends. He was back and forth to the saw outside the kitchen door; I was up and down grabbing tiles, spacers, screwdriver and trowel. It went pretty smoothly; the bricks climbed up the wall. The more we tiled, the more exciting it was to behold!
Meanwhile, April was mowing our entire yard. Did I mention she also brought over a big excellent meal of sandwiches, potato salad and green salad? She did. It felt like the first real food I'd had in weeks.
Tiling is slow, at least for us. We've had it with these tiling books that say "leave most of a day for tiling a tub surround" and then it winds up taking two full days. Maybe it's just because we're newbies at it, but I'm not sure how we could have gone faster. Anyway, it was late in the evening by the time we finished the big wall. April, after joining in the tiling for a while, wisely went home. John and I slogged through four rows of a short wall before calling it quits.
We were exhausted, but it was one of those nights where we finish a task and then get really happy and excited envisioning how the house will be in a year or so. We stood out in the yard, looking at our tile through the window. And I also realized that, when we get around to tearing off our back screened porch and making it a patio someday, it will make a perfect amphitheater. We can have music or movies (!) there and the yard makes a nice natural bowl sloping down to it. Start practicing yer banjos, folks.
Here's a big shoutout to our patient and helpful friend April! Thanks!
- Erika
[insert rock or stone pun here]
Friday, glorious Friday! We took a big old break from the routine and pencilled in a date with the soapstone quarry. Borrowed a big truck from our friends at Double H Farm, drove it through the beautiful back roads of Nelson County and hopped out at the quarry gate. They issued us hardhats and we backed the truck up to the scrap pile from whence our floor would come.
We've been planning on 3/4 inch stone for the floor--I'm not sure where that number came from, but it turned out not to be a standard thickness for the stones in the scrap pile. Many were 1 inch, many were 7/8 inch, many were honkin' chunks of rock that probably haven't moved in decades. We got to work, picking through the pile each with a tape measure in hand. 3/4? No. 3/4? No. 3/4? No. 3/4? Yes. Put it on the truck.
This went on for oh, about four hours. Slowly we filled an area on the bed of the truck about as big as our bathroom. It was really fun, actually--a hot day, with warmth radiating off the rocks--a real outdoor summer work day, this year's first. We climbed around, made little piles, forgot them, found them again. Another couple was there getting stones for a garden wall and helped us look for 3/4 pieces. (The guy says "My wife and I decided to write a 'don't do it yourself' book. Want to get in on that?") People from the quarry office brought us bottled water. It rained lightly for a little while.
Way at the back, half in the woods, I discovered a stash of small 3/4 inch triangles, probably corners cut off something, and brought down 4 or 5 armfuls of them for filling in gaps.
Once we had the floor, we quickly gathered some thicker big pieces for a hearth under our woodstove, then some thin ones for shelves in the shower. Then we went out to the yard and picked out a nice big slab to use for making our sink top. Two guys loaded it on a forklift and weighed it: 260 pounds!
Headed out to the house with all the stone. (Picked up ice cream and beer on the way.) How are we gonna unload this big slab? I was sure somebody's fingers would get smashed. We built a ramp out of plywood, eased it down, slipped it off the side, stood it on end, put the palette under it and lowered it down. Then shuttled the rest of the pieces into the house.
Did some sanding and mudding (of course), then brought the truck back to the farm. They were almost ready for bed, since the farmers' market was the next morning, but they sat up with us and had a beer.
What a day!
- Erika
Week in Review
Another set of weekdays gone by without blogging. I think we can sum them up in two categories: hell trip to Lowe's and more taping/mudding/sanding.
Early in the week we set aside a full night to go get a bunch of things from that abomination, that wretched pit of ignorance and apathy, Lowe's. First we had to return 6 sheets of nasty treated plywood, a purchase made almost two months ago in a questionable state of mind. They had been stacked all this time on our living room floor. They were moist upon purchase. Two months later, we've got a 4'x8' mold-stained reminder of our folly. Don't leave moist lumber stacked on your wood floor. Duh.
So we returned a bunch of stuff then went into the store for a bathroom sink basin, faucet set, toilet, a few plumbing accessories, more sheet rock, etc. We were approached by a young couple, who were making uncomfortably polite conversation with us, and as I started to bail on them we were told that we "fit the demographic" and they wanted us to listen to their business opportunity. The best part, I thought, was that the name of their organization is "The Business Team" and I could only imagine the brainstorm that led to that choice. "Hmm, we need a name for our business team...but what to call it?" Anyway, after politely declining, they slipped back into the darkness, somewhere over by the carpet floor display most likely.
Long story short, I think...the toilet that we decided to buy, after an hour's deliberations, wasn't in stock. Of course. They have toilets that can flush two dozen golf balls, four miles of extra thick toilet paper, and gallons of used motor oil. Amazing. We liked the small one, because we don't flush too many golf balls these days.
Man, I want to keep going on about each experience we had in each department, with each and every employee who did not know, did not care, or did not exist. But never mind. I'm way late on this entry anyway.
More importantly, we spent several days after that mudding and sanding in the bathroom. We also started drywalling the other sides of those walls (living room and kitchen) so that we wouldn't have to stress the tile and grout jobs that we have planned for a few days from now. Finally glued up the main plumbing vent and closed that up behind a wall.
And skimcoating - as if sanding and resanding drywall mud over joints and corners wasn't enough, we "skimcoated" the areas around the shower that will be painted rather than covered with tile. Since the DensShield backer is textured, we smeared it with mud and had to sand all of that down too. Lookin' tough!
Early in the week we set aside a full night to go get a bunch of things from that abomination, that wretched pit of ignorance and apathy, Lowe's. First we had to return 6 sheets of nasty treated plywood, a purchase made almost two months ago in a questionable state of mind. They had been stacked all this time on our living room floor. They were moist upon purchase. Two months later, we've got a 4'x8' mold-stained reminder of our folly. Don't leave moist lumber stacked on your wood floor. Duh.
So we returned a bunch of stuff then went into the store for a bathroom sink basin, faucet set, toilet, a few plumbing accessories, more sheet rock, etc. We were approached by a young couple, who were making uncomfortably polite conversation with us, and as I started to bail on them we were told that we "fit the demographic" and they wanted us to listen to their business opportunity. The best part, I thought, was that the name of their organization is "The Business Team" and I could only imagine the brainstorm that led to that choice. "Hmm, we need a name for our business team...but what to call it?" Anyway, after politely declining, they slipped back into the darkness, somewhere over by the carpet floor display most likely.
Long story short, I think...the toilet that we decided to buy, after an hour's deliberations, wasn't in stock. Of course. They have toilets that can flush two dozen golf balls, four miles of extra thick toilet paper, and gallons of used motor oil. Amazing. We liked the small one, because we don't flush too many golf balls these days.
Man, I want to keep going on about each experience we had in each department, with each and every employee who did not know, did not care, or did not exist. But never mind. I'm way late on this entry anyway.
More importantly, we spent several days after that mudding and sanding in the bathroom. We also started drywalling the other sides of those walls (living room and kitchen) so that we wouldn't have to stress the tile and grout jobs that we have planned for a few days from now. Finally glued up the main plumbing vent and closed that up behind a wall.
And skimcoating - as if sanding and resanding drywall mud over joints and corners wasn't enough, we "skimcoated" the areas around the shower that will be painted rather than covered with tile. Since the DensShield backer is textured, we smeared it with mud and had to sand all of that down too. Lookin' tough!
- John
Look, a corner!
The bathroom, from a distance.
Correcting our mistake with vinegar.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Clean for a day
Reason #47 why Nellysford is the bomb: the wine and cheese shop Basic Necessities, located right between the friendly hardware store and the plaza with the organic grocery/excellent coffeeshop and bakery/barbecue joint. Why are we so lucky? All this stuff is a mile and a half from our house. This is living.
We went to Basic Necessities for brunch with my mom. It's kind of South of France, kind of central California: funky orange and green cottage with flowers outside, a tiny front room with cheese counter and coffee counter, narrow passageway through wine shelves back to the back porch, which is screened in but has a fireplace and cute little mismatched dishes and tablecloths. They brought us giant cups of strong coffee, fruit with creme fraiche, and big plates of breakfast. "And of course...cookies," as the menu says. Cats wandered the backyard as we ate. We skipped the mimosas. This time.
Enough messing around. We got to the house, changed clothes, and buckled down. Mom went back to the kitchen and got to cleaning. John and I started on a long list of tasks:
--kitchen sink plumbing. This involved some crawlspace crimping, some side yard crimping, and some cutting of curved PEX tubing that took about 90 tries to get straight. The yard was littered with half-inch lengths of PEX, cut crookedly on both ends, as we made cut after cut. It was nice and sunny sitting there in the grass: an outdoor plumbing party.
--John did some wiring on the wall between dining room and bathroom. We'll have to drywall the dining room side before we tile the bathroom, otherwise we'll crack our tile hammering drywall in. So, ahead of that, he put in a couple of outlets and a switch. Where is it best to put the light switch? All we can do is guess.
--I mowed what John didn't get to last week. It still looks like hell, but it's no longer thigh-high.
--Will it ever end? John touched up some drywall spots.
--We mixed up thin-set in a bucket and used it to set the kerdi-band, the fancy orange Swiss-made tape that goes over the DensShield seams around the shower. Looks pretty hip. I rather liked troweling, too.
Meanwhile, Mom had gotten the kitchen all sparkly and moved on to the basement, previously a concrete box filled with dust, ladybugs and random household items. She got it all neatened up and swept out--aaahh! So nice! Then she started cleaning windows upstairs. This inspired me to bring a shelf from the back porch into our tool room and put our tools in some state of order, rather than heaped on the floor. That in turn inspired John to haul out most of the stuff in that room that isn't ours and is basically in our way: bad framed art, drawers with no cabinets, rags, panes of glass...Some of this we'll save and reuse, but some of it needs to go away. (One really awesome thing: a set of metal framing pieces for a greenhouse kit!)
So, by end of day, we had a much cleaner house with a bathroom a couple of steps closer to being finished. We'll order tile and buy a toilet and sink basin Monday night, we hope--entering the home stretch! (Literally, since we're moving in less than a month!)
Thanks for making our house so much homier, Mom!
We went to Basic Necessities for brunch with my mom. It's kind of South of France, kind of central California: funky orange and green cottage with flowers outside, a tiny front room with cheese counter and coffee counter, narrow passageway through wine shelves back to the back porch, which is screened in but has a fireplace and cute little mismatched dishes and tablecloths. They brought us giant cups of strong coffee, fruit with creme fraiche, and big plates of breakfast. "And of course...cookies," as the menu says. Cats wandered the backyard as we ate. We skipped the mimosas. This time.
Enough messing around. We got to the house, changed clothes, and buckled down. Mom went back to the kitchen and got to cleaning. John and I started on a long list of tasks:
--kitchen sink plumbing. This involved some crawlspace crimping, some side yard crimping, and some cutting of curved PEX tubing that took about 90 tries to get straight. The yard was littered with half-inch lengths of PEX, cut crookedly on both ends, as we made cut after cut. It was nice and sunny sitting there in the grass: an outdoor plumbing party.
--John did some wiring on the wall between dining room and bathroom. We'll have to drywall the dining room side before we tile the bathroom, otherwise we'll crack our tile hammering drywall in. So, ahead of that, he put in a couple of outlets and a switch. Where is it best to put the light switch? All we can do is guess.
--I mowed what John didn't get to last week. It still looks like hell, but it's no longer thigh-high.
--Will it ever end? John touched up some drywall spots.
--We mixed up thin-set in a bucket and used it to set the kerdi-band, the fancy orange Swiss-made tape that goes over the DensShield seams around the shower. Looks pretty hip. I rather liked troweling, too.
Meanwhile, Mom had gotten the kitchen all sparkly and moved on to the basement, previously a concrete box filled with dust, ladybugs and random household items. She got it all neatened up and swept out--aaahh! So nice! Then she started cleaning windows upstairs. This inspired me to bring a shelf from the back porch into our tool room and put our tools in some state of order, rather than heaped on the floor. That in turn inspired John to haul out most of the stuff in that room that isn't ours and is basically in our way: bad framed art, drawers with no cabinets, rags, panes of glass...Some of this we'll save and reuse, but some of it needs to go away. (One really awesome thing: a set of metal framing pieces for a greenhouse kit!)
So, by end of day, we had a much cleaner house with a bathroom a couple of steps closer to being finished. We'll order tile and buy a toilet and sink basin Monday night, we hope--entering the home stretch! (Literally, since we're moving in less than a month!)
Thanks for making our house so much homier, Mom!
- Erika
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