time for tile [the walls].

Ok, to start off this post there are two things worth mentioning...

1) This was certainly the most intense job of this entire remodel (in comparison, even all the plumbing stuff I did here and here was easier, or at least less time-consuming)

2) The $20 I spent on this ol' Workforce tile saw at a garage sale eons ago was maybe the best $20 I ever spent...

Now that's out of the way, we had some tiling to do... The wall behind where the vanity was going to be and the entire shower surround (including the window and two built-in shelves). Whee.

First off, I thought the saw could use a new blade...

Then I set it up on our front porch (umm, this was back in the summer when it was hot)...

And we promptly got to work. Here's the wall...

Not too bad. We added a tack strip after leveling it on which to lie the first row of tiles (the strip was 1/8" taller than the 7" baseboard would be), and worked our way up and around (first) the plumbing stub-outs. Drilling ceramic tile isn't bad, and what's funny is I was searching for a way to do it and keep the bit from sliding. I finally found something that looked like it would work and then called the local hardware store to see if they carried it. The guy on the other end probably didn't think I was terribly resourceful, because he offered a simple solution that didn't entail having to buy anything:

- Take the same size bit and drill into a piece of wood to use as a guide

Umm, boom. Yeah, brilliant! So I did...

Here then is the outline for the drain...

I didn't have a bit that big, so I had to, well, be resourceful (or just creative, heh)... I started by clamping down my homemade drill guide to the tile...

Filled it with water to keep the bit from overheating...

And drilled...

And kept drilling, repositioning the guide about a dozen times...

Then took my tile snips to get a rough circle...

Finally, set the tile into place...

Boom.

Then I had to drill for the two glass shelves we'll be installing above the vanity. Sort of the same drill, except the tiles were already set on the wall so I used another piece of wood and stapled some grippy rubber shelf liner material to the backside, then just stuck it to the wall and drilled...

Boom.

And the wall was finished (including the top border)...

What will bug me for the rest of the time we're in this house is the fact I screwed up that top border when I centered them, when I should have offset them like the rest of the 'subway' installation. Bother all, seriously. It really bugs me, but not (yet) enough to chisel that top border off and reinstall. I'm not saying it won't happen, but not in the foreseeable future. It's just going to have to bug me.

Well then, that was child's play compared to the impending shower. This was going to take some time...

But in between dozens of weekends spent doing dozens of various things, we (finally) installed the final tile this afternoon!

Backing up a bit, we set up shop in the bathroom, and so this was how our bathroom looked for these past couple of weekends...

With a thick, moving blanket on it, the vanity actually made a really nice workbench...

Nope, rather than a nice bathtub reading/wine caddy for my wife, we had an old piece of plywood to hold tools and our bucket of thinset while we worked...

Sharpies came in handy, as did an old T-square I found at a garage sale that I thought was kind of retro-cool...

There was lots of marking. And measuring. And above all, cutting. Lots of cutting. Never-ending cutting, it seemed. I cannot imagine doing this job with the tile saw any further away than it was...

K would measure the tile length we needed and relay it to me. I'd measure and mark the tile, cut it, then hand it to her...

We had a system. It still took a long time. But she was having fun...

And I was collecting a pile of scrap tile beneath my feet...

I ended up free cutting 90% of the tiles, just marking them with the Sharpie and cutting them without the fence. The 7" blade made cutting straight lines really easy, and once I got in the groove I was able to whip out cut tiles at a pretty decent clip. It still took a long time...

Then we got to the plumbing again. But we were in a groove, and it was only a slight bump in our blinding pace. I started by marking the tile using the Kohler valve guide as a template...

Cut (in this case, actually cutting the otherwise full tile in two)...

And set in place...

Onward!

In time, all of the walls were done, which just left the inside of the window and the two built-ins...

I spent an evening while K went to grab S from her sister-in-law (who had been gracious enough to offer to watch him for us while we spent a solid 8 hours tiling!) just cutting all the inside tiles for all three. Installing them wasn't hard - and I spaced the horizontal top and bottom tiles ever-so-slightly wider so that I could use eight full tiles...

The tile for the bottom sill is sloped at about a 14º angle so the water just runs off onto the tub...

We had long-ago chosen glass tiles for our built-ins, and at some point I realized they sort of mimicked the look of the window. I bought white thinset (and grout) to use on the glass (since we were using a pewter grout for the white tiles, we had been using a dark thinset). Somewhat miraculously, the space for the built-ins fit two tiles across and five rows high - perfectly...

And then... and then, it was time to cut the final tile, the smallest tile of the entire installation...

And it was complete!!!

(Even the two sides along the tub to the floor... )

I went out to announce the news and found K holding Squish, taking his second nap...

: )

She had kept him occupied whilst I finished this job for us. I have the best wife...

The last little thing I did was fixed a broken corner of floor tile since I had a little bit of thinset left in the bucket. I started by cramming some little broken pieces of tile into the space (the reason the tile had cracked was because there wasn't subfloor directly underneath and I had dropped a piece of trim on it, bleh)...

Then globbed in some thinset and gently placed the two cracked pieces...

And re-fit the trim...

Boom.

At long last, I cleaned up. Vacuumed. Removed all the drop cloths, tools, and trash. Then, with a sigh, I took the moving blanket off the vanity (it's not yet installed, just sitting there because it had been in the living room where we needed to put our Christmas tree, heh), and stood back...

Kind of cool. It's come a long way. A really, really long way. Especially since this day two summer's ago... And there's still plenty of stuff to do (umm, including grouting all this mess, but grouting really is easy). But it's starting to look like our bathroom, the one we both envisioned, designed, and planned together.

Next up... Grout and caulk. Then finish hanging the crown, buy the crown for the doorways, caulk all the trim, install the fixtures (toilet, vanity, towel bars, mirror, etc.), and touch up paint and stuff. Oh, and buy then install the glass shower door. That'll be cool!

Closer though... closer...

fireplace and hearth finally finished.

So I had a deadline to finish the fireplace by Christmas. I don't know why - I guess I had it in my head it is sort of a center-piece for the holiday and so wanted it finished. Or maybe I just wanted it finished.

First I had to tear off the plywood subflooring whoever put in that raised the ceramic tiles they had installed (but never grouted - it was one of the things they literally froze and stopped doing as soon as I put in an offer on this little house) above the level of the wood floor. I never understood that. So I ripped it out. Which revealed the original clay hearth and fir floor -

The fir flooring was slightly lower than the clay hearth so time to mix up some Presto Patch -

I've used to level flooring in the past (in the guest bath to even it out with the kitchen subfloor before installing tile way back when) and had some leftover -

The thing that took the longest - maybe surprisingly, maybe not - was choosing the tiles to place and the pattern to use. I needed ten and had maybe fourteen or so - some were more grey than others or had less orange so I tried to get them to all look as close as possible. I love love love slate and how each tile is different but since it was such a small area (maybe eight square feet or so) I wanted less irregularities between the ten tiles I had to place. Over a larger area the irregularities would have seemed less - well - obvious I guess. Or so went my thinking.

But after a bit of time I had a pattern figured out and headed out to the garage to break out the $20-garage-sale-find tile saw to cut the slate -

Then mix up some leftover thinset I had from when I tiled the shower in the guest bath a couple years back and set everything in place -

While it set I switched gears to finish trimming my bedroom closet. Fit the baseboards in perfectly - and finally realized that if you don't have to use a hammer to wedge trim to fit you cut it too short ...

(like here I'd hit that scrap 1x4 on one corner a few times, then slide it over to the other corner and tap a bit, then back - and forth - and back - and forth - until it was firmly wedged in place). Then I cut out the threshold and finished off the 'step' into the closet -

And the closet was finished -

Then back to the hearth. And time to grout. I thankfully had the foresight to read up on grouting slate beforehand and got the little tip to pre-seal slate - since it's so porous. Without presealing the tile I guess it just soaks up the grout and it becomes nearly impossible to get the grout off the tile. And another tip to use a frosting-like applicator bag (frosting as in cake frosting - tapered to a point on one end so you can squeeze out the grout directly into the space between the tiles) - which I just happened to have gotten at some garage sale years ago probably with most of my other tiling and grouting tools.

I have to say even after all that - getting grout off slate is next to impossible. Ugh. I was admittedly glad I was only doing eight square feet even though I'd love to have a complete slate floor in my kitchen and back in the laundry room. I'd have to test some sealers on scrap tiles first to try to minimize the extreme work required to get the grout off the tile.

But after some time on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and half vinegar-half water solution that did work quite well to get all the grout haze off the tile (the toothbrush was used to try to scrub the grout from all the crevasses and unevenness of the slate) I got most of it off -

And after touching up some spots on the fireplace that got scratched while installing the slate (I used Benjamin Moore hc-104 copley grey) it was finished (and actually level with the rest of the flooring) -

So now - finally - with the paneling I installed above the mantel this past January - the paint and now the slate - the fireplace is complete. I had wanted to strip the paint from the brick but after testing some spots I discovered the brick wasn't very pretty. Nor was it above the mantel - I had ripped off the beadboard years ago hoping to find beautiful brick. Nope. Just plaster. So I built that paneling.

But now that it's done I like it. Some old original brick would have been cool but oh well. I still like it. Oh yeah - and here's what it used to look like when I first moved in -