Change in Plan

In the last episode of the Great Watts Bathroom Remodel - we fell 4 tiles short of finishing the floor of the hallway, entry, and bathroom. This left us, and you our dedicated readers, excited about wall texturing. Well the executive decision maker decided that the blog writer did not know what he was doing and demoted him.

Then forced our intrepid blog writer to become go-fer.

Joyce was looking at the light we saw a Lowes while in Las Cruces a couple of weeks ago and realized that there was a Lowes in wonderful Hobbs NM. Hobbs is an exciting very unscenic 2 hour drive from here. This is where our intrepid former blog writer comes in. Joyce ordered the newly demoted sap to become a go-fer. Go-fer that tile we need let's get this thing done. So off I went - 4 1/2 hours later I return and promptly start working on tiling the rest of the bathroom wall.

Here is the image of the tile. It still needs to be cleaned but it is finished.



Here is a shot of the toilet area. The switch on the wall is for the ventilation fan I installed. It has timer switches so the fan will turn off automatically after time expires.



By the way Nikole grouted this area. She did a great job.

We will put the vanity back into the bathroom soon and it just might stay there. Joyce and I have finally decided how to finish that off. But that is for another show...




I also finished tiling the hallway and replaced a couple of damaged tiles. As well as redo the thinset on a couple that didn't quite get installed correctly.

Here is a shot of the hallway after the grout. The grout is expected to lighten up a bit in a day or so.



Here is the entry... Notice we tiled the closet as well.



Here is a close up of the tile pattern and grout



We have all watched shows on TV where someone is doing tile in some room of their house. They are nice enough to show how to grout - but they never show this actually being done. I now know why - it is not glamorous, it is not fun, and it is messy.



Joyce and I also decided that this was a perfect way to punish our kids...



Just kidding - Nikole foolishly volunteered.

Maybe next time we will show the walls textured and possibly painted.

A Day's Hard Work...

I took the day off so I could work on the Bathroom. I took yesterday off also but by the time I was able to get to the bathroom the day was pretty much over. So Joyce and I cleaned up the thinset from the tiles on the floor. I finished that up this morning.

But the Hallway, Entry, and Bathroom floor is all tiled. Well for the most part - we were 4 tiles short of finishing. Arrrrggggh I say! Oh well. Here is what it looks like.







All we have to do is finish the tiling (four tile) and grout then the floor will be done.

Next on the list - grout the tub/shower. This is not hard but it certainly does not go like on TV and I did not have the magic of TV to help out. But between Nikole, Joyce, and I we got it done. Meg probably would have helped but there wasn't any room.

Here are the images of this adventure.





We are not finished with the tiling in the bathroom. I still have the wall behind the toilet area. Which is the wall with the gray backerboard. This whole area will be tiled as well as the half wall between the sinks and toilet. The tile will cover both sides of the wall. We will also carry the tile over the sinks for the back splash and the accent also.

Tomorrow - texture the walls and ceilings in the bathroom at least. In the hallway and entry would be ideal. Or maybe we will just take the day off and have some fun. Who knows...

Long Weekend = Working Like a Rented Mule

We had some terrible, terrible weather here in southeastern New Mexico last week. Yes we had snow (a whole 1.5 inches) and cold temperatures (I think the coldest was -11 without wind chill). They closed schools down, they shut state government offices down, they shut county offices down, and they shut Federal government offices down. I'm telling you it was terrible - the horror! It was actually pretty bad. You have to keep in mind that this part of the state sees snow but not often. They rarely have that cold of temperatures - though and that is what actually caused most of the problem. New Mexico actually had a natural gas shortage - that was the other problem. So from Wednesday to Sunday I had time to sit around and do nothing. YEAH RIGHT!!!

Everyone by now should know that we decided to have the tile in the bathroom, entry, and hallway all the same. Well we have to think ahead a bit to future projects. One of those projects is to do something with the Bonus Room - which has nothing in it by the way. The idea is to make the room a bit more open. There is a solid wall between the Living Room and the Bonus Room. We want to at least open the wall up so people can sit at a countertop and look into the Living Room. We also decided to open the opening between the entry way and the Bonus Room.

So we did...

You can kind of see where the wall used to be on the far side of the new opening on the floor. We opened this from 49 inches to 81 inches.



We also decided to enlarge the opening into the Living Room from the Hallway. The amount was only about 6 to 8 inches but this made a huge difference and looks much better than before.



I could not just enlarge the opening without major reconstruction. That took most of the time over the weekend and several trips to the Big Box store. But now we have most of the "thinking ahead" projects done and on hold for the moment.

Back to the Bathroom...

This house was built in 1966 so the texture is aged. So I smoothed that out by adding more drywall joint compound and sanded. Now ready for brand new texture. But that can wait. Joyce and the girls finished the existing cabinet. After some minor modifications it fit back into the bathroom like a glove.



The tub is a cast iron tub original to the house also. The only thing wrong with the tub was a bit of rust and cracking near the overflow as well as some rust near the drain. Joyce called a couple of businesses here in the greater Roswell metropolitan area. They were going to charge - are you ready for this - $400. We can get a new tub for this price. So we bought a kit ($50) to re-enamel it ourselves. This actually worked out pretty good.

Before...



Want to see the after? Of course you do but you can't - well not right now anyway.

We are now ready to tile. Great story about this tile.

[Fading back to the cusp of my memory or what you would call a couple of weeks ago]

We went to Las Cruces (3 hours away) to look at tile for the shower and tub area. Not a whole lot of selection in the Roswell area. We looked at tile and picked some great stuff out for the floor. But then we saw the sink...



But Lowes in Las Cruces did not have this sink. But wait I have a handy dandy smart phone - to the Google... I called the store in Alamogordo (say it just like it sounds) they had one - we needed two. So called a store in El Paso they had one and only one. Great!! So here is the new plan. Go to El Paso Texas get the sink from that Lowes and go to Alamogordo and get that one. Oh while in El Paso get the tile. So off we go to El Paso - insert Marty Robbins here. Unfortunately we didn't stop at the Cantina - but I do know where it is located - no really I do. We arrive in El Paso find the sink and get the tile for the floor. Off to Alamogordo...

On the way to Alamogordo we traversed the Trans-Mountain pass. From here you get a great view of west El Paso and west Juarez Mexico and a couple of other small towns in both Mexico and New Mexico. We get on the other side and I need to feed the truck. While feeding the truck we notice a Lowes across the street. So why not go and see if they have the sink. After all we need to be at the Alamogordo (can you say it without tripping up yet) by at least 8:30pm they close at 9:00pm. We go into the other El Paso Lowes and they have one of the sinks as well and at a lower price - SCORE!!

Feeling pretty good about ourselves we settle into a 3.75 hour drive back to Roswell. Well at about Orogrande (say this one like it sounds also - see you can speak New Mexican for 'small bump in road we call a town') I start thinking about the work we have to do and how the shower tile... Huh we forgot to get the shower tile - insert favorite cuss word(s) here. We are still stopping in Alamogordo. Long story a bit shorter (I know too late) we got the tile. So four Lowes later we finally have everything for the bathroom. Sinks, faucets, floor AND shower tile.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch - [fade back to the present]

I started to tile the tub/shower. I was only able to put in a couple of hours on it tonight. But made some good progress.. Now you can see the after...



Here is the before again for comparison...



We are really liking this outcome - ALOT!

As my work comes to an end - The ladies (Joyce, Nikole, Meganne) are gearing up to start theirs. One of the items on the list - paint. While I am pretty much taking a back seat to this I am letting my voice be heard. I do not want this bathroom to go back to the Mamie Eisenhower days. She liked pink - the pinker the better.

Here are the choices so far...



Which one do you like??

But NO PINK!!!



Here is another shot of the bathroom so far from the Hallway...



Hope you enjoyed the continuing adventures of the Great Watts Main Bathroom Remodel. Tune in next time when someone learns how to use the new tile saw... Meg?

Starting to see the vision

Thought I would take a minute and catch you up on the progress. Yes, we are making progress. What has happened since the "sneaky shower"? Well we took another part of the wall down so we could change the plumbing to accomodate a double sink. Philip has installed a vent fan/light and wired it to the respective switches and has added 6 new outlets for the vanity area. I HATE bathrooms that don't have enough plug ins. The kids and I have got the vanity repainted and just about ready to go back in. We are making progress it is just hard to realize it because what we are doing is all the stuff that will be hidden by the wall. We do have the shower area all ready to tile. The kids have learned alot about basic stuff. Nikole and Meganne have both helped with plumbing. Nikole is learning the fine art of measuring the wall and cutting the sheetrock. Meganne is learning the fine art of patience in waiting for paint to dry. We are all learning the fine art of "going with the flow"...unless of course the flow is the water gushing out of a pipe that broke while trying to fit the sheetrock over it. Then we all start moving pretty fast. :) Except Meganne who was napping the whole time.

Did we say bathroom????

Umm--so this remodel is growing and growing. But this is why: we're crazy!
Oh no, wait, that's not the only reason. In our vision of what our entry, hall, and bathroom floor will look like, they all flow together as one continuous pattern. To accomplish that we decided it would be easiest to just do everything all at once. Up came the hallway carpet and up came the entryway tile. No, it wasn't that easy as you can see the entryway tile was a PAIN to get up. It wasn't really tile so it came up in peices. Sooo not fun!! A few more preparations to the floors and we will be ready to tile. Onward we go. Oh yea, has anyone out there got any good tips for us--neither one of us have ever done tile. Wish us luck.

Sneaky Shower

The shower. It helps us wake up in the morning. It cleanses the body quite well. But there is a darker side - a secret sneakyness that each shower holds. Follow our continuing adventures in The Bathroom Remodel....

Of course we did not have a shower in this bathroom. Partially the reason for the remodel really. Here is what it looked like before...



We removed the sheetrock and this is what we saw...



For the most part it is what we expected. So then the discussion turned to how do we do this. Hire a plumber - expensive. Do it ourselves - huh - but how? So which way did we choose? We did it ourselves of course. Still don't know how though. So we head to the Big Box Home Improvement store. Onto the plumbing isle...

Ever been somewhere before and thought "I have no clue as to what I am doing." Yeah that was me. So after wondering aimlessly for about 10 minutes Joyce found someone to at least point us in the right direction. Well he did more than that. We talked for a while about what I needed and gave me very good directions. In my mind though I just as well have been in a Dr Suess book. With all the windicits and howzamps. But anyway the point is that he not only gave me very good directions but I also felt like I could do it.

After a bit we got everything connected and replaced. Here is what it looks like...



Pretty neat huh, yea I was pretty happy with it also. Then I turned on the water. Well it didn't gush out water like you see sometimes in the shows on HGTV or DIY. But do keep that thought in mind. Nope it didn't gush out water but I could here a hissing. The kind like when you puncture a tire with a goathead (hmmm, guess I still need to explain that one - later). So I looked and I listened. Finally I located the sound - still couldn't find the leak but I knew I had one.

We have a house that is built on a concrete slab - so I assumed the leak was in or near the slab. Well can't fix this on my own. So who you gonna call? Yup called the plumber - on the weekend.

The plumber shows up starts his looking. We have to find the manifold he says. Manifolds - the only manifolds I know of are in cars and trucks. Well we found one behind the toilet. The plumber, Tom, did some interesting 'tests' (I think that is plumber talk for - I'm guessing here). Well it turned out that wasn't the right manifold - based on his testing. So we go looking for another manifold. Tom found another manifold where the water for the sink comes out of the wall. Well that wall wasn't really on the list for removing - oh well is now. Nope that's the hot water mainfold - well at least I know where that is located. Tom did find the right one and 'tested' it again and determined that it was indeed the right manifold. He even found the correct pipe and promptly proceeded to cap that line so we could at least turn on the water.



The blue hose is the cap. This did shut the water down to the shower - for like ever. So the plumber did tell me that we could either tap into where he capped the line or we could tap into the line by toilet. Oh decisions decisions. So Tom left with a couple of hundred dollars. But wait it could have been worse. We bought into a program with this plumbing outfit mostly so they would check the HVAC twice a year for free. Well that was about a hundred dollars when we bought it - without that we would have paid about $350.

So back to the shower. We still have to get the water back to the shower. So back to the store. I turned off the water where Tom said, quite convincingly, that would turn off the water to the "whole house man." No really he did say that. Well time to get going on the pipe of choice to tap. With Meganne holding the light and me taking a tubing cutter to the pipe. Remember that thought I told you to keep in mind - Tom was WRONG!! We had water everywhere - a mad dash I made to the water meter. Water on the wall - water on in the tub - water on the ceiling. You know that water was definately cold - just ask my back. Well I had to make another trip to the store because I didn't quite get all the right parts. But here is what the reconnect job looks like now...



The new pipe (its really just a plastic hose - but durable) now goes through just the one wall stud and around the tub. Ever consider plumbing - it really is not that bad. I definately recommend Sharkbite connections and pipe. These connections will connect directly to copper and plastic. Don't believe me - check out the picture man. We now have water going to the tub/shower. I think the tub didn't want to do double duty. Well tough! Now you get to...

We also removed the rest of the sheetrock around the tub. We also removed the wall and built a smaller one. The floor tile was also removed except by the toilet.



Check out the UFO-ish thing coming through our ceiling. Yup that's another project for another day. Tomorrow - Durock...

Later for now.

This plumbing job was approved by Tom the Plumber along with Raymond at the Big Box store. Thanks guys you helped out a lot.

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