A Shower of Tiles

She Says:

The next tiling project is the shower.  We chose a glass mosaic:

The color is Iceland, by Bliss Tile.

Here's the first wall.

And a close up, ungrouted of the tile around what will soon be the window.

The second shower wall tiled, and a goofy HoneyDo has just cut the hole for the window!

Here's the window installed.  As you can see, it offers a beautiful view onto the back of the property.

And finally, all three sides of the shower tiled, window in.

He Says:

Never again.  Next time we do a shower, we're using a nice, sane 12x12 tile like normal people do.  The number of hours I spent tweaking the alignment of every last one of those thousands...hey wait, I can calculate this...over 28,000 individual tiles in this shower cannot be expressed.  It took a LONG time.  The mesh backing sorta holds the tiles in alignment, but not really.  Many of them still have to be tweaked by hand if you want them to be perfect.

It is a cool shower though.  I sealed the window mechanisms with silicone caulk.  The corners of the shower were also sealed with silicone.  It's really nice to be able to open the window while you take a shower if you want.

She Says:

HoneyDo finished the shower tile area, but before we could install the shower door, the rest of the wall tile needed to go up.  Since the mosaic tile drove HoneyDo a little bit crazy, the subway tile was all me.

It took a long. time.  I don't know what he was complaining about... sure, he had to lay 28,000 tiles, but his tiles were on a 12 inch square mesh... The subway tiles had to be laid one by one, like bricks.

I was surprised at how physically challenging this job was- my arms were sore for days!  But progress was made, row by row, then the mosaic accent, then one last row, and done!  The next day, I grouted them using a while grout:

Next came the installation of the shower door.  Although it went smoothly, 2 large pieces of glass being wielded around in a very small space was rather tense at times, and photography tends to be forgotten at moments like these.  So here it is in situ:

He Says:

The Dreamline door kit is simple and straightforward.  The glass is tempered and ground to a nice non-threatening soft edge.  Be aware that tempered glass is finicky.  You can hit the large flat face with a hammer and it won't break, but sometimes a surprisingly soft tap on the edge will shatter it.  So, we handled the glass with care.  The aluminum frame is sealed to the walls and pan with clear silicone caulk.

At this point we could start taking showers in this nice, new, clean shower and not in the weird dark moldy cave of the other shower.  Ahh.  Nice.

The Floor Tile Finds Its Way

She Says:

Okay, the walls are in, and once we get the floor prepped, we'll be ready to tile!

We installed a Schluter system as our waterproof membrane.

He Says:

Schluter products are awesome.  Lots of good printed info on them, and plenty of installation videos on the web.  Specifically, this is their de-coupling membrane, which both waterproofs a floor installation and prevents cracking of the tile.  Highly recommended.  Be aware that use a membrane like this takes up a LOT of thinset and you must follow the Schluter instructions as to the type of thinset mortar used. 

She Says:

Now for the floor tile-

We chose a 12x18 porcelain for the floor.  We laid out the full tiles first so we could measure the size of the tiles to be cut.

The floor was temporarily delayed while the project manager stopped by for a surprise inspection:

But once she approved, (or lost interest... it's hard to tell with a cat) we were back on track.

Here's a tip: when it comes to tile cutters, you get what you pay for.  At our local Lowe's store, they had 3 to choose from: $20, $40, and $100.  As this was my first time shopping for a tile cutter (and cutting tile, for that matter), I figured, meh, they all look the same.  Why spend $100 when you only have to spend $20?

I found out the answer to that question the hard way.  It turns out, the el cheapo one was, you guessed it, made cheaply!  If you've never cut tile before, it's actually pretty easy.  You score it first with the blade, then press down on the handle, and pop!  The tile breaks right down your scored line.  Unless you buy the el cheapo tile cutter, which just kind of bows disagreeably and chips your tile.  Ugh.  One trip back to Lowe's and $100 later, and I had this beauty:

Works like a charm.  Lesson learned.

Once I had all the tiles cut, I dry fit them all back in the room.  Then I took each one out and laid them out in the order I would be using them in the room next door.  I know, this sounds like anal retentive overkill, which it was.  But in my defense, since the defective tile cutter had eaten several of my tiles, I only had one spare tile left at the end and couldn't afford to make any mistakes.

This was the first floor tile we had ever laid, and I'm not gonna lie... it was rough.  We didn't take any during pictures because we were too intent on getting the job right.  Applying enough thinset so that the tiles will adhere.  Keeping the current tile level with all of its neighbors.  Muscling the tile into place.  Making sure the spacers stay put.  And heaven forbid if we put down too much thinset and had to lift the tile back up again, which we had to do more often than I care to remember.  But when we were done, it looked like this:

We went to bed, exhausted.  The next day, the grout:

A messy job, but enjoyable.

And here's the finished product!  It turned out beautifully, and we learned *a lot* along the way.  Now the tile heads up the walls...

DIY - Scarf and Belt Rack

She Says:

I love scarfs.  It's an addiction.  I could never have too many (I have way too many).  They're so colorful and soft and silky.  It's one of my favorite things about the weather getting cooler... I call it scarf weather.

He Says:

I love belts.  They keep up my pants.

She Says:  

So I figured we needed something to hold our favorite things in our new closet.  I had a couple of leftover pieces from the closet organizer kit (isn't there always?) that I repurposed for a scarf rack!

This was a part of the wall mounting system we didn't need to use.  Basically, it's just a piece of wood which matches the rest of the closet pieces.

I drilled holes spaced evenly across the board.  The piece already had holes drilled on each end, but they were too big, so I added a couple of washers so the screw wouldn't slip through.

Then I stole a few of the knobs we've already bought for the kitchen cabinets and screwed them into place:

We drilled small holes at an angle along the bottom of the wood, then drove finish nails through them and into the wall.

No mounting hardware needed!

Here it is, hard at work, holding some of my beloved scarves:

And here it is, submitting to a Cat Scan:

He Says:

And my belt rack?

She Says:

Yup.  That's done, too.

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DIY: Staining the Back Porch

She Says:

Once HoneyDo finished building the back porch, I stepped in with the stain.

In Canyon Brown.

Before staining a deck or porch, the wood surface has to be cleaned.  Older surfaces need a good cleaning and stripping.  Because the porch is new construction, the prep work for the stain was pretty easy.  

A sweep up of the pine needles (I love having pine needles to sweep!):

Light sanding of the wood with 60 grit on the sander:  

Wipe down with a damp cloth:

And let it dry:

Apply the stain with a brush.  The trick with stain (just like with paint) is to maintain a wet edge so you don't get a dark line.  Let dry for 24 hours; no one should walk on it.  I guess this guy couldn't read the wet paint sign...

I came back and gave it a second coat because we wanted the color a little darker:

One stained back porch: done.

Sorry about the dust- you never can really get rid of the dust when you're living in a reno.  We'll finish up this project by painting the banister and under the step, but that will have to wait until the front porch is done and ready for paint.

DIY: Basket Storage

I am always on the lookout for extra storage space, but I also like to put our little stamp on things to make it uniquely us.

We had some extra space in the laundry room and decided to add some cabinets.  We went back to our old faithful cabinet shop and found some small wall cabinets that fit perfectly.  These are the size and shape usually used above the fridge, but we used three side by side to create the look we were going for.

We mounted them flush to the ceiling using cabinet screws.  

Then we cut a piece of 1/4" furniture grade plywood to make a bottom for the cabinets:

and trimmed them out with a simple cove molding.

For the paint, I used Sherwin-Williams ProClassic oil base, just like on the laundry riser.  

As I started painting the cabinets, I realized I didn't want a monolithic block of cabinet doors and experimented with this basket I had on hand:

I liked the look of it, so I headed to Michael's to find some matching baskets and these stenciling tools:

and labelled the baskets with things I keep in the mud room: garden, auto, lights and misc:

I kept the doors on the either end to add a little interest.  And there you have it!