Master Bath - Part 7

Nate has been making good progress with the shower tile this week.

We'd originally planned to use a basket-weave pattern much like in the kids' bath, but it's out of stock for the foreseeable future.  Nate found this pinwheel pattern as an alternative and it works really well.  The basket weave was a bit bigger scale than the kids' bath and this tile is a bit smaller scale.  It will actually work out better because, like a siped tire, there are more edges and it will be less slippery when it gets wet.

After the floor, he started on the walls.  It is a creamy-colored, large-scale subway tile.  The shower is fairly large and this is a decent sized room, so it can handle the larger scale.

The niche back is covered in a small-scale running bond mosaic.  You'll see more of that in a moment.

The benches are made from the same material as the backer board and are going to get covered with the tile that's going on the floor in the rest of the room.

Today, he finished all the subway inside the shower.  The "panel" surrounding the shower heads and valves is the same mosaic as in the niche.  It has a matching "pencil" that separates it from the subway tile.

Tomorrow subway tile will get installed on the exterior and top of the shower wall.

It's looking fabulous so far!

Scavenger Hunt

The girls were gone over the weekend, so there was discussion on social media whether the boys would get anything done or goof off.

Well...

Stuff got done.

Friday evening was spent paining the master bath ceiling.

A while back I'd installed an inexpensive washtub and faucet in the basement so I had a place to clean out paint brushes, etc.

Well, it turns out the faucet was not only inexpensive; it was cheap.  It started leaking all over the place so I had to get a new one.  Replacing it was the Saturday morning project.

The kitchen faucet in the carriage house hasn't been working well for a while.  A new one got installed.  Removing the old one was a pain in the neck.  Both literally and figuratively.  And that was the Saturday afternoon project.

In the evening I went on a scavenger hunt to find the door casing for the master bath.  It's all around here somewhere, but it took a while to find all the right pieces.  Then I scraped and sanded to get them ready for a new coat of paint.  And installed them so the tile guys had a reference point.

And now I know where most of the window casing is for this room.

Blood - The Real Story

We were out to dinner with parts of the extended family earlier in the week and my brother-in-law wanted to know more about the Blood Story.

So here it is...

Look at the picture in the aforementioned  post.  I cut the hole in the wall to trace some wires, as well as fish new ones.

Note also my drill in the lower left corner of the picture.  What you cannot see is that the chuck contains one of those four foot long flexible drill bits with the self-starting point.

That last phrase is important...

So, I used the hole in the wall and the long flexible bit to drill through the plate into the basement.

The drill bit has a small hole in it that's used to attach wires so you can pull them back through, thus doubling as a fish-tape.

So, I left the bit hanging down into the basement, resting the drill on the edge of the hole.  Apparently with the trigger on the lip...

And went down to the basement to see where it came out and attach the new wiring.  I'd already mapped it out, so wasn't overly worried about hitting anything.

As I walked past the drill bit, I must have bumped it with my forearm.

Just enough to apply enough pressure so that the drill's trigger was depressed and the drill started.

And the self-starting point started in my arm...

I didn't even look down, just grabbed the bit with my other hand and pushed it up enough to stop the drill.  And went about fishing the wire back up.

I didn't notice until later that I was bleeding.  And later still that had a hole in my arm.  And even later still that I connected the dots of how it got there.

Tunnel vision, I guess.

Master Bath - Part 6

While Nate was working on the tile, I've been chipping away nights and weekends on other stuff.

He needed extra light, so I wired up the switch for the shower lights and exhaust fan.

I also finally finished sanding the drywall and primed the walls and ceiling.

And today I applied a coat of ceiling white and gathered supplies for the next set of tasks.

The Shower Pan

Earlier in the week, Nate was here to start on the tile in the master bath.  In particular, the tile in the shower.

When we first met him, we talked about various options for the backer and pan.  I'd heard from some other old house owners (shout out to folks at wavyglass.org) about a couple of different systems: Schluter and Wedi.  I'd done a little more research on the Schluter system and Nate was more familiar with the Wedi one.

After some thought about doing a traditional mortar pan, Nate decided to try the Wedi system and he got the regional rep to come help on the installation day.

The first two photos show the parts of the system.  The large horizontal gray sheets are the backer for the shower walls.  The upright black piece on the right is the curb.  All are extremely lightweight. especially compared to cement board or drywall.

The box in the second photo contains the shower pan.  It's the same material as the backer sheets.

The third photo shows the installed pan and backer on some of the half-walls.  I was here to watch, but I think the pan is adhered to the sub-floor using thinset.

The panels are attached to the walls with screws and washers, similar to how you'd fasten drywall to the studs.

Then the curb is set and all the seams and penetrations are waterproofed.

Helium Hand

Helium Hand (aka SWMBO) has volunteered us to be part of another event: the 2015 Summit Garden Stroll.  It's tomorrow if you have an interest in that sort of thing.

That's why it's been busy over the past week or so.  I've been working to get the master bath ready for the tile setter while everyone else is pulling weeds.

There are a few shrubs that didn't survive the winter, but there's not time to anything about them now.  It'll be enough just to get all the weeds pulled while I wait for the mud to dry.

If you're not on the Garden Stroll, here are the summer flowers you're going to miss.

And if you'd have been here a month ago, you'd have seen these spring flowers.

Master Bath - Part 4

It's been a busy few weeks and I finally have what I hope is the last coat of mud on the walls.

If it's fully dry tomorrow, I can wipe it down or sand it to get it ready for paint.

While I'm waiting for it to dry there are a few other things have have to do.

SWMBO just sprung on my that she wants a TV in here.  Fortunately, the bottom foot of the one wall isn't closed yet, so I have a way to get the cable run up from the basement.

And I forgot about the thermostat wire that is needed for the in-floor heat.

Most of the hydronic heat parts arrived this week, so I can start getting that prepared, too.

Here's Mud in Your Eye

I was mudding and taping the ceiling the other day.  I was wearing my normal glasses instead of safety glasses.  I probably didn't have my step ladder in quite the right spot either.

A blog blob of mud fell from my taping knife.

And you guessed it... It missed my glasses and hit me right in the eye.

It was cool and refreshing, but I couldn't see a thing.

So I spent a few minutes in the kids' bath rinsing my eyeball.

It felt weird for a few hours, but no long term issues have resulted.

New Master Bath - Part 3

Now I have enough electrical done that I can close up my access points from the master bath.

So I quickly hung the rest of the dry wall.

And started throwing some mud around.

I'm hoping to get it done while I'm waiting for the in-floor radiant heat supplies to arrive.

Once they are here, I can quickly run that before the tile guy comes at the end of the month.

These are 9-foot ceilings which explains the gap in the drywall at the bottom of this one wall.  The in-floor heat manifold will go there.  Once they are installed, I'll be able to rock that bottom foot.

Crispy

Here's an example of one of those fixtures without a junction box. It's in the second floor back hall.

Note the old knob-and-tube just poking through the plaster.

The wires are twisted together, tinned, and then wrapped in cloth tape.

The insulation on the knob-and-tube is pretty crispy and fragile, so I'm glad I'm replacing it.

This is likely an original fixture from when the house first was electrified.

Note the original ceiling color as well.  It's not too far off what we're planning to use for the wall color when all this is done.