Bathroom Update - Week Nine

So have you ever heard the joke about the man who's just finished laying carpet and he calls out to his wife, "Honey, have you seen the canary?" And in the background, you see a small lump in the middle of the newly laid carpet?


That's the story of the story this week. You can clearly seen a big bow in the plywood here. It was worse in the middle and at one point, Warren took out three screws and we lifted it up just to be sure. I could have sworn there was something under there, it bowed so much. Silly me, nothing was hiding under there. We joked about the canary under the plywood all day. Warren had to put more screws in than was called for in the instructions, just to be sure the canary was gone. :)

But I'm ahead of myself. We started out in the bathroom by measuring the layout of the rest of the floor to be covered by plywood. We were hoping to get the largest area possible covered by one large sheet of 4 x 8 plywood. It would require cutting several notches and angles here and there to do it. But then there would be just a half dozen small pieces to fill in the leftover spaces. Then we'd be done with this stage and could start the concrete backer board next.

So after we took all the measurements, and trouped upstairs and downstairs twice to make more measurement (Remember Vern the Carpenter of "Measure twice, Cut once" fame?) Eventually we got it drawn out and started cutting. No saw horse so we used old chairs from the basement and the older car.


We stopped to chat with our neighbor, Linda, when she stopped by.

Then we got back to work. Now, you do understand, don't you, that when I say, "We got back to work," I'm talking about Warren, right? Because about all I've been good for so far is holding the boards when Shop Guy saws with the dangerous circular saw. Well, I do do some vacuuming up of sawdust, which we all know is VERY important. But really, Warren's doing all the work, we all know that, right?

So after not very much more trimming, we got the big piece glued and started screwing it into the subfloor.

INSERT CANARY STORY HERE.
After that was done we, I mean Warren, got to the "easy" part of piecing the smaller spaces around the room.


And by 12:30 we were done. We had plans to go to a movie, but decided to take a leisurely lunch and do the movie tomorrow instead.

While I'm blogging about Week Nine, Warren is off the Lowe's AGAIN to see about the concrete backer board that is our next phase of the project, which won't take place till two weeks after Easter because we've got company coming for the holidays and would rather have fun with family, thank you very much!

So that's all for now, folks. Catch us in April for the next installment of the Bathroom Project!

Oh, for a parting shot, here's Miss Ellie, Princess of the House, looking slightly annoyed that her morning nap is being so rudely disturbed by all this noise and commotion.

Here's Hammy hiding in between the coffee table and the couch, waiting for innocent little Miss Ellie to walk by so he can POUNCE!

Bathroom Update - Week Eight

A couple minutes after we started talking with Sid, the Floor Expert at Lowe's, we about had a heart attack. We thought we might not have had to take up the pressboard subfloor and all that horrid glue. But then we realized that pressboard is what you put under carpet and plywood is what you put under tile. Thank goodness.

So after that blood-pressure-raising moment, we settled back down and had a great chat with Sid, our hero, and knew what the next step is. We don't have to put down a moisture barrier, like we thought. We have to put a new layer of 3/8 inch plywood down.


So after going home to measure and going back to Lowe's to buy the plywood and going home to start putting the plywood down and running out of Liquid Nails and running back to Lowe's again...

We got exactly one 4 x 8 sheet of plywood down, which took at least four dozen screws, on an 8inch grid. And that was the easy part. Only one small cut.


Covering the rest of the floor is going to be a real challenge. There will be lots of cuts because the bathroom has an odd shape. If we can get all those cuts made and the plywood down, we'll be in good shape. Warren bought a bunch of Liquid Nails and I only foresee one trip to Lowe's next weekend. Hopefully we can get the rest down next weekend and then we will be faced with laying down the CONCRETE BOARD.

I figure that's a two weekend stint, because after we get the floor done, we have to cut out the sheet rock around the tub, which should have been done in the first place and wasn't, and replace with concrete board...and...oh...well...maybe three weekends to do all that...

I see another two months (and a half??!) to finish the project. Which wouldn't be such a problem, but this weekend we almost went outside to do some pre-Spring yardwork. Mighty tempting, I gotta say. But we persevered and got one 4 x 8 plywood down and quit at noon, because the rule book says so, and had a nice lunch and headed to the movies for the afternoon.

Bathroom Update - Week Six

I know you're all wondering what happened during last weekend's remodeling project. Ben was here for a visit and we had lots of fun putting him to work. (Sorry for the sideways clip. I gotta quit doing that!)

In this clip, the guys are joking about how Ben keeps almost cutting his finger off. I'm not biting, but they're really trying hard to pull it off.

This week's project came about as we'd walked around the bathroom for the last week. There were parts of the floor that were really spongy. The plywood subfloor would dip down at least 1/2 inch or more. So the first thing Warren and I did was discuss whether the dipping would be "masked" by the thick concrete backer board that goes on top. We decided most places the dipping would probably would be fixed by the backer board, but in the area in front of the sinks, where we stand all the time, we'd better take it down to the studs and start over.

So that's what we did. First we had to decide how big to make the hole. Then Warren cut it out with a circular saw. Ben wasn't up yet at this point--we let him sleep in--but you can guess he was up soon after the sawing started!

You can see the dust on the lens from the circular saw here. I had to clean it off before I took more pictures.

This shows how Warren used a crowbar to pull up sections of the area he'd cut out with the circular saw. The plywood was glued onto the studs below so each section had to be FORCED up. Lots of work.

Here's the hole we ended up with. We were committed now!

The next part of the project involved adding 2 x 6 inch side beams on which to rest the new plywood subfloor.

We finally had the new subfloor in.

Good job, guys! I appreciate having a floor again--even a subfloor is better than that hole!

Bathroom Project Update - Week Five

Glue is Gone!

Week Five is over, ending before noon, as usual. We started, or I should say, Warren started at around 8 am. The floor was covered with alleyways of nasty particle-board-speckled mastic glue. Nasty. If you scroll down and look at earlier weeks, you can see the ridges formed by the glue.


The process involves brushing a solvent over the stripes of glue gunk, covering with plastic sheeting, waiting for at least a half hour, then scraping the softened mess into trash bags. The fumes were horrible, so I spent the morning out of the house. Warren had a fan going in the window, both windows wide open to ventilate. If you use enough of the solvent and wait long enough, the scraping part is relatively easy. Just smelly.


By the end of the morning, every bit of the glue was gone. The floor is now ready for leveling and attaching concrete board.

Here you can see the cleared floor, the wetness of the glue still apparent. By nightfall, the worst of the smell was already gone.The next step was measuring from the floor to the top of the hardwood in the bedroom. We want the transition from tile to hardwood to be as even as possible. So we have to add the thickness of the cement backer board, the mastic, and the tile, to be sure. Right now we have NO IDEA how thick the mastic would be so we still aren't sure how thick the backer board will be. That's the "job" for this week.

Next weekend, Ben will be home for a short visit. Whoo! Hoo! He was hoping to help us lay tile. Won't be happening, but now Warren has come up with another idea. They may work together next Saturday morning removing the popcorn ceiling in the bathroom and repainting the ceiling. Sounds like a good plan to me! I'll "supervise."

Bathroom Project Update - Week Four

Not much got done this Saturday morning. It's been the week from Hades. Nothing's gone right and I'm glad I'm about to enter a new week. Maybe this one will treat us kinder.

The main reason deserves a blog of its own. Let me just say, Computer Meltdown. The end of the story is, I have a new laptop and have yet to know if the data on my old hard drive will be retrieved. It's still at the shop.

Saturday morning, Warren was at the America Legion here in town at the annual Navy Club Chili Contest. This is a charity event that raises money to send a kid with cancer to summer camp. Big success--a good amount of money was raised. Warren didn't win, which is tradition, but everyone had a good time and lots of chili was eaten by all. The county commissioners who judged all found dollar bills taped to Warren's cups of chili. They all had a big laugh, which is also part of the day. If he's not going to win, he figures why not have fun.

Saturday afternoon we drove back up to Columbia to pick up my new laptop and I'm spending the rest of the weekend trying to remember WHAT I had bookmarked, remember passwords, download my website's html code and images, download Kompozer, download Graphic Converter... It's a NIGHTMARE! I'm crossing my fingers I can get the family photos back in the retrieval attempt, but won't know that till the middle of next week.

Now, if I can just get the right adapter so I can hook up my wide screen computer monitor. You can bet I'll be at Best Buy this morning at 10 am sharp! Trying to put a "good" cap on this week seems almost impossible. I'm still trying!

Warren did get some of the nasty glue off the plywood subfloor during the week, and may do more of that today. We slept in till 8 o'clock this morning, which is really rare for Warren. He gets up at 3 am in the morning during the week. He's going to have a terrible time getting any sleep tonight, what with sleeping so late this morning and the Super Bowl tonight.

Oh well, there's always Tuesday, always another week... We sure hope this one goes better than last week!

Bathroom Project Update - Week Three

Warren is napping in the den. I'm blogging. The fireplace is off now because it's warming up outside. Supposed to be over 50 today and pushing 60 tomorrow. (Eat your heart out, you northerners!) We may go outside later but for now, chilling is the name of the moment.

We are just glad the morning is over. You see, we had a quandary this morning. To take the cabinets out or not. Either way has problems. How the heck do you remove the cabinets? Seems like way too much of a project for us. But leaving them in means what do you do with the underlayment that goes under the cabinets? It has to be removed because we have to put down concrete backboard. So the underlayment has to be cut off right at the edge. But there's a ledge that limits how you work under there. Huh?

Warren and I decided to chisel it out and lay the tile right up to the edge of the cabinet and lay quarter round or something down to cover the edge. Whatever. Seems like a good enough solution for now. More later on the rightness of our decision.


Now the underlayment is completely up, the vacuuming is done, and the next project is to get the glue off. This will be a major work day or two because it doesn't all come up with one coating of the solution.


Definitely the project is going to drag on, but that's okay. It beats having to get it all done in a jiffy!

Bathroom Project Update - Week Two

We are loving our Saturday Morning ONLY Project! What gets done, gets done. Nothing more. We stop at noon or earlier if a stage is finished before noon. Makes it much easier to face a weekend project when you know there is a time limit.

Warren is pretty much the worker-bee at this point. I can't do the hard physical labor that he can.

We are happy to report the worst is now over. Especially since Warren figured out there is a solvent for the nasty glue that held the subfloor down., which we have to replace with concrete backer board, eventually.

Before

After

But next week, the project will probably be just to remove the glue left behind and maybe measure for the concrete backer board and figure out which thickness to buy given the height of the backer board and the height of the tile, plus the mastic.

That's it from the home front, folks. Cats are out from their hiding places, enjoying the fireplace. It's 5 above zero out but we don't care!

Driving the Cats Crazy

I was over at Laurie's Three Dog Blog today. She was talking about how her one dog just can't stand the kitchen fan. It really drives him crazy. I got to thinking how we were driving our cats crazy this past weekend, too. Below you see Mr. Fat Tail, otherwise known as Hamilton. My cat. This fat tail photo actually doesn't relate to our driving him crazy, I'd just let him inside in the middle of the night shortly after he'd been in a scrap with something outside. Probably Diamond. See here for more about Miss Diamond.


We're driving our cats crazy this weekend because we started our Winter Project. We usually start some home improvement thing right after Christmas. Last winter we had hardwood floors put in two floors of our house.

This winter, we decided to re-tile the master bathroom ourselves. After watching many hours of rehab on HGTV, we decided, "How Hard Can It Be?" and started demolition this last Saturday morning. Hopefully those words won't come back to haunt us later this winter.

So it's officially Driving the Cats Crazy Month around here. They disappeared for the day right after we started bashing the tile from around the tub and filling trash bags with nasty old carpet from the floor. In fact, I can't recall even seeing them in there this week to investigate the changes in the room.

We got Step One done: removing the carpet and tile.


Step Two is removing the subfloor and the stoopid glue the previous rehabber put down, which may take more than one more Saturday Morning to complete. Then we move on to Step Three: putting in the Concrete Backer Board. All of this required new tools. (Don't you love a job that needs new tools?) And I'm pretty sure we will be driving the cats crazy and into hiding on many more Saturday Mornings to come.

Warren got a little "crazy" himself toward the end of the morning. But we finished Step One before noon and we're committed now...oh boy...