Friday, February 14, 2020

some progress is being made



The tiling is going slow. Those of you that followed me through the rebuilding and remodeling of the half the house that flooded after Harvey may remember how crazy this house is built with rooms added on at a weird angle and other head scratching shit. Well, this bathroom is no different. The bathtub itself slants down from one end to the other by about a half inch over 5' and as it would happen, we started on the high end with the tile so now there is a half inch gap between the top of the tub and the bottom of the bottom piece of tile at the other end. Great. Not only that but the walls on the two ends aren't plumb. The wall with the spouts and handles bows out a bit in the middle. Rocky's doing his best to make all the joins flush but it's an impossible job given the walls. Yesterday afternoon I had him remove the last piece he put on Wednesday to make a slight change and then he had to remove two pieces he added yesterday because they weren't following the pattern. Plus he didn't get here til noon yesterday because he's working two jobs, mine and the one before me that put him on hold for two weeks. So at this point, he has to finish the fourth row of big tile and then the fancy stuff starts...the pencil tiles, the row of blue tiles, another row of pencil tile, a 6” row of wall tile, then another row of pencil tile, the flower border, and the last row of pencil tile.

As it happened, nothing got done today. Rocky showed up late and started working on the window molding which has to go up before he can finish the last bit of wall tile but his miter/chop saw started burning wood as it attempted to cut and so after tinkering with it, putting on a new blade which didn't help, he determined something was broke and he needed a new saw and I had to run out to Lowe's to get another piece of baseboard trim and samples of different stains for the upper cabinets to test to see which one will come closest to the vanity. Of course, two of the three that we picked from the little brochure at the paint store here, which doesn't sell the sample sizes, are no longer available so I just winged it and picked two others I thought might do.

I have yet to pick out the molding for the two doors because it needs to be 2 3/4” wide because...reasons (crazy built house), even 3” would do, except I can get all kinds of 2 1/2 or 3 1/4” or 3 1/2” but no 2 3/4” wide molding at Lowe's. One style of 3” which I didn't like so tomorrow I'll try the two building supply places in El Campo but if they don't have anything then we might have to use the old trim which Rocky saved which I'm not wild about but it's around all the other doors in the upper house.

On the upside, I did make good progress on my water lily during the watercolor class Wednesday but I still didn't finish, have two more petals to paint. One more day for the class so I hope I can get it finished.





13 comments:

  1. Everything looks good to me. I sometimes enjoy my TBI.

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  2. We had the same problem with our house. When we took down the ugly dark fake wood paneling which was throughout the house including the bathroom, we found that the house was built without doorways. YES! I kid you not. Apparently whoever built this piece of crap used a hatchet to chop through the hardwood walls to make the doorways. Nothing is plum, not even the corners. David had to tear the walls out and rebuild from the studs. That was when we found the wiring had to be completely replaced and the fuse box upgraded because it was bare wires wrapped in tape. Talk about a fire waiting to happen.
    That is one pretty water lily.

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  3. So much work but Rocky is doing a good job. You'll be so happy with your remodeled bathroom when it's completed. Your water lily is beautiful. I'd never be able to do that.

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  4. Sometimes I bemoan our slightly soulless prefab house, but other times I’m glad it’s not crazy like your house (although it’s crazy like 80s fashions).

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  5. This house was built in the 60's and I am pretty sure they didn't own a level. The recent flooding had water running in many different directions that made no sense. Tiling is, indeed a nightmare!

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  6. Living in an old funky house which has settled over the years in interesting ways can drive a perfectionist out of his or her mind. Ask my husband who had to compensate in many ways while rebuilding his bathroom. He still looks at things and they make him a little crazy. I, of course, never notice.
    I can't wait to see the finished water lily.

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  7. Some years ago, in my father's house, built in the 1930s, home to a large family etc., the wooden floors upstairs were sanded and reoiled and the guy who did it found out that there was at least one floor beam missing, never had been there, totally forgotten. The floor held itself up by sheer balance.

    As for your bathroom tiling gaps, happens in the best houses, i.e. ours, and there's just one word: silicone.

    Lovely lily.

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  8. Your watercolor brush stroke is delicate and beautiful. Take your time. I'm pretty sure you have the most beautiful lily in the class. Not that its a competition, but still.

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  9. The lily is looking good! As is the tiling, despite all the problems. Sounds like your house has what is euphemistically called "character." :)

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  10. Watercolor is beautful. I cannot believe this is your first. I had remodeling or building and have done much in my life. I wish you well on the headaches with that!!

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  11. There are a couple of issues in my new apartment that need to be dealt with, but at least everything seems to be mostly level. I'm not even going to raise them until I've been here a couple more months, so I can take in one list and not nag them to death, one problem at a time.

    The water lily is so pretty. I like the blue wash behind it. I was out at the Brazoria refuge this weekend, and by gosh, there were ten-petal anemones everywhere. I don't have anemone envy any more!

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    1. my yard is a sea of anemone flowers. I love it. I haven't done anything to the background of my painting though, that's just the shadow from me taking the picture.

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  12. the water lily is quite beautiful already. Your artistic capabilities are endless.

    I’ve still got to have the plumber to come back to finish tiling the bathroom, shouldn’t have paid him for all the other work before he finished. Will know better next time.

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