Zen like spa bathroom...or not

I am a do it yourself kind of girl. I have a really hard time sitting back and letting someone else do something that I know is going to be screwy. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I can be controlling, but I try so hard not to be. Sometimes, I err so much on the side of caution that I could just kick myself for not being more controlling.

Once again, our tile is screwed up. This bathroom that seems like it will never be completed is causing me heartache and pain. We are still waiting for the rest of the tile mosaic to replace the mosaic that got trashed in the last debacle, but meanwhile the rest of the tile has gone up and looked good. So yesterday, the grout went down. I should have known something was amiss when the tile guy had to get a second bag of grout to finish the shower floor. A 25 lb bag of grout should have handily covered the shower walls, floor, and the rest of the bathroom floor. At 6pm, I discovered that he needed more grout because he had grouted the river rock shower floor so it was all level.

That is right - river rock covered in grout to the point that you couldn't really even see it. The point of having a rock floor is so you can have a zen spa like shower experience. You want to feel the rocks beneath your feet. We even had the rock in our house for a few weeks before deciding to use it to be sure we were OK with the bumpy feel. So he made us a grout shower floor like you see in a really old grubby locker room shower.

Well, he stayed and removed some grout. Then he removed some more. Then at around 8pm, he went home. This morning I looked and while you can see some rocks, there is still way too much grout and when you stand on it you can't feel any rocks. So what's the point? Why did I pick out this great rock floor if it is just like regular tile? Oh boy. There was a grout haze still on all the tiles too, which I know is a bad idea because I have made the mistake of letting it sit too long myself. We have a perm ant haze in our hall bath, and there was no way I was letting that happen again here - I washed the shower walls and bathroom floor this morning before honey left for work and they look much better. So this morning I called to talk to the "boss" and they will fix it....of course they will. But honestly that is not the point. The point is that I am paying for someone else to do this and do it right. There is NO REASON that I should have to be a fly buzzing and buzzing around to be sure things are done right. Nor is there any reason I should have to be reading grout and tile specs when others have not checked them out themselves... I should get a cut of the labor cost at this point as I am acting GC most of the time.

So now the shower floor has to come out. And we have to order more tile. And it needs to be reinstalled. And re-grouted. I think I won't do the math because it might make me ill, but I bet it would have been much less expensive for me to have them get to the point where the bath was tile ready, hire a nanny for two weeks and just do it myself. We still have no closet and our clothes are all in the guest room where we will have guests next week. We have no light fixtures or switches installed as of yet. We have no paint on the walls...it seems while we are dealing with all the tile headaches that we could have made some headway on the other parts of the work. I am so close to just doing the wiring myself. I think if I wasn't blogging right now that is what I would be doing.

So close, yet so far

I should have new bathroom pictures to share. We were so close to having a tiled shower this week. So close I could feel the hot water of my very own shower just steps from my bed...but alas, it was not yet to be. Something always goes wrong in remodeling. Clearly, we know that by now. The key is to have people you are working with who will see it, own it, and solve it fast. Thank goodness, we have those people!

I had peeked in at the tile as it was going up, but hadn't gone into the shower until just after the glass border went in. So the whole shower was tiled from the floor to about 4 feet high. At first I just looked at the tile and thought - "yep - these are beautiful!". Then I noticed the grout lines. Or maybe I should say the lack of grout lines. There were spots where I couldn't fit my fingernail between tiles. Now, the manufacturer of the glass tile, Oceanside, recommends sanded grout. Clearly, sanded grout was not ever going to fit in these spaces.

So, I called our folks and since our contractor was out of town at a meeting, his wife Beth came by to check it out. She and the tile guy and I all agree that the glass needs to be moved up. Sounds like a done deal. Except that when I went in to look at that after he had moved it, he had left the trowel lines in the thinset under the tiles. That's fine with regular tile, but with glass the lines need to be flattened or the tiles need to be back buttered so the lines don't show through. So I call Beth again, and she says she is coming over to help me pull tiles off the wall and try to save the glass before it is stuck. This is great news, as I have two little ones begging for attention and dinner needs to be cooked and I just can't imagine washing tiles while I am roasting squash.

So, I go into the shower to get started with the work, and as I am standing there, the recycled subway tiles catch my eye. I look up, and a whole section of tile is obviously crooked. OY! Then I start to inspect further, and lots of individual tiles are akimbo. Now these tiles are not totally uniform, which is fine, but they are seriously not level or plumb. When Beth got there, I showed her what I had saved so far and pointed out the new issue - she saw it too and we agreed that it all needed to come down.

OK. So I buy all recycled tile and now there is a risk that we won't be able to get it off the wall in good enough shape to reuse it?! Why not just go to Lowe's and get some random tile made in China and shipped around the world three times before it gets to me? So now I am hoping we can save at least some of the tile. The glass liners were fine (Thank goodness - they were also the most expensive of the lot!), the mosaics washed off fine, but came off the paper backing when we washed them of course, so now they are a pile of little puzzle pieces. Beth likes them, so she took them for a project at her house, and they will buy some more sheets of them for our bath. SO the glass is not a total loss - as long as it will be used for something I am happy.

The next day, the subway tiles come down. Unbelievably, only four tiles were broken. The rest came off and washed well enough to reuse! Thank goodness the guy who is doing our tiling has a sense of humor since he has spent like a week in a 4x3 space. On Monday, the subway tile will go back up with several sized spacers to keep the tiles level and the grout lines large enough for the appropriate grout. WHEW.

So the thing about all of this, is that this is the first project that we have completely handed over to someone else in this house. Last time we had tiling done at our old house, we had an issue with the border as well, and I didn't say anything until it was done - I kept thinking they knew what they were doing and "never show a fool half finished work". This time, I have tried hard not to meddle and to remain out of the details, and to not be controlling. Of course, this is the time that I should have meddled - I had emailed the installation and specs information before we started, and had the manual from the tile company there for them to see, but did not point out the things that I thought may be issues as I didn't want to seem condescending. If I had pointed out the grout specifications and the flattening of the thinset lines, we would have never had these issues. So you live and learn. Thank goodness I said something right away instead of waiting. Sometimes being a bossy chick may be a good thing!

Small pleasures

Some days it feels like I am living someone else's life. I had a little bit of an out of body experience last night when Peanut woke up just as I was settling down for the night. She was obviously not feeling well, and my mama instinct kicked in as Honey and I tried to figure out how best to settle her back down, but it felt like someone else. You ever get that? Like I was still laying in bed without responsibility or desire to respond while "grown up me" was out there doing what mommies do. Weird. She woke up with another cold, so we are in for the day. We went to the pediatrician yesterday for Pumpkin's 4 month check up - that's always a good place to catch something new. I whipped up some chicken soup for lunch and have a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner. Hopefully, she will eat and drink and get well sooner rather than later. She is taking a power nap right now, which will definitely help.

Pumpkin has been moving and grooving - he is rolling and pivoting all over the floor and grabbing everything he can get his little hands on. I love to watch him explore. It was funny answering the doc's questions yesterday - is he smiling? as he smiles and laughs at her - is he reaching for toys? as he reaches and pulls his sisters hair. Check, check. I am not concerned about this kids development. He's been doing some more sleeping in his crib - staking a claim on his room, and I am feeling like we will get our bedroom back to ourselves one day.

So our bathroom has a real floor! The shower floor is tiled as is the main floor and it looks beautiful. I had been a little concerned that we had too much white with the floor and wall tile but I really like how clean it looks. The bits of green in the shower floor help break it up and I know the glass tile on the wall will be fantastic - once it gets here that is. Oh I am so excited to have a working bathroom right there!

New Skills

Another hard working weekend has come and gone. We were all set to get down to business on Saturday when we got to the house and then, we had an unexpected development. I popped into the bathroom downstairs and noticed the bathroom ceiling dripping. OK. So I investigate, and find the bathtub faucet dripping. I try to shut it off but I can't, and the drain is not in right so it is dripping down around the drain and below the tub. I call the plumber to see if he noticed anything Friday, but he has not been working in that room at all, so he says he can come Monday to check it out and meanwhile we should shut the main off to stop the drip. After doing this, I cut into the very soggy ceiling with my utility knife and the whole area comes down on the floor dripping wet! I am thinking "Oh no! I was not prepared for all of this!"

So Honey arrives and takes in the scene, and after I cry a bit, we decide to clean the floors, paint the bedroom trim and deal with the vanity in the upstairs bathroom rather than think about the new leak. We got the floors cleaned up and covered with moisture barrier downstairs in the rec room in preparation for laying the cork floor on Sunday. The trim paint makes the bedroom walls pop - it needs one more coat but looks really pretty now. Unfortunately, we did have to demolish the vanity cabinet to get it out of the bathroom.

On Sunday, I learned how to tile. I got a few rows of 3 x 6 subway tile in before I realized what a huge mistake I had made choosing a smaller tile. I should have picked up the box of 4 x 8's! It's not hard, just tedious. We laid most of the rec room floor, and got much better at maintaining the proper spacing at the walls as we went along. We are planning on having some really substantial molding to cover up some big spaces we left before we knew better :). The cork does look really pretty and it is so cushy to walk on!

We got a call from the contractor who had a solution for us. He wanted to go half and half on a new vanity cabinet and keep on working on the house. After a long and heated discussion, we decided that since we didn't trust him to complete the work without jerry rigging something that we would not go that route thank you very much. Turns out, he felt that since the plumber and electrician were cutting up the walls, that he could do so too! Never mind that they are doing major system reconstruction and that they each asked prior to chopping a hole, and that the holes are all in the utility room, a closet ceiling, and the back room behind the rec room. He also was pretty upset with me for hiring painters. At least he admitted that. He still feels that I am a little nuts for being so upset...Anyway - he will drop off the key this week.

Today, (and Saturday) I had to work a little bit (Oh man - it's hard to go back!) and then met the plumber to talk about the bathroom. He needs to replace the whole tub drain assembly and will fix the toilet flange too so we can install a toilet without a big production. I'm planning on going over to tile tonight and probably every night this week. I'm also leaning some electrical stuff this week! Our electrician has agreed to let me "work" for him while he wires our kitchen in order to bring the project cost down. I'll save a bit of cash and lean some new skills too!