Wall tiles

Again a post in photos as Jesse is in one arm!

First of the wall tiles, a momentous occasion!

End of day 1

Feature tile in!

End of day 2

Vanity hung, end of day 3 - yes, this took most of the day, it's best not to ask!

A put in the bottom row of tiles last night after cutting them all to fit their specific spot and the fall of the floor so we can finally get someone in to measure and make the shower screen! What a milestone! Still lots to go and we are closing in on 3 months without a bathroom. It's getting a bit old to be honest but we are happy with how it's looking and excited that it's almost painting and grouting time!

Bathroom progress in pictures

Jesse is asleep in one arm and it's darn hard to type with one hand so here is our bathroom progress in pictures...

Where we were up to last bathroom post back at the start of June

Walls sheeted

More walls sheeted

Sheets jointed

    

   

Underfloor heating installed - did this with my sister the day before Jesse was born!

Screes to create fall to drain laid

Dry lay of floor tiles - the green stuff is waterproofing

Laying the tiles

Floor tiles complete!

They should be dry today so we, well A, can start planning the wall tiles!

Laundry progress

The bathroom reno continues. I've stopped counting the days. It's been a long time. However, we now have a functional laundry that only needs a tidy and a coat of paint on the door frame!

Here is our progress in pictures...

Short of the plumbing and electrics we've done the whole thing ourselves and are really happy with how functional it is. It's such a better use of space to stand in the hallway than to have a dedicated room with standing space that only serves one purpose.

As you can see there is still a lot of reno junk on the floor. The bathroom is still in progress but shouldn't be much longer as the floor tiles were laid yesterday.

Can't believe we might be finished soon!

Day 24

Another big weekend of work and we finally have some walls. I can't tell you how good it feels to have bathroom walls. It's visible progress compared to the plumbing and electrics of last week, most of which we couldn't see!

We also have the computer back this week so here are a few catch up photos...

Chicken checking out our progress before we filled in the doorway.

What the cat does while we work our butts off.

Measure three times, cut once. We've learnt this the hard way in the past.

New laundry space - found another little hole in the floor!

Adding insulation in the walls, how novel! It'll end up being the warmest room in the house!

The first wall is up! Woo hoo!

Still lots to go. Still no baby. A thinks this is very considerate given how much we have to do, I am less convinced of this by the day. I hate waiting at the best of times so it's driving me a little crazy!

Day 19

Phew. The weather was kind. It stayed sunny even if it was beanie and glove weather in the mornings.

As you saw in the last post A pulled out the window and door. He then bricked up the bottom half of the door, installed the new window and this morning we got the shaving cabinet in. I think we need to make a couple of adjustments to it though as it was done in a hurry to get out of the electricians way and is just a smige off level.

We also, finally, got to pick up our bath and shower heads! Took 4 weeks longer than expected to get them but as the shop were good about swapping a couple of things and refunding the difference I'm not going to hold the delays against them!

I think A is a bit disappointed the brickwork doesn't look 'prettier' but as we were on a tight schedule and using recycled bricks an plan on rendering at some point anyway I'm not too concerned. So long as it is sturdy, I am happy!

Here are some snaps of the process...sorry they are totally out of order as I still haven't worked out how to use blogger properly on the ipad!

Day 17 - am

The sun is shining. The door and window are gone. Please hold weather, please hold!

Day 15

Taking a leaf out of The Block's book. We have a day count on our bathroom wall. We are at 15. If we get to 50 (what the block was at last night) I think I'll cry!

So far we've filled the hole with new concrete, removed and replaced one of the windows, built the stud wall to seperate the new laundry space from the bathroom and measured and planned where everything is going.

We've got another big weekend ahead to get ready for the electrician on Monday and plumber on Tuesday.

Really hope the weather improves as I'm typing this I'm trying to decide if I can see little rain drops being blown about in the wind or if they are little snowflakes that are melting just before they hit the ground! Brrr. Doesn't bode well for creating a whopping big hole in the back of your house! Even if you do plan on filling it up in the same day!

Concrete Day

Yesterday we pulled down what remained of wall between the bathroom and laundry and put in the formwork for the concrete we need to fill the gap under the old bath. A had a ball bashing the wall down. I think it will be his favourite part of the whole process!

Today is concrete day! And hopefully stud wall day too.

A is working flat out. I am chief gofer, measurer and general stay-out-of-the-way-of-the-dusty-and-noisy-jobs girl. At 38 weeks now, I'm not much good for anything else! Apart from maybe providing food!

So far we haven't had any more nasty suprises so all is going pretty well!

Here are some pics of how we are puttng in the missing bit of slab.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Bathroom Suprise No. 1

I don't know if you can make it out in this photo but there is a great big gaping hole under our bath and shower base. They totally just didn't continue the concrete slab there. There is slab either side, just not in that section. A little bit of an issue given this will be where we want to stand to use the basin and part of our new shower floor!

So, job number 1 becomes removal of shower base, some formwork and making a new section of slab to fill the gap.

Got to love the unexpected extras you come across!

Here we go...

Tomorrow we FINALLY start. Tomorrow the asbestos goes which means so does the shower, bath and laundry. It's exciting to finally be starting but a little overwhelming too!

Here are some before photos. They are a little awkward as the spaces are small and I don't have a wide lens (or as we like to call them, a real estate lens) to capture the whole room.

I think I'll be taking my last long bath for a while this evening!

Bathroom Progress - Welcome back!

I came home from a visit to Mum and Dad last night to find that A had been putting in the hard yards and we now have a functioning toilet!

There is still plenty to do to finish off the 'room' but for the moment we have to wait for the new windows to arrive.

Here's how it is currently looking...

In which we discover the problem and start again....

So, about those tiles not drying...

Our first significant, painful DIY stuff up. Lesson learned. No matter how helpful and confident the assistant at your hardware store seems it's quite possible they are giving you the wrong advice. Always, always, always check with a second party - say the manufacturer of the product before you use it!

4 days later, our concern over the not drying adhesive was turning into a serious worry. We look up the data sheet for more informaton than is on the bucket of adhesive. Big, bold letters - DO NOT USE OVER CONCRETE OR WATERPROOFING WITH NON POROUS TILES DUE TO UNSATISFACTORY DRYING TIMES.

Oh, dear.

So, we decide that 'unsatisfactory drying time' means 'never' a point reinforced when we started pulling them back up an discover the glue is still as wet as when it went down. Gah.

On the bright side, this meant the clean up job was not too difficult. All but 1 tile came back out unscathed and will be reused.

We've lost a bit of time, the cost of a bucket of ahesive. Annoying, yes, but not the end of the world, and this is why we started with the tiny toilet and didn't jump head first into the whole job!

And so, we start again...

An extra update to this - we relaid the tiles yesterday. I've left A to finish it off over the next couple of days while I visit my parents. Ah, the luxury of a house with a toilet!

Slow going

Our progress since Friday night...

Junctions waterproofed

Dry laying the tiles. This took considerably longer than you would think. Lots of measuring, cutting and measuring again.

Laying the tiles for real! A bit messy but they're looking ok. Now we wait for 24 hours -probably longer given the temperatures here - before we can do the walls then grout then finally reinstall the toilet.

Hoping to have the loo back in Tuesday evening!

So far it hasn't been physically difficult, just required lots of brain power!

An end and a beginning!

Work is finished!

The bathroom has begn!

Because work has finished I don`t have a computer for the foreseeable future. I`m trying to work out how to get blogger to be effective on an iPad. Posts might continue to be short and sweet and irregular until then!

For the moment though, I`m 33 weeks pregnant and without a toilet! Who decided that was a good idea? Lucky we have friendly neighbors! A is doing an awesome job so far, he`s been working flat out since he got home so all being well, we should`t be toilet-less for too long.

Wish us luck!

Bathroom progress - vanity

Another misleading post title as nothing has really been done yet apart from a lot of shopping. We have the toilet supplies in the shed ready to go and just have to organise the asbestos remover to come in on Thursday to do his thing.

We've also been checking out vanities all over the place. A has a thing for the 'washblade' set up. I don't really like them. Luckily for me (unluckily for A) they are well out of the budget so it's a non-issue.

Source: omvivo.com via Christie on Pinterest

Here are a couple we've got our eye on that do fit the budget.

Source: renovationboys.com.au via Christie on Pinterest

Source: homedesignplus.com.au via Christie on Pinterest

I've been left with the task of making the purchase this weekend while A is away. Which one would you choose? 

There is a $1300 difference between the two. Can you tell which is the cheaper?

The first one is the more expensive. Does it look $1300 better? $1300 is quite a substantial difference!

Speaking of the budget again. Remember those horrendous quotes? If we go with the cheaper vanity and cheaper bath option we are looking at, the budget should (barring any unforseen complications for which we have a built in 5% contingency) come in at around $19000. A much nicer number, don't you think!?

Stay tuned for a potential kick off next weekend! Fingers crossed!