Hall Bathroom. Revisited. Dem-O-Lition.

Woo hoo!  Breaking things!

So back when, on that hall bathroom wall, ya know I did that whole shebang with stained wood lath.  And it rocks.  I love it.  Mike loves it.  It's Awesome.

Awesome with a capital A, right?!

But of course it changed the entire dynamic of the room.  Making an uncool bathroom, well, cool.  If you wear blinders and only look at that particular area anyway.

The remainder?  Blurp, yuck!  Ok, except for the paint color, I like the paint color. And the new Ikea fixture.

Before.  I suppose it's not terrible per se, but knowing it could be better is what always plagues me.

But as is my lot in life:  turn something from sh*t to cool that therefore highlights everything around it as way extra sh*tty, henceforth and forthwith, I am then required to redo the entirety to catch it all up.

Right?  Right.

Heh.

Ok, so back earlier this year, just as my stupid left shoulder was gangbusters going the route of my stupid right shoulder, I ripped out alllll the tile and drywall (drywall mind you again,) in the bathtub surround, hauled it allll down the stair, allll through the backyard (sans spiffy walkway) and out.

Uhh.  Who's gonna carry this crap out?  Oh me?  Oh that sucks.  That's not even half of it.

It's astonishing how much wall and tile is in a mere sixty square feet.  Whew.

But I know, right?  That was freakin' February.  It's now the end of October.  Doh, that's bad with the ol' follow up there.

See, a huge part of what I can't stand about that room is the tiling.  It’s like everywhere, it's all I see.  It's boring.  It’s ugly.  And oddly, for being beige-ish, it doesn't work with anything nor any color.  For sure it’s the pink-y orange undertones, bleech, yick, the willies.

Ah ha, the 1890's back of the house, see.  Check the plans here to get oriented.

Quite fascinating really, ripping things apart, seeing what bizarro stuff those whackadoos did, what they buried...trying to comprehend what on freakin' earth they were thinking.

Yup.  There was a window there at one point.  And yes, ya got me, I was indeed trying to figure out how to leave the brick exposed but no I didn't.

Which is an impossibility really, headache-inducing, not worth the pain.

This picture doesn't do this strangeness justice.  There's like a foot and a half of just nothing between the studs and the brick here.  Wasted space.  Peering in and to the right, a solid foot of space, just air.  Why?  There's no major plumbing.  Literally just air.

Ok, let's see if this and the next help give you more of a clue as to what's going on back there.  That's the closet in Mike's office, the drywall you see.

I over everything-ed this photo so you could see more clearly.  Wish I had gotten a shot behind the toilet for you.  Just that one random PVC pipe whose purpose is unknown.

What other dumb insane things did they do....ok, right right yes, not worth the pain.

I had intended to toss some insulation of some sort into the areas I opened up but uh, considering I suddenly needed several truckloads, sadly I skipped the step.  Kinda regretting not doing at least something now, though I think the shock over what was going on back there froze my brain processes.

So, onward.

After a major clean up, and a hiking up of the pants, putting everything back together was next.

Solo I was easily able to attach one sheet of cement board onto the long wall, realizing then I required a helping hand getting the second large piece above it.  Hmmmmph.  Rats.

Woot, go me!

Miiiiiiiiike?  Can you.....?   “Aw jeez babe.....what do you need?”   No, he wasn't annoyed, I rarely ask for help.  It was more of a I-don't-want-you-to-screw-up-your-shoulder-so-no-I'm-not-gonna-help response.

Eventually, the PT folk gave me a jokey ceremonial clearance to resume house projects, as if I stopped pfftt, though Mike was more stringent.  More time passed, more pestering and nagging when he finally relented and in five minutes I was, *clap clap,* back on track.

Research on how to slice up cement board revealed it’s actually quite simple.  Surprisingly so.  Using the compact circular saw* that grrrr I’ll have to replace as three inch blades are no longer made for it, I diced the remaining two sheets in half and before I knew it, zip zip* they were up on the wall.

This lil' saw has gotten me through sooo many projects, wow.  Thanks, Bob!

Happy dance!  Yes, totally did a butt wiggle.

Ideally, use a carbide tipped blade* or diamond blade* (and lung protection) though I used whatever was on there, too lazy to slap on the diamond one sitting in the case.  It's fine.  Hey, like I said, I sadly have to replace the saw at some point.  Besides, I believe it's carbide tipped anyway.

Oh, right, to cut the holes for the pokey-outty plumbing parts, I had picked up this sorta wimpy gizmo from my first ever excursion to Harbor Freight and while it accomplished the task, it also made a horrible mess of the cut and the holes.  Embarrassing.

Don't waste your money on that tool if you see it in the store.  Ah, my dad's square, all nice and rusty!

But like really, who else will know except me?  Me.  Oh, and I guess you guys now too.

Anyway, sooooo, we’ll see how the gizmo works on actual tile.  Fingers crossed, though I already suspect having to find another route, ye of little faith.  That the screw that holds the bar that determines the diameter of the hole comes loose with zero effort, yeah, you'd be pre-planning too.

It was only two bucks, what else to expect.  A definite case of I got what I paid for.

Still, I'm quite proud of these here first ever cement board holes of mine.  Not too big, not too small.

All righty.  Sooo there were gaps at the top between the new cement board and the drywall.  Because if you remember, the dopey flippers decided to make people's lives hell.  They stuck on three strips of one inch tile.  See " before" above.  As if they thought it looked good.

And hey, in some cases, that does look good.  Just not here.

But do the math, right?.....six foot three, cement board is three feet....yeah, thanks.  Back at the ol' research and learning device, I discovered gap filler, aka backer rod.*

Perfect, let's do this.

Back at Menards oh yet again because I'm not there enough (seriously why do they not have a gold-plated parking space reserved for solely for me and a red-carpeted Becky express checkout lane?), I track down some half inch filler of gaps.

Gap filler!  It's merely foam tubes, like pool noodles.

And back at home, it won't stay put thanks to its curly existence.  Time to get creative, heh.

Ah-yep, I did that.  Hot glue to save the day.

Ok, hahaha, done and done.  I spackle over the backer rod easily with joint compound and baby, we are rollin' now!

Before:  gaps.  After:  gaps filled.  Thumbs up.

Mmmk.  What's next?  Waterproofing!*

Found some goo over at the second home there, waited for it to go on sale.  Heh, this was a process, a lengthy lengthy process.

This stuff was gooier and stickier than a kid on Halloween.  Heh, seasonal reference, all right.

It didn't seem I'd get a second coat on there, that there'd be enough for some reason, so I went with only one coat.  One is better than none.  Sadly it wasn't that trendy red goo.*

And here we are!  Cement boarded, goo'ed, good to go!

Mmk!!  Let's tile up this sucker, kiddos, c'mon!  Woo hoo!  Let's.........

.....And then the project sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Dog park stuff, commandeering my time.  Which was fine.  But not for the house.

With my time freed, excuses are gone.  Tiling.  What an adventure that was, wow.

Now.

I'm skootching in closer here.

Now.

I'm sure none of this, shrug, seems a big deal and really it's not.  And truly, it's not hard to do any of this.

But in a big way, it is a big deal.  I had never done this before.  Never ripped out a shower's worth of tile .....oh wait, yeah, I did do that.  But never have I replaced it with brand new cement board, brand new shower stuff doohickeys, cut these fancy holes, and then slapped on brand new tile.

Rawr!!

Needless to say, I've learned a lot.  I'm kinda quite proud of myself here actually.  Back pat, back pat.

Stay tuned as the spiffy hall bath takes its turn for the better!  Woo!

(Jump to the next post in the saga here!)

*The compact circular saws, carbide tipped blades, diamond blades, cement board screws, backer rod, cement board waterproofing, and RedGard are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.