Tuesday, September 6, 2011

A Laborious Labor Day

Sunday morning Dad and I got the backerboard up.  We had to cut each piece to size (thankfully, only four).  I did that with the diamond blade (cement is tough stuff and wouldn't cut with a normal blade).  Dad screwed it into place.  He especially loves impact drivers.  When he did the Shingle Springs house when I was an infant, putting backerboard up took forever because all the holes had to be predrilled through the board.  A screw never would have gotten through.  Despite the relative quickness of the impact driver, it was still lunch time when we got the backerboard completely up.  Having to cut holes for plumbing slowed things down a bit.


After lunch, we applied the tile to one side of the shower.  Dad put up the thinset, I put up the tile, Dad cut the ones that needed cutting.  By this point in time, it was obvious we needed more thinset and tile spacers before we could finish the job.  So, we ended the day with a purchase.


Mom had spent her day painting the front porch and trim.  It's looking good!



Monday arrived, as did much tiling work to do.  The morning went slowly because the new spacers we purchased were awful.  They didn't stay in place, so we had to constantly battle them, which slowed us down.  After lunch, Mom bought us some better ones and we moved along much more quickly.  Here I am cleaning up the second wall.  After the thinset has dried a bit, we remove the spacers and scrape out the space between the tiles so there's plenty of room for the grout.  We also wipe all the thinset off the tiles.  It's almost impossible to remove if it dries all the way, so it's important to do it when we did.


We got the third wall done in the evening.  Cleaning up the bathroom took a bit of time - there was dust and thinset everywhere!


The missing tile is where the soap dish will go.

Shower's still not usable.  We need to do the trim and grout.  Then the plumbing.  Then it will be usuable, but will still need a window, the window above the tile textured and painted, and a shower door.  Two more weekends until the open house.  We can do it!

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