Summer Projects

Well, this is a peak of what our front bathroom used to look like. When this son (our youngest) was born, we had a serious leak from this bathroom and had to call the insurance company to help us replace the damages. We found these thick, blue 1 ft. sheets of 3-inch tiles for about half price, and did our own custom tub enclosure, saving a lot of money.

15 years later, a different sort of problem developed. Termites. Hubs was so frustrated, we finally shelled out the big bucks to rid the cottage of the munching critters. This was a week before our daughter's wedding. Then he went one step further and ripped out the wall, instead of waiting till after all those last minute crazy wedding details.

He likes to keep things rolling forward, no matter what. ;-) He then put up this lovely green tarp, so we could still use the front bathroom shower. We had lots of company, after all. I put all pride aside. It's really an ugly quality, anyway. We were shouldering a lot, and I'm sure very few people knew. Ah well. All's well that ends well, and our daughter is a very happy gal!

This major project had to wait till summer, since all money was tied up throughout the spring for our dd's wedding. We are committed to continuing to nix all debt and pay cash as we go, even on a teacher's salary. That's not always easy, and plenty of situations come up to test that commitment. But that's a different post for another day.

Here, you can see the replacement studs where the termites lived and munched for some time.

The red stuff is a roll-on backing that dries plastic. Weird, slimy stuff while appying to the backer boards.

First center tile!

Stair-steps of progress. We used pennies as spacers :-)

This was after our second full day of tiling. Quite a lot of progress, here.

applying the bullnose tiles, and fixing them with tape so they wouldn't slip-n-slide.

applying the tiles to the side of the seat/shampoo shelf


Hubby applying the grout one week after his knee surgery. He forgot to do just one wall at a time. It's been a long time since we've done this!

detailing the grout clean-up. This stuff dried so fast. Much faster than the sanded grout we used for this project 15 years ago.

Grouted, finished seat!

some filmy gunk still on the tiles, needing a good wipe-down.

close-up of the border and rope tiles. Hubby did a nice job on those mitered corners!


Finished tub! I found that red shower curtain for $7 back in February at Target, while shopping for our daughter's wedding. We had no idea that these would be the colors we chose for the bathroom. I just loved the color, the price, and the fact that it is "quilted." I had planned to possibly use it as a small table cover.

Now I just need to sand down some joints above and to the side of the new tiles, put a coat of primer on, then decide on a wall paint color. We'll probably used paint we already have, saving ourselves some more money.

What summer projects are my readers tackling?

Javamom

who loves dark red!