Monday, January 24, 2011

The Whirlwind Weekend


This is what I want to be doing for the next couple of days after the weekend I had!  As I mentioned before, I was hired by my brother and sister-in-law to help renovate their 2 bathrooms.  This past weekend was round 1! 

We worked non-stop all weekend long.  Friday consisted of ripping the entire bathroom out.   The washer and dryer is tucked away behind bi-fold doors, so those came out first, then came the old vanity, the toilet, and lastly the dated vinyl flooring.  Did I mention we didn't start until about 6pm because everyone had to work Friday?!  Once the room was completely empty we decided to paint to avoid any splatter or messes on the new floors and fixtures.  After all that we called it a night!

First thing Saturday morning we were back at it again!  It was time to tile!  Before we could do that though, we had to install durock, which is sort of like a sub-floor that goes under the tile to prevent any mold or mildew if ever any water seepage occurs.  Once that was done, it was officially onto the tile.  Now let me tell you, if you've never laid tile before, it is a serious job!  Backbreaking, leg-burning, knee-bruising work!  Since I have previous experience in this area, I did all the tile laying while my brother and sister-in-law cut any tiles that needed cutting.  To save time, they also assembled things that needed assembling such as the vanity, the fosset, the medicine cabinet, etc.  Once you get into a groove laying the tiles, it goes fairly quickly.

Looking back, it's all kind of a blur from there!  Sunday was a glorious day.  Knowing that it had to be over soon and the hardest part was behind us felt really good!  We grouted sooner than we really should have, but things seemed sturdy enough to do so.  You are generally supposed to wait 24 hours before grouting but we were on a time crunch!  This bathroom needed to be done this weekend.  So first thing Sunday morning we grouted.  We then left the floor alone for a couple of hours while we went to the home improvement store to pick up shoe moulding and quarter round.  Still waiting for the grout to dry, we painted and cut all mouldings and once we felt comfortable enough to tip toe around we installed the mouldings!  I got to use my new air compressor with nail gun my husband got me for Christmas!  Yippee!  It was pretty powerful, I must say!  So now we are in the home stretch!  Everything got loaded back into the bathroom, plumbing reattached and we were done!  It looks 100 times better than it did, but unfortunately I don't have "after" photos just yet! 

Have no fear....I will take them when I am back over there next weekend for part 2 of our bathroom renos...the master!  This bathroom is teeny tiny so I have high hopes that it will be smooth and quick! 

Here's a little sneak peak of what I picked to go in there:





Pretty, right?  Like I said, the master bath is tiny so vanities are slim pickins'!  But I really like the looks of this one. 

Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing weekend!

4 comments:

  1. we just tiled our kitchen and laundry this past summer.wow!i mostly sat and laid the tile while my husband cut the pieces.it looks so easy but boy is it tiring!
    can't wait to see your photos :)

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  2. I'm tired just reading about it! You sound like a hard worker, can you stop by here when you're done?

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  3. oh my gosh! what a weekend. i can't wait to see how it turns out. and that sink is so so lovely! :)

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  4. Rachel I'm pumped to see the finished product! Maybe you can give me some tips on my bathroom it's a mess. I need a good wall color that goes with baby blue toilet and tub :)

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