doodledee

Up until this point I haven't been documenting my bathroom remodel project online. It's probably stupid that I haven't been, as I'm sure someday I'll want to look back on all the insanity and laugh and laugh about how stupid I was to think that replacing some old wall tiles with some new wall tiles could be anything but a walk in the park. (It sure sounds easy, doesn't it? "Remove old tile, install new tile". What could go wrong? It's not like it's the only bathroom in the house or anything. Oh wait, it is.) But in reality I think I've been avoiding it because I want to pretend it just... isn't... happening.

So anyway, the bathroom has needed new tile since way back when we first moved in. The prior owners did some goofy half ass remodeling work and instead of replacing the sections of tile they removed, they just hung up these ugly "decorative" filler boards. (keyword: ugly.) Add in the serious wall damage I did during Operation New Plumbing and you've got yourself a crappy status quo. The time had come for something to be done.

Obsessed with my theory that "bartering is the future and the future is now", I jumped on craigslist and attempted to barter for some tile work. Within a day or two I had found a guy and he came over and everything seemed cool. At least it did right up until the point where he decided to sleep in on the day we were supposed to start working. I tried to be cool about it, but after he was four hours late and still "on his way", I just got fed up and I fired him. Yay me. All I do is stand up for the little guy. Who cares that I rented one of those TUBS dumpsters and now they were going ot take it back empty. It was worth it to teach Mr. No Show a lesson. We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. And I'm sure he felt bad right up until he started on a new gig 40 minutes I fired him. Funny how that works.

Back to square one. First step: bitch about my situation at work. Lucky for me one of the guys in the office has a cousin who does tile work. Apparently he's some kind of tile ninja or something. Jackpot. I give him a call and he comes over and is super nice and really flexible about work schedule so I go ahead and hire him. Then I make a few calls and get a couple of bids for the tear out and prep work. I end up going with this one dude who lives way out of town but does a lot of work here in the cities. He built neighbor.commie.mike's deck last summer and he seemed to do a bang up job. He also lets homeowners work with him, which is cool if you're looking to save a few bucks. Which I always am. Duh.

Last Monday morning the destruction began. Since then we've been working 08:00 - 21:00 every day, with no breaks. (Seriously, today was the first day since Monday that I ate lunch. Who works like that?) Bash out the old walls, put up the new walls. Carry heavy tubs of debris downstairs, bag it for disposal, haul to garage. It's all very honest stuff. I even drove a truck to go to home depot for supplies. Watch out. The only surprise so far has been the mess. It's worse than I expected. I try and keep up but it's of no use. On Tuesday the dude I'm working with looks at me and says "are you some kind of neat freak or something?" Yeah, that must be it.

We're basically done with the prep work now. New durock and/or sheetrock is in and the first coat of mud and tape is on the wall. The door and window trim go back up tomorrow and then the rock star tile guy comes on Friday afternoon to begin his weekend tilefest. With luck he's happy with the prep job and it all goes well. Fingers.crossed(). I need my shower back.

I also need a 45 minute soak in a hot tub. Too bad I don't have one. Hint.