moving forward

ok, so a lot has been done in the bathroom! sorry for a lack of posts; we both went back to work full time and you know how that goes. here are some photos to catch you up on our progress

the new (old) tub is in the house

lisa, jeff, and chris came over to help move the tub in. yes, it really take 5 people to move this thing.  

jeff and chris did the heavy lifting

today is the last day we have until we head back to work. it feels like the two weeks have flown by. i know weve done a lot but we still have much to do! the goal for the end of the day is to get the tub set up, the toilet back in and the sink in so that we have a functioning bathroom. fingers crossed!

bits and pieces

gosh. today we finally finish the wall tile!!! tiling takes a heck of a lot longer in real life than in my head. james and i have never tiled before, and now know that its h.a.r.d work! our bathroom is 9X9, which is a pretty good size for a house that is only 836 square feet! thats a l.o.t of tile goin' on. its been more hard emotionally, i think, to get through the tiling part than the physical labor. thank elvis the rest of our house will be wood and paint!

here are some quick pictures from this morning. lisa, jeff, and chris are coming over in a little while to help us move the new (old) clawfoot tub in. yes, it will take at least 5 people. turns out cast iron tubs are freaking heavy!!

james post tile cutting. wet saws are a messy business, friends

my feet and the new (old) clawfeet

my driveway. on the left is teresa and willys camper (aka where i pee) and on the right is my old (old) tub. the garbage man didnt take it away. rude. hunter is just hanging out enjoying his saturday....

my coffee is actually not bigger than the walls. its just closer to the camera.

we called in a plumber

she thinks she found the problem

rue mcclanahan: part time mouser, part time plumber

the walls are going up!

so we (finally) started putting the walls up (or is it on?). its looking so great! sooooooo much better than it was! love it!

subway tile!

the floor is done...and is awesome!

whew. the floor is done and it looks so great! the grout really changed how the floor looked. we used 'snow white' color grout, which is not quite bright white. tomorrow we tile the walls. honestly, we are dreading it cause we think it will be hard! we had planned to return to work tomorrow but now are taking this week of as well so we can finish everything.

here is how the floor turned out:

penny wants to help

so now  you want me to move the cheesecloth in circles?

and here it is!

a day of rest and then some grouting

we went ahead and took yesterday as our labor day. so we rested. we went to home depot for some supplies then went  to three different plumbing stores to find the overflow and waste pipes we need for the tub. james had his heart set on chrome and turns out most are plastic 'cause they are usually hidden by walls. our will show a bit though so he wanted the chrome. so. as luck would have it george moreland had it.

the rest of the day was mellow. we went to case study for some delicious coffee and talked to chris about the joys of diy tiling. check out the bathrooms at  case study on 53rd and sandy. chris did a great job on those!

i made some stuffed peppers and james worked on the floor trim. we had an early night!

this morning the plan was to put in the floor trim then tile the walls. then tomorrow grout the whole thing. but then james realized we have to grout the floor before we can put in the floor trim. oh. rude. so. change of plans. we will now grout the floor today then tomorrow (it has to cure for 16 hours) we will put in the trim and tile the walls. we will also bring in the toilet (hurray!) and the tub so we can figure out where it will sit. james has to drill for the drain and the tub filler. so, a little bit of a delay but we will press on. progress!

james mixing up the grout

mmmmmmm grout

the new floor is in!

the floor is in!!! it looks really good!

weve never tiled anything before so this was quite an undertaking for us. i was actually reading parts of the tile book aloud as we went. listen up kids, books are full of knowledge. open one up! (thats my psa for you)

here is pretty much what we are starting with:

laying the tile. nobody puts baby...errr, james..in a corner!

and ta-da!

it wasnt a 'fun' project, im not gonna lie. but it looks fantastic! we will grout it tomorrow. today we lay out the wall tile. gulp.

if you asked me what tips i have for you on tiling your own floor id say "after you mix your thinset wait 10 minutes and mix it again before you use it. it will go on like yogurt not nugat if you do that. mmm nugat is good, though ive never seen it in anything other than a snickers bar". and also "dont worry about 'perfection'. life isnt perfict. if your gaps are a little bigger over here than over there dont fret! get a little area rug or just learn to love the uniqueness of your handiwork. no one else in the world has a floor like that!"

we finished at 3am this morning. after a big nap and breakfast we will start the walls. then grout both tomorrow then seal them both tuesday. then tuesday night i soak in my new (old) tub and enjoy the sweet view of my new bathroom!!!

how cute is this photo? i love how rue mcclanahan is leaving the shot. (and the bathroom)

the curtains were hung by the water heater with care

check it out! i made some curtains to hang in front of the new plumbing wall. dont look t.o.o closely though, as its the first time ive ever made curtains!

floor tiles comin' down. layin' down? anyway, being put on the floor

ok! so. yesterday we had a bit of a hick up. james was preparing the floor for the tiles (puting the hardybacker stuff down) and came across some f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c floor rot. beautiful stuff. so. he spent the day under the house repairing and reinforcing the floor. the good news is we wont fall through!

so, now, today back on track and we are just minutes away from laying the floor tiles. woot.

see, hunter and penny are like 'where do we start'. little helpers!

laundry room (done)

yaaahooooo! the laundry room is 99.9% done! i just have to make the curtain to hang in front of the pex and then trim and paint the window. omg. i. love. these. tiles.!

here is the view of where the water heater lives

and here is the where the washer/dryer lives


this is the fabric im going to make curtains with. (you can see the curtain rod in the photo with the hot water heater.

laundry room so close to completion!

so today has been productive! i waxed the new floor in the laundry room. i stained and waxed the trim pieces then james hung them up. the room is really coming together!

james finished the plumbing (YAAA HOOO). turns out re-plumbing your whole house, even when its tiny like ours is a big deal. but now its done and we can move on!



this is what some of the plumbing looks like. red for hot water lines and blue for cold!


we are now going to put back in the hot water heater (in front of those plumbing lines, as two of them attach to the heater) and the washer and dryer. then the oly things left are i need to make a curtain to cover those pipes (i dont want to put the fabric tiles over them) and then need to paint the windowsills brown and james needs to add the windowsill trim. (then i need to paint those too). we will wait until the bathroom is in working order for those pieces!

then we will remove the tub and toilet from the bathroom and prep the floor for tile and then lay out how we want them. then tomorrow morning we begin the floor tile!

new plumbing, new floor

so today we have spent the majority of the day (since 7am till now) working on the plumbing and then putting in the new floor in the laundry room. james has put in more than 10 new lines of pex plumbing. crawling around under the house, disconnecting the old pipes then putting the pex in. not. fun. ugh. but, now its done and we wont have to worry so much about pipes freezing this winter. even if they do, they wont break. pex is pretty cool stuff. i cant believe i just said that about plumbing materials. ive learned a LOT about plumbing the last few days, believe me. now i actually know what happens when you turn the tap on. kinda cool.


so then the floor in the laundry room


we went from this:

to this:

were heading over to jeff and lisas for dinner and s.h.o.w.e.r.s. im soooo looking forward to that. oh, and our daily stop at home depot. bought to much pex so have about $100 to return and then need to get some more valve thingys. (i said i understand how plumbing works, not what the names of the pieces are!)

james has really been doing so much work these last few days! he is soooo dirty. here is is testing out the new floor at the end of a long work day:

plumbing stuff

so today we realized....wait the me part of we realized.... that the plumbing stuff is going to take a lot longer than we...i mean i...thought. turns out it was not a simple thing to redo ALL THE PLUMBING in our tiny house. oh. so james and i have made several trips to home depot and puchased a million miles of pex (the new tubing stuff) and various clamps and valves and other boring things.

all i can say is that thank elvis james knows how to do all this plumbing stuff 'cause he is saving us a lot of dough by doing it all himself!

in other news, we do also have this awesome tub filler! we go it off craigslist last year for $200! the cheapest i can find it now is on amazon for $631. score one for the wilsons!

the higlight of the day was our morning break when ava and lisa came over and ava fed the chickens some lettuce, green beans and blueberries. turns out the ladies love blueberries! good times!

i heart this tile

ok, so you cant really see how awesome this tile is in the above photo. we found it at tile for less over on 122nd/halsey. they are really nice people, have fair prices, and tons of helpful tips for first time tilers like me and james.

this is the tile we are using for the chair rail. it goes really well with the vanity mirror, which has little dots around the edge. love.

breakfast of champions...errr home remodelers!

ok, up and at 'em! we were up working at about 700am this morning, so needed to make a hearty breakfast. (side note, if you do not own one of these $19.99 griddles you should get one. i make fajitas, breakfast, garden burgers, everything on this baby!)

james is building a new wall in the laundry room and im heading out to put another coat of paint on the clawfoot tub.

we're back and on a roll!

hey, friends! whew, after a year of not doing the remodel, here we go! were starting with the laundry room (which is connected to the bathroom). james put up the tin tiles like we have in the bathroom yesterday and today we started on the fabric tiles. ive been working on these (with help from lisa, for quite awhile, so its so cool to finally have them going up! i love how it is turning out!



here is what the laundry room looked like after we started ripping off the yucky wallpaper. ugh. outside the window there is the building we are remodeling into the library. thats a whole other post!








and here is what the fabric tiles on the wall are looking like. im really liking it!