We Did That

I am so sorry the original frosted glass shower walls and door are not in this photo.  You are really missing out.  They had this really neat floral pattern in the middle.  And the brass framing was out of sight.  And it was that framing that was root cause of our water leakage issues.
During one of our bi-annual caulking sessions, we found there was icky mold growing behind the vinyl walls in the corner.  We decided this was finally the time to do the project.  We had sought out estimates a couple of times before but never followed through.  Something else always came up, a new baby, a roof, etc.
We decided to do a good majority of the work ourselves.  The shower will need a professional.  Someone who is confident and capable of installing a beautiful, non-leaking masterpiece.
The shower was considered out of service around Thanksgiving.  We have been using the tub shower in the boys' bathroom.  Yeah, the one with the non-slip rubber duckies.

The tearing out commenced.  Adrian is a man of many talents.  He disconnected plumbing and ripped out everything.  After discovering the extent of the water damage under the vinyl floor, he replaced the subfloor in that half of the bathroom.

I had the grand luxury of removing a wallpaper border (I thoroughly despise wallpaper in all forms).  And I picked a paint color to go with the tile.  We laid the backerboard on MLK day while the boys were at school.  Adrian and I worked surprisingly well together on that effort in such a tight space.

The next weekend I began the unenviable task of laying tile.  I invented a couple of new curse words unnecessarily.  In hindsight no one will ever see the tiles around the toilet drain.  But at the time it was crucial to get it right.

I laid the rest of the floor as I backed my way out of the bathroom.  And you see that one tile over in the bottom left?  New curse words there too.  That's the crown in our floor and it was a royal pain to get it down level with its neighboring tiles.
I took a muscle relaxer and went to bed.  Laying tile is no joke.  I was sore in places I didn't know could be sore.  And running 6 miles the morning of the job may not have helped.

And then the next weekend I grouted.  That wasn't so bad physically.  It was nerve wracking.  I kept worrying that I had mixed it too wet or too dry, or that was I wiping off too much.  It sat for the required 48 hours and then we sealed it.  Handy husband stepped back in from his childcare duties to reinstall the toilet and sink.  I didn't keep track of how long we all shared the boys' bathroom and I don't think I want to know.  We are two-thirds of the way back in operation in our bathroom.  Of course there's still a way to go.  I can't get towel rods that fit the previous mounting hardware.  So I'm frustrated about filling holes and painting.  And then installing new mounting hardware in the right places.  Finally there's the hiring of someone to install an awesome perfect shower.  But for now I am content and proud with what I do have.  It's definitely a massive improvement from the days of orchid walls and vinyl floor and shower.   Yeah, we did that.