Sunny No Chance of showers...for 8 days.

Last week was very busy and we had our hands full on the home front. Our one and only shower, which was very cheap plastic had leaked for the final time into the wall. After 2 months of fighting every caulk brand we could find, caulk tape, and everything but silly putty we decided that we needed to change out the corner options. The plastic we glued to the wall was thin enough that temperature changes would cause the liner to swell and the plastic would buckle opening fissures which would allow water to flow freely under the tub basin and into the wall. We got Abby’s brother to pick up some tile for us the weekend of the Black Bear race from an outlet, which saved us loads of money over local tile stores and borrow his tile cutter. One thing we negated to realize till we started laying the tile was that “green board” is not appropriate for backing on tile, so we had to also rip out the entire wall behind the shower and put into concrete board. After considerably more site prep and demo the project finally got off.

We're always so thankful we can keep Abby's retired parents from getting too bored.

Demo was fun for about the first 10 minutes. I really wish I had a fubar for this.

Now that's a mess.

Finishing touches on the concrete backer board.

We got all the tile laid in Sunday night, but our neighbors probably hate us now as we were up till midnight cutting for the damn thing. After tiling we let them set for two days and then grouted. Following that you wipe with cheesecloth and then apply several coats of sealant to the tile and grout.

Grooves help the adhesive work in and allow for drying.

Accent band of tile and progress here is faster with someone simultaneously making cuts outside. Spacing on the tiles is kept in place with little spacer kits that have "plus" looking shapes to them.

A little polish goes a long way.


Reposition fixtures and seal accordingly.

The hardest part was actually putting the old shower stall back in. If you’ve ever have tried to drill through ceramic with a masonry bit that’s supposed to work well you know what I mean. It took 1.5 damn hours to drill 6 holes for the shower stall. We finally got everything set in and caulked around where things needed to be sealed and then we headed up to home this past weekend for the MSG series to let everything have ample time to dry. In all we had no shower from Friday night 10-3-08 till Sunday evening 10-12-08. Which made for slight stinkiness and awkward showers in the front yard at night under a hose with flashlight. I’m pretty sure I flashed a few people driving up and down our road and they probably just thought, “Well it’s just the Chandlers”. Chilly night temperatures actually made the hose only a little cold, as the water seemed to be warmer than the air. All in all it was a painfully slow project for the regularity of use we get out of it and sometime in future homes I think we will try to make sure there at least two bathrooms so that you are able to work on one majorly once in a while.Tile is glued on with this special cement.

And DONE! No more stinky Chandlers. (Boogy included)