Seal of Approval

Once again, things are progressing slower than we anticipated.  But people, that is what happens when you DIY.  You hit bumps in the road, things take longer than you expected... you just have to roll with it.

Our latest bump in the road came when I was refreshing myself on tiling how-tos on the good ol' interwebs the morning after I last posted.  One of the tutorials I was watching referred to a vapor barrier.  I wondered what that meant, so I googled it, and discovered that these bathroom reno newbies left out a major step in waterproofing a tub surrournd.  Normally, plastic sheeting (otherwise known as a vapor barrier) would be installed behind the cement board because neither tile nor grout nor cement board nor greenboard are waterproof-- just water-resistant.  I panicked.  Then I told Steve and he panicked.  Would we really have to rip out all of that cement board, only to throw it out, buy more, and re-install it over some plastic sheeting??  I did some research on the interwebs, and it seemed that we had one other option.  There are certain products that are considered vapor barriers that you can "install" over cement board.

One trip to Home Depot later, and we came home with a 1 gallon bucket of a product called Red Gard.  It's a goopy concoction that you essentially trowel or brush or roll onto cement board, and it dries to a rubbery, waterproof finish.  Best of all, you can still tile over it!

First I used some joint compound to smooth over every seam and nail hole in the cement board so that the Red Gard would have a nice even surface to cling to and we wouldn't end up with gaps it wouldn't be able to seal.

Patched.

After 24 hours of dry time, I broke out the Red Gard.  It should be noted that this stuff stinks to high heaven.  I used a respirator, kept the fan in the bathroom on at all times, and kept fans in the rest of the house running to remove any fumes that might escape the bathroom.  Definitely use a respirator, or expect that your nose and throat will smell like ammonia for the next three days.  The viscosity was really odd- it was a lot like pudding.  Not quite solid enough to trowel on, not quite liquid enough to really be able to paint or roll with easily.  I ended up using a mixture of techniques- I'd dampen the cement board with a large sponge like the directions said, then trowel a big glop onto the lid from the bucket, and then use a brush to slather it on (I made sure to use a brush I wouldn't be heartbroken about in case it needed to be chucked afterward).  The nice thing about Red Gard is that when you apply it, it's the most obnoxious Barbie hot pink you can imagine, but it dries a reddish magenta, so you never have to wonder if it's dry enough for a second or third coat.  All of the cement board got two coats of Red Gard, and the seams where leaks seemed most likely (like our little bump-out to protect the oddly-fitted pipe) were given three coats just to be safe.

Our tub surround briefly matched the color scheme of Barbie's mansion.

And then I just left it like that for a week.

Ugly AND smelly!  Exactly what we wanted! (But thankfully waterproof!!)

And then, one day, I finally had the time and energy to start the tile work.

Sneak peek!

At this point, I'm quite a bit further along in my tiling adventure, but I'm bound and determined not to post again until I have tiled the whole surround.  Maybe that will motivate me to get it done faster??

Walling In

FYI, holidays and guest bathroom renos don't mix.  Don't get me wrong, our company over the holidays has been very accommodating about the state of the bathroom (THANK YOU!!), but it sure has slowed us down having what feels like a non-stop cycle of parties, shopping, and overnight guests for the past few weeks!

But, we do have progress to report!

Near the beginning of the month, we managed to get the tub in and one wall of greenboard up.

So satisfying to see a tub there!

Then up went the greenboard over the rest of the exposed studs.  Luckily, Steve is a master at joining drywall cleanly.  I credit his brief stint working construction in the mid-2000s and his OCD about exacting measurements (elementary school bulletin boards will never be his thing but he can hang pictures and drywall like nobody's business).  Next came the cement board along all sides of the tub.

Greenboard done and some cement board on the long edge of the tub.

We hemmed and hawed about how far long the lip of the tub we wanted the cement board to run, since that's what the tile will be adhered to.  Did we want it just to the outside edges of the tub?  Did we want to run it a little further out than the tub?  Maybe down to the floor for a little extra tile detail?  In the end we decided that flush with the edge of the tub would give us a cleaner look for such a small bathroom (and save us a teeny bit of cash on tile).

Cement board installed!

The only obstacle left was what to do about the "outie" pipe.  Remember, this one?

Face palm.

Steve cut notches to allow for it in the greenboard and cement board, but that still didn't solve the problem of how to keep that pipe (and our drywall!) protected from getting banged up or wet.

Extreme outie.

After lots of discussion, we decided it would be best to build a small alcove around it; something that we'd tile over just like the rest of the cement board, something that would make a handy place to stash something like a bottle of shampoo when you're showering.  So here's what Steve came up with.

Outie be gone!

Our hope is that it will look like a design decision once everything's tiled... instead of a weird little bump-out meant to protect an improperly jointed pipe.  :)

Looks like we did it on purpose, right??

Pretty nice handiwork on Steve's part!  I am so excited because this means...  we are finally ready to start tiling!!

Protected and ready for some bling!

Our plan is to take the faucet kit you see languishing in the tub as well as some extra "just in case" cement board back to the hardware store and pick up our tile and tiling supplies on New Year's Day.  Apparently trying my hand at tiling sounds like a fun way to spend my birthday.  :)  Crossing my fingers I'll have some pictures to share late this week of our progress!

Just got here?  Catch up on the whole she-bang by following the links below:

(1) Getting estimates and why we decided to DIY
(2) Demoing the old acrylic tub and surround
(3) Phase One of getting the new tub in place
(4) Phase Two of getting the new tub in place

Tub Thumping (Again)

So.  The greenboard's up.  The stringer's up.  What next?  Well, taking the toilet out is what's next.

Toilet's gotta go.

Just for fun, here's what the opposite end of our bathroom looked like once the toilet came out.

Keeping it classy.

Next up?  Bring in the tub and fit it into place.  Except we ran into a few hiccups.  First we realized that the only way the tub was going to get in was if we squared the tub up, laid it on the floor, and slid it into place.  Our difficulty here was with mathematics.  We originally thought we could bring the tub in, set it on an end, and swing it down onto the floor.  But after we tried it, our brains fuzzily recalled Algebra class and all of that Pythagorean Theorem junk and we realized that math meant swinging the tub down from an end just wouldn't work in our just-wide-enough-for-a-tub bathroom.  Which meant we had to remove more drywall and some trim around the door in order for the tub to sit flush on the floor.  Then we were able to get the tub in!  Except that we ran into our next hiccup: the stringer was hung too high.  We realized this was just a goof on our parts, but we had to pull the tub part way back out to move the stringer lower.  Once the stringer was moved to the proper height, we slid the tub back in, only to realize the overflow and drain pipe from our old surround did not fit the new tub.  So our tub spent a night like this, until we could go get a new drain and overflow and get back to it.

The hazards of Do-It-Yourself.

After a trip to Lowe's, I managed to catch this great photo opp of the drain (oh, and Steve) once we knew the new drain would fit.

CHEESE!

Steve then removed the drain from the floor and attached it to the tub, and we slid the tub in yet again.

YESS!!!

Finally!  The tub fit, the drain was attached, and we were totally exhausted from moving that dang tub in and out so much.

By the way, we are feeling very fortunate to have purchased an Americast tub from American Standard.  It's much quieter than the super-cheap enameled steel models we looked at, and about a third the weight of the lightest cast iron tub we looked at.  So although it wasn't a total snap to move the tub in and out of place so many times, it definitely could have been worse (and heavier and louder).  Plus it's supposed to hold heat really well- bonus.

Next up will be cement board and drywall, but until then we're giving Steve's arms a break and letting all of our patience stores refill.

Just dropped by?  You can catch up on the whole story here:

Getting estimates and why we decided to DIY
Demoing the old acrylic tub and surround
Phase One of getting the new tub in place