the steadily rising mound of the Great Virginia Mortar Bump
8 years ago
June 30, 2019
Sunday update
Just a quick note to say that I followed up on Amie's suggestion and cut up the DITRA and removed excess thin-set from underneath--along with some DITRA trimming and some scraping of the edges, the Virginia problem is solved, and a second bump area (larger, but somehow less problematic) in the Minnesota-Montana region was 90% ameliorated. I'm going to mix up a quick, tiny batch of mortar, add a *little* bit back to secure those areas, and tomorrow we can put down mortar and tile.
June 29, 2019
Tile cutting
Sticking to schedule today, more or less -- a little bit less, but not for lack of trying. Today had some ups and downs, which started with a downer late last night when I went to bed. Closing the curtains, I happened to look up and see... (it's not a bat, don't worry):
First light (really, I was up from 4:30 AM on), I went up and checked out the attic, then looked outside and at the roof. I didn't spot anything, but our handyperson, Amie, did see some water damage in the attic -- it was just little distance away from where I was expecting it. Looks like it's probably a roof-joining-chimney issue, or possibly just a chimney issue. The chimney also needs "tuck pointing" (where they re-fill the mortar between bricks that's been worn away) pretty badly.
Since I was up (and Home Depot opens at 6 AM), I went up and bought a couple of cheap porcelain tiles to practice on with the angle grinder. Here you can see notches (the large container of windshield wiper fluid is there to keep the tile from shifting during cutting):
And circle cutouts, which are a little harder, and sometimes very time consuming. But very necessary for that big toilet flange (also called a "closet flange" for "water closet").
And a video (the sound of the angle grinder is horrific, and quite loud -- I recommend turning volume to low before playing):
And in slo-mo (I was hoping for sparks, but they're actually kind of rare; the sound here, slowed down enormously, is actually kind of interesting):
The temperatures kept rising, so around 10 or so, I decided to get to work on the real thing. The Ann Sacks tile is about twice as thick, and I had to adopt some new methods. I drew out what needed to be cut out on the tiles, and labeled each of the tiles as if they were states in the US, so I'd remember where they needed to go. Unfortunately I only started photographing once I had the East Coast, the South and the Eastern Midwest down -- that's because only Florida (see below) needed any cutting to make it fit, while Maine, Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri and East Texas could go down as is. The rest would not be so easy.
West Texas/New Mexico needed another small cutout for the door posts.
But the big cutting was obviously reserved for Utah and Montana. It went very slowly. I watched a professional tile guy, using exactly the same equipment, and he does it in literally 90-120 seconds. I think the two pieces took me two hours. Here's Utah:
Joined in an unholy alliance with Montana:
The remaining pieces should have been easy. They weren't -- partly because nothing is straight and nothing is even in a 90 year-old house, and partly because it was 92 or 93 degrees at this point, and I kept having to move my little work station to stay in the shade. Also, you cut conservatively, but then you discover it's not enough. So you re-cut. And again. And again. And again. All of these pieces needed 5-6 sessions of trimming and cutting before they would fit. In the end, Oregon was the biggest challenge, because of that projecting toilet tank-feed pipe. I thought a small notch, and I'd be able to slide it in? Nope. Rotate it around from a different side? Nope. A deeper notch? Nope. Only cutting out that corner entirely worked. So eventually, Oregon/Washinton fell.
By comparison, Northern and Southern California didn't take too much work:
...although at this point I was ready to throw in the towel and just give up. I didn't, but I'm trying to figure out why I'm not enjoying this. I had a blast with the kitchen, but this bathroom has not been like that -- anxious, unhappy, lots of work, slow progress, etc. I had imagined being done by the end of June. Now I'm thinking the end of July would be more appropriate -- if I'm lucky. But maybe Monday or Tuesday we will have a floor.
Remaining issues:
The transition strip area needs to be addressed somehow. Of the pieces of tile I cut off the West Coast, literally none can be used for the strip. I only have one spare tile, and that's not enough. A random assortment of this tile that won't match the pattern? A neutral non matching tile? Some other kind of transition from tile to linoleum. Research is called for.
A couple of areas are *not* level. Virginia is the worst offender, with a big bump underneath, making the tile rock back and forth. It's pretty bad. I tested everything with a level yesterday and it was all good. Now it is not. It should probably be dealt with now, but I just don't have it in me. Amie suggested cutting away the DITRA in that area and seeing what's happening underneath, so that may happen tomorrow (I don't know if that's easy or possible, just that's it's an idea. Otherwise, I'm pretty much baffled as to how to proceed -- the uneven underlayment will result in cracked tiles, so that's a non-starter, but also I'm unclear on what else I could possibly do at this point.
I think I'd better take tomorrow off, other than looking at the underlayment. In the meantime, happy Negroni Week!
First light (really, I was up from 4:30 AM on), I went up and checked out the attic, then looked outside and at the roof. I didn't spot anything, but our handyperson, Amie, did see some water damage in the attic -- it was just little distance away from where I was expecting it. Looks like it's probably a roof-joining-chimney issue, or possibly just a chimney issue. The chimney also needs "tuck pointing" (where they re-fill the mortar between bricks that's been worn away) pretty badly.
Since I was up (and Home Depot opens at 6 AM), I went up and bought a couple of cheap porcelain tiles to practice on with the angle grinder. Here you can see notches (the large container of windshield wiper fluid is there to keep the tile from shifting during cutting):
And circle cutouts, which are a little harder, and sometimes very time consuming. But very necessary for that big toilet flange (also called a "closet flange" for "water closet").
And a video (the sound of the angle grinder is horrific, and quite loud -- I recommend turning volume to low before playing):
And in slo-mo (I was hoping for sparks, but they're actually kind of rare; the sound here, slowed down enormously, is actually kind of interesting):
The temperatures kept rising, so around 10 or so, I decided to get to work on the real thing. The Ann Sacks tile is about twice as thick, and I had to adopt some new methods. I drew out what needed to be cut out on the tiles, and labeled each of the tiles as if they were states in the US, so I'd remember where they needed to go. Unfortunately I only started photographing once I had the East Coast, the South and the Eastern Midwest down -- that's because only Florida (see below) needed any cutting to make it fit, while Maine, Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri and East Texas could go down as is. The rest would not be so easy.
West Texas/New Mexico needed another small cutout for the door posts.
But the big cutting was obviously reserved for Utah and Montana. It went very slowly. I watched a professional tile guy, using exactly the same equipment, and he does it in literally 90-120 seconds. I think the two pieces took me two hours. Here's Utah:
Joined in an unholy alliance with Montana:
The remaining pieces should have been easy. They weren't -- partly because nothing is straight and nothing is even in a 90 year-old house, and partly because it was 92 or 93 degrees at this point, and I kept having to move my little work station to stay in the shade. Also, you cut conservatively, but then you discover it's not enough. So you re-cut. And again. And again. And again. All of these pieces needed 5-6 sessions of trimming and cutting before they would fit. In the end, Oregon was the biggest challenge, because of that projecting toilet tank-feed pipe. I thought a small notch, and I'd be able to slide it in? Nope. Rotate it around from a different side? Nope. A deeper notch? Nope. Only cutting out that corner entirely worked. So eventually, Oregon/Washinton fell.
By comparison, Northern and Southern California didn't take too much work:
...although at this point I was ready to throw in the towel and just give up. I didn't, but I'm trying to figure out why I'm not enjoying this. I had a blast with the kitchen, but this bathroom has not been like that -- anxious, unhappy, lots of work, slow progress, etc. I had imagined being done by the end of June. Now I'm thinking the end of July would be more appropriate -- if I'm lucky. But maybe Monday or Tuesday we will have a floor.
Remaining issues:
The transition strip area needs to be addressed somehow. Of the pieces of tile I cut off the West Coast, literally none can be used for the strip. I only have one spare tile, and that's not enough. A random assortment of this tile that won't match the pattern? A neutral non matching tile? Some other kind of transition from tile to linoleum. Research is called for.
A couple of areas are *not* level. Virginia is the worst offender, with a big bump underneath, making the tile rock back and forth. It's pretty bad. I tested everything with a level yesterday and it was all good. Now it is not. It should probably be dealt with now, but I just don't have it in me. Amie suggested cutting away the DITRA in that area and seeing what's happening underneath, so that may happen tomorrow (I don't know if that's easy or possible, just that's it's an idea. Otherwise, I'm pretty much baffled as to how to proceed -- the uneven underlayment will result in cracked tiles, so that's a non-starter, but also I'm unclear on what else I could possibly do at this point.
I think I'd better take tomorrow off, other than looking at the underlayment. In the meantime, happy Negroni Week!
June 28, 2019
DITRA, as promised
I don't see to be able to manage a post every day, but every other day will do. Since the last update, I've managed to keep to my schedule from the last post. Thursday's goals were all done, although the leveling only got put down around 6 PM, and considering I started at 7 AM, it was a long day:
One of the main reasons that I wanted to do this when the my family was somewhere else (besides having only one working toilet in the house) was the need to have tools and crap scattered everywhere for a month: bags of mortar, toolboxes, work gloves, etc. Witness, for instance, the preparation of last night's risotto:
That's just not going to fly with Lilya around. Anyway, got up this morning and unrolled my DITRA™. Behold its immense orangeosity:
I'm a little frustrated by my inability to find out what DITRA is an acronym for, but I'll live. One thing to know about it is that it's expensive: the smallest roll of it you can buy is $90, and it's for 54 square feet -- I need 12. Happily, there are guys on eBay who sell it in increments of 5 square feet, so the roll above is a meter wide and about five feet long. I didn't measure it, but it's definitely big enough. It goes under the tile, allowing the floor to move underneath it without stressing or cracking the tile. If Lilya really wants avant-garde, we could also just leave it as is. Step #1: cut the DITRA to fit the space:
Like that. It cuts pretty easily, once I figured out to use a pair of scissors rather than a utility knife. Step #2, lift that off, and cover the plywood with mortar:
That dark gooey stuff in the bucket. Don't worry about the color -- no one will ever see it, since this goes under the tiles, not between them (that's grout). And finally step #3, press the DITRA evenly into the mortar, squeezing out air pockets, etc. Any left over mortar can be put on top, since all those little pockets will have to be filled up tomorrow anyway.
And that's it; in theory, the floor tile could start going down tomorrow, although in practice, that's a very delicate step where you kind of need to get everything right, particularly cutting the tile, for which you don't get any do overs. I read all about how my angle grinder works (I have a healthy respect for power tools), so I might go out to the Home Depot and pick up a few tiles (porcelain if possible) and do some practice cuts. Otherwise, I'm in the unusual position of being done at lunchtime, and I need to stay out of that bathroom for the rest of the day. I'm going to do some reading and enjoy a nap, I hope.
- Patching
- Sanding
- Joint Compound
- Tape
- Joint compound
- Sanding
- Leveling
A close-up of fiberglass tape embedded in joint compound, before sanding
A glimpse of how much taping and compounding had to be done (the ceiling, not pictured here, is the real pain, however)
And here’s the floor with some partially-dried leveling compound
One of the main reasons that I wanted to do this when the my family was somewhere else (besides having only one working toilet in the house) was the need to have tools and crap scattered everywhere for a month: bags of mortar, toolboxes, work gloves, etc. Witness, for instance, the preparation of last night's risotto:
That's just not going to fly with Lilya around. Anyway, got up this morning and unrolled my DITRA™. Behold its immense orangeosity:
I'm a little frustrated by my inability to find out what DITRA is an acronym for, but I'll live. One thing to know about it is that it's expensive: the smallest roll of it you can buy is $90, and it's for 54 square feet -- I need 12. Happily, there are guys on eBay who sell it in increments of 5 square feet, so the roll above is a meter wide and about five feet long. I didn't measure it, but it's definitely big enough. It goes under the tile, allowing the floor to move underneath it without stressing or cracking the tile. If Lilya really wants avant-garde, we could also just leave it as is. Step #1: cut the DITRA to fit the space:
Like that. It cuts pretty easily, once I figured out to use a pair of scissors rather than a utility knife. Step #2, lift that off, and cover the plywood with mortar:
That dark gooey stuff in the bucket. Don't worry about the color -- no one will ever see it, since this goes under the tiles, not between them (that's grout). And finally step #3, press the DITRA evenly into the mortar, squeezing out air pockets, etc. Any left over mortar can be put on top, since all those little pockets will have to be filled up tomorrow anyway.
And that's it; in theory, the floor tile could start going down tomorrow, although in practice, that's a very delicate step where you kind of need to get everything right, particularly cutting the tile, for which you don't get any do overs. I read all about how my angle grinder works (I have a healthy respect for power tools), so I might go out to the Home Depot and pick up a few tiles (porcelain if possible) and do some practice cuts. Otherwise, I'm in the unusual position of being done at lunchtime, and I need to stay out of that bathroom for the rest of the day. I'm going to do some reading and enjoy a nap, I hope.
June 26, 2019
Construction
When I last left you, I just moved officially out of the demolition and cleanup phase and into the construction phase. Things are moving along nicely (if not nearly fast enough for me), and we're covering two days of activity -- yesterday was broken up by a meeting with a student and with a very welcome dinner with some friends.
Ideally, you'd make the whole wall out of a single piece of wallboard, but that's tricky here for two reasons: one, since it's a bathroom, it really ought to have concrete board, which is very water resistant, and not regular wallboard, but they don't sell concrete board in sizes that big (3' x 5' is the norm); two, I have two 4' x 4' squares of perfectly nice wallboard sitting in the garage from the last remodel, and now I get to use them! (And three, I don't have a vehicle that will fit the standard 8' x 4' sheet of wallboard anyway -- and you know what happens when you try to fit things into cars too small for them!) Anyway, the trick here is trying to cut the wallboard so it will perfectly fit around everything that is not wall: electrical sockets, windows, pipes, etc.
So, after three tries, always going back for slight adjustments, we were good to go -- my only regrets are those two little cutouts above the window ledge; they turned out to be totally unnecessary. In the picture above, the wallboard's not even screwed in -- it's just hanging on the top edge of the window.
Here you see the more or less final product -- the bottom half is joined by fiberglass tape and thinnest mortar, while the wallboard portion is joined by the same tape and joint compound. Tomorrow, all of this should be dry, and I will sand things smooth, and deal with the corners -- actually, they're partially dealt with already; the gaps between the old side walls and the new back wall have mostly been filled with backing rod and that crazy foam stuff you spray into gaps and then it expands like crazy (the brand I'm using is called TiteFoam by LocTite, because awl tha wordz mussst b mis-pelled -- and it ought to be TiteFōm, anyway), that also went around the pipes, which you can sort of see in the second picture.
Rummaging around in the basement to see what other goodies I had unhand from previous projects I came across an old tub of hydraulic cement. And there was just enough left to deal with something that's been bugging me -- there's a gap of a ¼ to ⅓ of an inch between the floor and the wall. That wasn't an issue for the linoleum, but it could be for tile, which likes to break wherever anything isn't perfectly level. So, more backing rod and the remaining cement and that gap is filled.
Tomorrow, I'll fill in the missing chunks of corners with patching compound (plaster of Paris with other chemicals), which is slightly dangerous stuff. As it sets, it gets hot, hot enough to really burn you, but it also becomes rock hard and adheres to the skin. Evidently, every year someone with a broken arm decides to just do a homemade cast, rather than paying doctors with thar fancy book-larnin'. It doesn't end well. Anyway, it's really important not to touch it, and not to breath the powder when you sand it either (it's done being hot at that point -- it just gives you cancer).
Anyway, patching compound for the corners, sanding (wearing a full respirator, followed by a thorough vacuuming and airing), then joint compound, tape and more joint compound (if necessary -- we'll see how it looks with just the patching compound). A lot of cleanup and general sanding of most everything. At that point, I'll probably start getting ready to tile the floor by leveling the floor, which needs an overnight dry.
Friday, if all goes well, a coat of thin-set, the layer of Ditra (you'll be impressed when you see the crazy fluorescent orangeness of it), and once that's set, the tile can go down in more of the thin set. The main thing between then and now is me learning how to use an angle grinder to cut tile.
Porcelain is about the hardest stuff there is, and you need a diamond blade for it, which you see on the upper left. My previous experience with tile cutters is that they didn't work, so from what I've read, this little (and relatively inexpensive) guy will do the trick. I will probably spend some time practicing on a couple of cheap tiles from Home Depot before I start on the Ann Sacks stuff (among other things, I have only just enough of that, with very little margin for error); wait a day, then grout, then wait a day. In theory, there could be a floor by Monday, although I'd be surprised if the schedule actually works out that well. Still, fingers crossed.
And I'll leave you with some more Kitty, as usual, perched next to the new angle grinder:
Ideally, you'd make the whole wall out of a single piece of wallboard, but that's tricky here for two reasons: one, since it's a bathroom, it really ought to have concrete board, which is very water resistant, and not regular wallboard, but they don't sell concrete board in sizes that big (3' x 5' is the norm); two, I have two 4' x 4' squares of perfectly nice wallboard sitting in the garage from the last remodel, and now I get to use them! (And three, I don't have a vehicle that will fit the standard 8' x 4' sheet of wallboard anyway -- and you know what happens when you try to fit things into cars too small for them!) Anyway, the trick here is trying to cut the wallboard so it will perfectly fit around everything that is not wall: electrical sockets, windows, pipes, etc.
So, after three tries, always going back for slight adjustments, we were good to go -- my only regrets are those two little cutouts above the window ledge; they turned out to be totally unnecessary. In the picture above, the wallboard's not even screwed in -- it's just hanging on the top edge of the window.
Rummaging around in the basement to see what other goodies I had unhand from previous projects I came across an old tub of hydraulic cement. And there was just enough left to deal with something that's been bugging me -- there's a gap of a ¼ to ⅓ of an inch between the floor and the wall. That wasn't an issue for the linoleum, but it could be for tile, which likes to break wherever anything isn't perfectly level. So, more backing rod and the remaining cement and that gap is filled.
Tomorrow, I'll fill in the missing chunks of corners with patching compound (plaster of Paris with other chemicals), which is slightly dangerous stuff. As it sets, it gets hot, hot enough to really burn you, but it also becomes rock hard and adheres to the skin. Evidently, every year someone with a broken arm decides to just do a homemade cast, rather than paying doctors with thar fancy book-larnin'. It doesn't end well. Anyway, it's really important not to touch it, and not to breath the powder when you sand it either (it's done being hot at that point -- it just gives you cancer).
Anyway, patching compound for the corners, sanding (wearing a full respirator, followed by a thorough vacuuming and airing), then joint compound, tape and more joint compound (if necessary -- we'll see how it looks with just the patching compound). A lot of cleanup and general sanding of most everything. At that point, I'll probably start getting ready to tile the floor by leveling the floor, which needs an overnight dry.
Friday, if all goes well, a coat of thin-set, the layer of Ditra (you'll be impressed when you see the crazy fluorescent orangeness of it), and once that's set, the tile can go down in more of the thin set. The main thing between then and now is me learning how to use an angle grinder to cut tile.
Porcelain is about the hardest stuff there is, and you need a diamond blade for it, which you see on the upper left. My previous experience with tile cutters is that they didn't work, so from what I've read, this little (and relatively inexpensive) guy will do the trick. I will probably spend some time practicing on a couple of cheap tiles from Home Depot before I start on the Ann Sacks stuff (among other things, I have only just enough of that, with very little margin for error); wait a day, then grout, then wait a day. In theory, there could be a floor by Monday, although I'd be surprised if the schedule actually works out that well. Still, fingers crossed.
And I'll leave you with some more Kitty, as usual, perched next to the new angle grinder:
June 24, 2019
Demolition is over; construction has begun
Lots more happened today in bathroom world, much of it positive. All the electrical stuff was negative, though.
That's a joke. Technically.
OK, so we started off with a trip to the store for thin-set mortar, tile nippers, concrete board for tile backing, plaster patching compound, a trowel, insulation, a mixing bucket, and god knows what else. A second trip to the hardware store got me a new electrical box, some twisty caps for wires and a pair of ground wires I could use for the new socket. I was just about ready to get down to work when the remainder of the tile arrived. It's in a very small box, and evidently, the one box weighs 200 lbs. It's maybe a square foot by 14 inches. I guess the contents are uranium?
Anyway, after the excitement of pulling the cars out of the driveway so the guy could wheel the 200 lb box into the garage (raining all the while, obviously), we were ready to get down to work.
Stage one: infrastructure, by which I mean electricity. This was the slowest part of the job; every step had a hundred sub-steps (you want to run a new cable to a new box? Fine, punch out the cable lead, attach the box to the stud, separate and strip the cable, etc., etc.). The single most exciting part was when I realized I had to put a screw in sideways, and there was not enough room to use a drill. Well, I bought myself a little Father's Day present, as it turns out, and today I got to put it to use -- a ratchet set, seen here with the cross-point screwdriver attachment.
As a result, this particular task took seconds instead of a half an hour of me swearing. And eventually, it all went as planned, and when we were done, a working outlet!
I'm going to leave the breaker for that circuit off for now (I want the electrical box to be covered when I'm working next to it), but I should be able to turn it on and leave it on tomorrow, once there's more wall -- but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Stage two: infrastructure, layer two. Check it out -- the same old wall, but with insulation added. I kind of went crazy with the insulation, since I had a moderate sized roll to get through.
This is probably not very impressive for you, but super important for those of us who live in houses without insulation in super cold climates.
Stage three: wall. I barely had time to start this step before leaving for my drum lesson, but I wanted to get at least a small piece of wall up today, symbolically. I drilled out holes for the pipes (with that snug hole, sadly, you have to remove the shut off valve, which means you have to turn off the water to the whole house... again, lots of sub-steps), and tomorrow I should be able to actually attach it properly with screws, while also adding the other pieces; then I tape and prep those, and start work on the floor.
It's possible that tomorrow not much will get done; I have a 1 pm appointment with a student, and middle of the day appointments tend to kill my whole day. We'll see. But it's very exciting to be putting things up rather than tearing them down (although this is harder). Right now I'm making a pie so I have something nice for breakfast. Talk at y'all tomorrow.
That's a joke. Technically.
OK, so we started off with a trip to the store for thin-set mortar, tile nippers, concrete board for tile backing, plaster patching compound, a trowel, insulation, a mixing bucket, and god knows what else. A second trip to the hardware store got me a new electrical box, some twisty caps for wires and a pair of ground wires I could use for the new socket. I was just about ready to get down to work when the remainder of the tile arrived. It's in a very small box, and evidently, the one box weighs 200 lbs. It's maybe a square foot by 14 inches. I guess the contents are uranium?
Anyway, after the excitement of pulling the cars out of the driveway so the guy could wheel the 200 lb box into the garage (raining all the while, obviously), we were ready to get down to work.
Stage one: infrastructure, by which I mean electricity. This was the slowest part of the job; every step had a hundred sub-steps (you want to run a new cable to a new box? Fine, punch out the cable lead, attach the box to the stud, separate and strip the cable, etc., etc.). The single most exciting part was when I realized I had to put a screw in sideways, and there was not enough room to use a drill. Well, I bought myself a little Father's Day present, as it turns out, and today I got to put it to use -- a ratchet set, seen here with the cross-point screwdriver attachment.
Action shot!
As a result, this particular task took seconds instead of a half an hour of me swearing. And eventually, it all went as planned, and when we were done, a working outlet!
I'm going to leave the breaker for that circuit off for now (I want the electrical box to be covered when I'm working next to it), but I should be able to turn it on and leave it on tomorrow, once there's more wall -- but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Stage two: infrastructure, layer two. Check it out -- the same old wall, but with insulation added. I kind of went crazy with the insulation, since I had a moderate sized roll to get through.
This is probably not very impressive for you, but super important for those of us who live in houses without insulation in super cold climates.
Stage three: wall. I barely had time to start this step before leaving for my drum lesson, but I wanted to get at least a small piece of wall up today, symbolically. I drilled out holes for the pipes (with that snug hole, sadly, you have to remove the shut off valve, which means you have to turn off the water to the whole house... again, lots of sub-steps), and tomorrow I should be able to actually attach it properly with screws, while also adding the other pieces; then I tape and prep those, and start work on the floor.
It's possible that tomorrow not much will get done; I have a 1 pm appointment with a student, and middle of the day appointments tend to kill my whole day. We'll see. But it's very exciting to be putting things up rather than tearing them down (although this is harder). Right now I'm making a pie so I have something nice for breakfast. Talk at y'all tomorrow.
June 22, 2019
Saturday fun
Today I actually did nothing on the house or the bathroom. I recorded a couple of pieces of Baroque lute music, so you can check that out. Sadly, Blogger supports even high definition movies -- but *not* audio files, so here are links to SoundCloud where I store all my recordings.
Minuet in canon
Minuet in E major
I think these recordings need a bit of EQ tweaking, but that's what tomorrow is for. I also talked to my mom (it's been a while!), and watched four Italian movies for an upcoming article (Biùtiful cauntri, Killer Crocodile, Veleno (Poison), and Rats: Night of Terror). If some of those sound like ridiculous, cheap horror-exploitation films, well, you're not wrong.
And in other news (not all today), I also made a really tasty caramelized garlic, smoked trout and arugula quiche.
Minuet in canon
Minuet in E major
Glad I can recycle this
I think these recordings need a bit of EQ tweaking, but that's what tomorrow is for. I also talked to my mom (it's been a while!), and watched four Italian movies for an upcoming article (Biùtiful cauntri, Killer Crocodile, Veleno (Poison), and Rats: Night of Terror). If some of those sound like ridiculous, cheap horror-exploitation films, well, you're not wrong.
And in other news (not all today), I also made a really tasty caramelized garlic, smoked trout and arugula quiche.
June 21, 2019
Scraping is finished!
Sometime yesterday, early afternoon, I finished scraping the last of the adhesive off. I weighed the garbage bag -- about 15 pounds of adhesive, from just 2 ½ walls. I am pretty confident that, after a bit of sanding, those walls will be completely ready for their second set of tiling.
I was pretty psyched about this milestone. My wrist hurt from all the scraping, but still, pretty psyched. So I sat down to figure out my offset flange, and almost immediately, EG came in and explained to me that it wouldn't work.
And he's right, of course. In a normal bathroom, this would have totally worked. But, once I sat down to actually look at it, I realized I'd not only have to break the old flange to remove it, I'd have to *also* break the original cast iron pipe that leads into the sewer line (I'd explain why, but it would take diagrams and it would be boring). My general rule is that I'm loathe to break vital infrastructure (plumbing, electricity, etc.) unless I'm absolutely sure I can restore it, and here I'm pretty sure I can't. That's okay -- the extra inch or inch and a half of legroom would be nice, but it isn't the end of the world. Having new toilet sink, floors and walls will have to do.
Speaking of new floors, the tile was officially unboxed. Boy is that stuff well packed.
Underneath the *six* layers of styrofoam padding is... another, smaller box, containing the actual tile. Which is also well padded. When laid out on the floor, it looks something like this:
Obviously, there's a bit more to it than that, and this picture doesn't reflect the more blue gray colors of the tile. But you get the idea. Some tile will have to be cut, for which I will need a tile cutter -- possibly a wet saw, which I have never used, so that could get interesting. The feed for the toilet looks like it will just need a small circle nipped out, so that shouldn't be too hard. The tiles are actually covering the main portion that needs cutting, which is the flange and sewer pipe. The parts nearest the door will fit under the door frame once I, uh, remove the door frame (I'll cut it to the proper length, and restore it afterwards, I promise!)
Afterwards I went out for a fried chicken dinner at Watson's with Brett K., and came back to discover Jim and Renée walking up to my door, and got to hang out with them for about an hour so it was a very social occasion. And even EG spent some quality time with me:
Both walls denuded
East wall
West wall, emptied of tile and adhesive
I was pretty psyched about this milestone. My wrist hurt from all the scraping, but still, pretty psyched. So I sat down to figure out my offset flange, and almost immediately, EG came in and explained to me that it wouldn't work.
Stupid humans -- I can *smell* that this won't fly
(note the new register in the bottom right of the frame)
And he's right, of course. In a normal bathroom, this would have totally worked. But, once I sat down to actually look at it, I realized I'd not only have to break the old flange to remove it, I'd have to *also* break the original cast iron pipe that leads into the sewer line (I'd explain why, but it would take diagrams and it would be boring). My general rule is that I'm loathe to break vital infrastructure (plumbing, electricity, etc.) unless I'm absolutely sure I can restore it, and here I'm pretty sure I can't. That's okay -- the extra inch or inch and a half of legroom would be nice, but it isn't the end of the world. Having new toilet sink, floors and walls will have to do.
Speaking of new floors, the tile was officially unboxed. Boy is that stuff well packed.
Underneath the *six* layers of styrofoam padding is... another, smaller box, containing the actual tile. Which is also well padded. When laid out on the floor, it looks something like this:
Obviously, there's a bit more to it than that, and this picture doesn't reflect the more blue gray colors of the tile. But you get the idea. Some tile will have to be cut, for which I will need a tile cutter -- possibly a wet saw, which I have never used, so that could get interesting. The feed for the toilet looks like it will just need a small circle nipped out, so that shouldn't be too hard. The tiles are actually covering the main portion that needs cutting, which is the flange and sewer pipe. The parts nearest the door will fit under the door frame once I, uh, remove the door frame (I'll cut it to the proper length, and restore it afterwards, I promise!)
Afterwards I went out for a fried chicken dinner at Watson's with Brett K., and came back to discover Jim and Renée walking up to my door, and got to hang out with them for about an hour so it was a very social occasion. And even EG spent some quality time with me:
I will cut you if you continue to look at me, pitiful human.
June 20, 2019
Scrrrrrrrraping
Apologies for the delay -- I normally do this daily, but missed a couple of days. I promise I've been hard at work -- all of life is basically endless scraping of the adhesive gunk on the bathroom walls. Happily, the big wall doesn't exist any more, so it doesn't have to be scraped, but there's still about 25 square feet that do need to have the adhesive removed. It takes a while, and my hands can pretty much only handle about two hours per day.
So let's see what we've been up to, scraping included. A lot of it has just been reading about how to proceed to make sure that I don't create a leaking mess or a giant hole in the floor.
First up, scraping: East wall is done:
Check out the crazy, original pattern -- you end up seeing both the original and the second layer of tiling (because the adhesive leaves a mark). It's a palimpsest! Of squares out of phase. It might as well be a piece by Steve Reich!
The adhesive looks and feels exactly like supermarket caramels. Fairly hard, but with some give when you push on it, and a smooth, yet tacky feel. It is also *exactly* the same color. I have not eaten any, despite the feeling you may be getting.
Second, necessary things have been arriving. Like the toilet. Once the floors were cleared, I was able to drag toilet and sink into the bathroom to do a mock up of different possible arrangements. It was very instructive, as in, one arrangement works, the other absolutely does not.
There's been much more, but I'm supposed to go running, and I don't actually have pictures because it's not photographable; I've cleaned out the existing toilet flange, and removed the newer flanges they dropped in (?); I am hoping I can drop my new flange over the old one, because the old one is made of cast iron, and is not screwed on -- the only way to remove it is to break it with a chisel -- without breaking the cast iron sewage pipe that it is attached around, like a millimeter away. I got leveling compound for the rather jagged plywood, looked into some moisture sealers at Home Depot (the employees there did not fill me with confidence; they had never heard of the brand (EasyMat) of sealer that Home Depot recommends, which they also don't carry in store, by the way), bought casters to replace the cabinet legs with, etc.
I don't want to leave you with a picture of a toilet, so in miscellaneous news, this little guy came and perched on the screen of our dining room window; he let me get like, right up in his face, before he flew off. Kitty slept through the whole thing.
Also, I made a pretty nice dinner of insanely expensive sea bass poached in spicy tomato broth. With tortilla chips, since it's just me.
So let's see what we've been up to, scraping included. A lot of it has just been reading about how to proceed to make sure that I don't create a leaking mess or a giant hole in the floor.
First up, scraping: East wall is done:
Check out the crazy, original pattern -- you end up seeing both the original and the second layer of tiling (because the adhesive leaves a mark). It's a palimpsest! Of squares out of phase. It might as well be a piece by Steve Reich!
The adhesive looks and feels exactly like supermarket caramels. Fairly hard, but with some give when you push on it, and a smooth, yet tacky feel. It is also *exactly* the same color. I have not eaten any, despite the feeling you may be getting.
Second, necessary things have been arriving. Like the toilet. Once the floors were cleared, I was able to drag toilet and sink into the bathroom to do a mock up of different possible arrangements. It was very instructive, as in, one arrangement works, the other absolutely does not.
This arrangement works
This one does not
No, srsly, doesn't work
There's been much more, but I'm supposed to go running, and I don't actually have pictures because it's not photographable; I've cleaned out the existing toilet flange, and removed the newer flanges they dropped in (?); I am hoping I can drop my new flange over the old one, because the old one is made of cast iron, and is not screwed on -- the only way to remove it is to break it with a chisel -- without breaking the cast iron sewage pipe that it is attached around, like a millimeter away. I got leveling compound for the rather jagged plywood, looked into some moisture sealers at Home Depot (the employees there did not fill me with confidence; they had never heard of the brand (EasyMat) of sealer that Home Depot recommends, which they also don't carry in store, by the way), bought casters to replace the cabinet legs with, etc.
I don't want to leave you with a picture of a toilet, so in miscellaneous news, this little guy came and perched on the screen of our dining room window; he let me get like, right up in his face, before he flew off. Kitty slept through the whole thing.
Also, I made a pretty nice dinner of insanely expensive sea bass poached in spicy tomato broth. With tortilla chips, since it's just me.
June 17, 2019
Week Two starts off strong
Here we are in week two, and a lot got done today -- much of it tedious and back breaking, making it all the more enjoyable for you to read about it and not do it!
Today's goal was to get up the existing flooring, and get down the remaining tiles. And both were done! Here's an overhead view of the floor, no longer covered in linoleum. Note the dark stain around where the toilet used to be -- clearly, the condensation that builds up on the bowl and the tank in the summer (and it's a *lot* of condensation) has damaged the plywood over the years (not sure how it was getting through the linoleum, but presumable a bad seal at the base). I'm going to be very sure to get everything sealed up super well so that doesn't continue.
And you can see that all the tiles are off the walls now. It's one of the few easy things about this process. In fact, you can see me getting faster at it:
I also prepped the walls for cat proofing. Our cat loves the new bathroom so much; it has so many smells, and is so different, that he would live in there if he could. The problem is the access to the inside of the wall where the medicine cabinet used to be (it also contains live electrical wires from 1930). That and the HVAC register space; these are all places that kitty could easily get into, but not be able to get out of, so those holes need to be secured. As part of that, I did some scraping, and discovered that, although it is very difficult, the original adhesive for the shirt**y plastic tile can be scraped off, so I will scrape about an hour each day, and by the time the tile gets here, I should be done.
In the middle of working all this, Amie (our handy person, who does all the stuff I don't do) came by, and we talked various things, including redoing the window in the bathroom. She was not at all impressed by what I was doing in the bathroom, of course, because this is literally what she does every day. She was, however, astonished, by the fact that I had managed to put together a piece of IKEA furniture. She had to do some IKEA stuff for a client and she found the all-picture instructions to be super painful. So say we all.
I continued to tear out floors and tear off tiles, and in the middle of that, the new toilet arrived. This is very exciting not only because yay toilets, but also because it is literally the thing that the whole bathroom revolves around, its raison d'être -- just like the sink and its drain in the kitchen, so the toilet is the Lacanian Real of the bathroom, the absence, the hole around which everything organizes itself.
Sorry, what was I saying? Right, the toilet arrived. It wasn't broken! I was able to lift it out of the box myself (which means it does *not* weigh 94 lbs, as it claims). In all seriousness, this piece really does determine the whole organization of the bathroom. I'll try it out in a couple of different configurations, and depending on what works the best (leg room, access to water lines, etc.), that will determine which wall it goes up against. Obviously, the sink will go in for this little experiment as well, so tomorrow you'll get a mock up of the whole thing.
Why not today? Well, because I belatedly remembered that I had a drum lesson today, my first ever. Teacher Ian is tall, slender, going gray, and has a lot of tattoos on his arms. He informed me that I am not holding the sticks quite right, and we spent the next half hour doing exactly what I had expected -- learning to hold the sticks, not squeeze them, and to relax. It was hard work. I've been playing for about three years, just learning on my own and from the occasional YouTube video, and the initial results are not terrible -- now I just have to learn to do that all again, but holding my sticks correctly.
I had an idea for a cocktail in the car. Absinthe is effectively a bitter: could you make a Negroni with absinthe? Gin, absinthe, and you'd want a clear, but somewhat sweet vermouth -- Dolin Blanc being just the thing. I made my Verdoni, and it's pretty good. It needs to be more green and yet have less absinthe in it (also, our absinthe is really old, and a very tarnished shade of green rather than the bright green one hopes for. Still, an idea worth exploring.
Today's goal was to get up the existing flooring, and get down the remaining tiles. And both were done! Here's an overhead view of the floor, no longer covered in linoleum. Note the dark stain around where the toilet used to be -- clearly, the condensation that builds up on the bowl and the tank in the summer (and it's a *lot* of condensation) has damaged the plywood over the years (not sure how it was getting through the linoleum, but presumable a bad seal at the base). I'm going to be very sure to get everything sealed up super well so that doesn't continue.
And you can see that all the tiles are off the walls now. It's one of the few easy things about this process. In fact, you can see me getting faster at it:
I also prepped the walls for cat proofing. Our cat loves the new bathroom so much; it has so many smells, and is so different, that he would live in there if he could. The problem is the access to the inside of the wall where the medicine cabinet used to be (it also contains live electrical wires from 1930). That and the HVAC register space; these are all places that kitty could easily get into, but not be able to get out of, so those holes need to be secured. As part of that, I did some scraping, and discovered that, although it is very difficult, the original adhesive for the shirt**y plastic tile can be scraped off, so I will scrape about an hour each day, and by the time the tile gets here, I should be done.
The border around the hole has been scraped clear
You can see the original fake, painted "tile" pattern where it's been scraped
In the middle of working all this, Amie (our handy person, who does all the stuff I don't do) came by, and we talked various things, including redoing the window in the bathroom. She was not at all impressed by what I was doing in the bathroom, of course, because this is literally what she does every day. She was, however, astonished, by the fact that I had managed to put together a piece of IKEA furniture. She had to do some IKEA stuff for a client and she found the all-picture instructions to be super painful. So say we all.
I continued to tear out floors and tear off tiles, and in the middle of that, the new toilet arrived. This is very exciting not only because yay toilets, but also because it is literally the thing that the whole bathroom revolves around, its raison d'être -- just like the sink and its drain in the kitchen, so the toilet is the Lacanian Real of the bathroom, the absence, the hole around which everything organizes itself.
If the seat looks weird, it's because it hasn't been unwrapped yet
Sorry, what was I saying? Right, the toilet arrived. It wasn't broken! I was able to lift it out of the box myself (which means it does *not* weigh 94 lbs, as it claims). In all seriousness, this piece really does determine the whole organization of the bathroom. I'll try it out in a couple of different configurations, and depending on what works the best (leg room, access to water lines, etc.), that will determine which wall it goes up against. Obviously, the sink will go in for this little experiment as well, so tomorrow you'll get a mock up of the whole thing.
Why not today? Well, because I belatedly remembered that I had a drum lesson today, my first ever. Teacher Ian is tall, slender, going gray, and has a lot of tattoos on his arms. He informed me that I am not holding the sticks quite right, and we spent the next half hour doing exactly what I had expected -- learning to hold the sticks, not squeeze them, and to relax. It was hard work. I've been playing for about three years, just learning on my own and from the occasional YouTube video, and the initial results are not terrible -- now I just have to learn to do that all again, but holding my sticks correctly.
I had an idea for a cocktail in the car. Absinthe is effectively a bitter: could you make a Negroni with absinthe? Gin, absinthe, and you'd want a clear, but somewhat sweet vermouth -- Dolin Blanc being just the thing. I made my Verdoni, and it's pretty good. It needs to be more green and yet have less absinthe in it (also, our absinthe is really old, and a very tarnished shade of green rather than the bright green one hopes for. Still, an idea worth exploring.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
