Putting the Labor in Labor Day Weekend

So Vicki's off in Fort Wayne, visiting her mom and starting the packing process for her move down here next spring. And about two Novembers ago, I bought tiles and materials to do our front porch and two bathrooms. Got the front porch and the guest bathroom done, but didn't get to our bathroom by Thanksgiving. And there was no way I was doing it over The Holidays.

So almost two years later, here's the perfect opportunity to do the tiles in our master bath, the bathroom we use every day. I took Friday off, figuring this would work best as a 4 day project. Demolition & backerboard. Tile sizing and cutting. Tile laying. And Grouting. 4 steps. 4 days.

Day 1 went as planned. Of course, I fantasized about getting the tile cut that day as well. But I had a hair cut appointment at 2:00. And Kristin invited me over to their house for dinner ... and I'll not pass up a chance to hang with Trenton. Or them, really. We had a nice time. Kristin made burritos. They were tasty. And we had some margaritas. Played with Trenton. Watched a little TV. And I went home.

Got up, did coffee and breakfast ... and had to do some planning. Mizzou's first football game of the season with Illinois started at 2:40, and I'd invited BriKri & Trenton over to watch it on the big TV. So I needed to make sure we had food. And get all the tile cut by 2:30. Went to the store and bought 4 slabs of beef ribs & some potato salad (hey, no time to make potato salad) ... made a rub, slathered, got the charcoal going in the Big Green Egg (well, mine's a "medium" green egg) and threw the ribs in the little dutch oven (to protect from the radiative heat... cast iron, you know) and poured in the hickory chips and shut-er down to 200.

And started cutting tile. You have to figure out what "square" is going to be... and I wanted to do the brick pattern ... for one thing it helps make the room look bigger, and for another it lessens the visibility of slight errors on the seams. But it increases the number of cuts you have to make.

It started raining!!! There was a slight chance in the forecast, but ... well, we got it. I moved the wet saw back under the eaves and kept going. I mean, it's a wet saw, right? And I literally cut the last tile right at 2:25. Took a quick shower and was changing when Kristin and Trenton showed up. Had the game on the 1941 Philco in the living room (I love that ... old tube set, Mizzou football... feels all traditional and stuff... I grew up listening to the Tigers & the Cardinals on the radio).

Anyway, Brian had called ... Ken had invited them over to watch the game, so he called and asked if it was OK if Ken came along. It was. He showed up, I got the game on the TV downstairs. And we had a good time. Mizzou dominated, eventually winning 37-9. The ribs turned out great. And of course Trenton was a lot of fun. He was having fun with Grandpa Ken and Papa Phil and he really, for a 19 month old ... entertained himself pretty well a lot of the time.

After the game Kristin took Trenton home ... he was sooooo sleepy but too wound up with all the commotion at our house. Brian stayed and we watched the first half of the Oklahoma BYU game.

I was pretty tired by that time. I cleaned up a little and turned in early.

Got up, did the coffee and breakfast. And then mixed up the thin-set mortar and started laying tile. Got done about noon.

I had had to cut the plumbing to the toilet ... there was not enough play to lift the ring up to meet the new height of the floor. So I hit Lowes and bought a new toilet ring and a coupler and another elbow and a wax ring so I can put the plumbing back. Plus I bought some mildew retardant paint and painted the duct-board ductwork under the house. The foil outside has corroded and I suspect it's entraining some moldy air into the house. Might need to do a second coat tommorrow. Pleah.

Had a beer and a pipe, and then came and did this.

Grout tomorrow. Vicki back Wednesday.