Whole Wheat Braid

Overdue Bathroom Status Report

Several weeks ago, we made some important strides in the bathroom project. We installed the vanity and its plumbing, and we reinstalled the toilet. I did some drywall work in there, too. Lots of trips to Home Depot and plenty of help from my father-in-law were involved. I would have posted a while ago, but Blogger refused to work.


Yes, that's a functioning half-bath you're looking at. Very satisfying. It was good to have when all of my siblings were staying last weekend. That's a whole other post, however...

Vanity Inversion

I purchased this vanity a few weeks ago. We like the vanity. Nothing can be too easy, however. Notice how the drawers are on the left?

The inexpensive, pre-built vanity cabinets that one sees in major home improvement stores (translation: the only ones we're willing to budget for) all seem to have the drawers on the right. The pipes in our bathroom don't give a rat's ass about that. We were thus obliged to move all the hardware to make this cabinet a mirror image of its former self. We still barely had enough room:

Lindz and I also put vents in the toekick (yet another customization necessitated by the layout of this bathroom):

The grout, done by Lindz, is clearly visible.

Our Backs are Sore

Lindz and I tiled the bathroom floor on Sunday. It's deeply satisfying, but we understand why people pay contractors to do it for them. I had finally gottem a tub and a vanity on Friday (items crucial to the project but delayed by my lack of a truck).

We broke a few tiles until I figured out a technique for neatly snapping tiles on the diagonal. We laid out every tile, cut tiles as necessary, and numbered every one. We took a photo of the layout to give ourselves a map. The fun really began at that point.

Mixing thinset mortar is quite a thing. I was amazed at how much fun it wasn't. An electric drill emits quite a lovely odor and smoke when it's asked to mix mortar. I set the drill and paddle mixer aside before it burst into flame, and I switched to mixing with an old closet rod.

Anyway, Lindz and I are an effective tile-laying team. We feel good about our marriage; we spent an entire day on a laborious, detail-oriented project without an unkind word spoken (or shouted).