manleyhouse | More Progress, More Mess.

A few weeks ago while

alyska was gone, much happened in a short time. Since then the unfinished ends have been worked on in some cases and ignored in others.

It started out with working in the basement to get the shower in and operational. This involved re-wiring the lighting and installing greenboard on the ceiling. Then I assembled the platform with adhesive and screws, and attached it to the floor. After that was in I then went about assembling the rest of the enclosure and there was a working shower. It still needs trim work and things, but it is functional. While I was doing that my dad started the dismantling of the upstairs bath by removing all of the old tile and backer board. Then we got the hammer out and broke the end off the tub to get it out.

After that was out we could remove the old plumbing and install some new shutoff valves, as there wasn't any on the fixtures before. It took a little bit to get the new plumbing in and correct but it wasn't difficult, just annoying. Luckily the floor was already level so we just put down a 3/4" plywood to help distribute the weight on the floorboards. Then it was time to move in the new tub. Acrylic and Fiberglass tubs are a lot lighter than porcelain/cast iron ones, even when the new one holds almost twice the water. After we got the tub in and squared up we attached the tile flange and started putting up the durock on the walls.

While I was installing the durock, and the next day while I was at work, my dad took the person door off of the garage and replaced it with a steel one from the Habitat Re-Store. It was a bit smaller so the frame had to be filled in, and straightened in the process.

Then we installed a raised planting bed in the back yard. When

alyska came back, a trunk full of strawberry plants went in, hopefully some of them survive. The next day I planted the lilies she also brought back and moved a hosta.

Over the next week I caulked and painted the new door frame, filled the joints in the durock, and cleaned the garage.

This past week we picked up some tile for the bathroom and didn't get much else done on the house. Although, there is now a truck in the driveway that will help with the hauling of materials to work on the house.

Sunday I started the installation of the tile around the tub and got most of the back wall done including some of the custom cut pieces. It went a lot better when I mixed the thinset a bit thicker and made all of the X spacers into T spacers (doing a stepped brick-like pattern instead of plain grid). Monday night I did another bucket worth of thinset on the bedroom side wall and figured placement for the bullnose. Tonight I will try and remember to make another post with pictures or update this one with links in the proper places.

(updated by jeffreyp)