New Tile in guest bathroom, shampoo shelf in master bath

I bought some very cheap (.50c/sqft) but beautiful, white 13"x4" tile for the new master bathroom shower, but miscalculated the square footage and didn't have enough of it. I bought the entire stock they had at the store (100sqft), and our new shower's interior surface area is actually 150sqft. We had a concurrent conundrum in the old (guest) bathroom, where we had installed a new shower kit (nozzle and faucet), and had a huge patch of broken/missing tile that needed to be replaced. However, that particular size of tile (4-3/8"x4-3/8") is not frequently used or manufactured anymore, so it was impossible to find, much less purchase in time for Moses the tile subcontractor to install it this week. Our only other option was to devise a homemade mosaic solution with broken pieces to surround the new shower kit, which we REALLY didn't want to do.


So Moses suggested a brilliant solution: rather than do the weird mosaic patch, just completely remove the tile in the guest bathroom and replace it with the 13"x4", since the guest bathroom's interior surface area is only 60sqft. Then go to Home Depot and get 150sqft of regular 3"x6" subway tile for the master bath, of which they'll have plenty, and at a decent price, which they did. So we are doing that, and it's turning out really nice. Thanks, Moses!


In addition to all this, in drawing up plans for this project with our architect Craig, we somehow completely forgot to account for a built-in shampoo shelf in the master bath shower, a feature we'd really been looking forward to having in there. So we had to hastily frame one in at the last minute, and luckily got it in there JUST in time for Moses to start covering it with the requisite Hardie backer board. In case you don't know, Hardie is just like drywall, but stronger and more water resistant.


So many considerations, just with the tile issue. I haven't even mentioned the gigantic headache that was the Plumbing Top Out Inspection - that should probably have its own post.

more befores and afters!

I realize it's still kind of hard to tell what's going on from these pictures, but all you need to know is that drywall has finally been completed, and now the crew is taping and floating. Here are some pics of what different areas of the house looked like before and after drywall.

insulation completed

While we were on our honeymoon Austin Spray Foam came in and insulated the entire attic - old house and new addition - as well as all the open exterior walls. The place sounds and feels much closer to a real house now!

floors getting sanded

More flooring in

New flooring, completed porch siding

Just bought 351 square feet of brand-new white oak flooring, and Matt's gotten started installing it in the master bedroom. Smiley and Bob are almost completely finished siding the addition, and it looks really good on the porch!

Metal roof goes on!

Siding, flooring, new metal roof

Yesterday they tore off our entire old shingle roof, and began laying felt for the new metal one. Also they installed all the metal trim. Today they will put on all the panels. Bobby put in the new electric service box and pole. Matt connected the guest bedroom and old hallway floor with the new hallway, and it looks really cool. Bill and crew also got a bunch of new siding up on the porch wall.

Siding and flooring

More siding. More crown molding on edge of roof.




Matt devised a really nice oak threshold that ramps down 1/4" over about 6 or 7" distance, to get from the old floor to the new. Looks sharp, huh? I think it will look damn nice when it's all done.

more floor installed

Shingle removal, Reclaimed wood flooring installation

Bob is removing all the crappy shingles on the North side of the old house, because they discovered that there was a huge patch of wall (about 10'x4') that had no sheathing or vapor barrier at all - just studs right to exterior siding - and that needed to be fixed.


Matt is doing a kickass and fast job installing that old wood as a new floor in the guest room. It looks really solid and really good. Once it gets sanded-down, all that color and texture variation will be very mellowed-out, we think.

Bathroom sink faucets and reclaimed wood flooring

Yesterday we went to Lowe's and bought two toilets and some tar paper to go under the new wood flooring. While there, Laurel was bowled over by the extent of the bathroom sink faucet selection. Our plumber Ismael had his copper elbows all strewn about in the dirt and I thought it looked cool so I took a picture. Today Matt came over and we began to lay out the reclaimed flooring in the guest bedroom, to see how it's all going to look. Hard to tell at this point, but I think once it's all sanded-down and re-stained it could look pretty nice.