New Year -- New Bathroom

You may remember our very blue bathroom...probably a styling thing 30 years ago when it was put in but definitely out-of-date now. I had great turmoil trying to find tile that "matched" and ended up with tile that "went together." I was dismayed to learn that when you find a tile you like it doesn't come in different sizes - this seems to me to defy all logic. If you are making a totally neutral or especially a colorful bathroom you would think a color would come in big floor tiles and matching small shower tiles with a shade lighter or darker of the same color for walls. This is not true. This is also why every one's bathrooms look kind of mismatched. So that was an eye opener. It was also a first for us to have someone else do work. Well, the guys showed up on time, demolished the bathroom in 2 long days and took 4 days to reconstruct it. It was one guy for the demo and final day cleanup and 2 guys for tile installation.

Then I primed the ceiling and walls and painted...found new soft towels before I decided on a wall color...and Jeff put the sink/mirror/vanity things up. Here are some shots of the nice new bathroom!

No more nasty sliding doors and no nasty shower curtain!

Added storage and a vanity that hangs on the wall and has no legs to mop around.

I am really happy with the glass block wall - no moving parts to rust or get gunky. I am happy with the color scheme. I am pleased to have a towel rack inside the shower to hang my drippy bathing suit on and finally have a large mirror that I can see my head in! The previous cabinet was replaced by a mirror long ago (a year after we got here because the mirror was the size of an envelope) but the new mirror reflects light and makes the room look a little bigger. The glass block wall was pretty interesting and easy to put in once you figured out the anchoring and reinforcing systems. I could have used rounded blocks for the edge, but with a small bathroom you look straight into I wanted to continue the straight lines and had them tile the edge of the blocks. I need to do a little smoothing with more glass block mortar or put a line of white silicone on it since the tile wasn't bull nosed but other than that am very pleased! What would I do differently? I used an 18 inch towel bar in the shower and a 24 inch one outside and would just go with two small ones. You can't fit two towels on the long bar so why not just have a small bar? I am getting used to the sit-on-top sink and may have mounted it a bit high - still getting used to it...it is a weird dimensional thing when you are used to things being flat. We need flatter doorknobs so the door will lay parallel with the wall. It didn't before but I never noticed it and now I'd like it flat (this is easy to fix- I am sure we can find flat levers here). I am getting used to the color I painted, kind of a turquoise, and it is ironic I ended up with a couple different blues in there after whining about blue blue blue... So the re-do was definitely worth it. I don't know how people deal with workers doing longer projects though - lots of dust and commotion and a definite disruption of routine.

So what's the next project? I think we will take a breather and I may prime the ceilings and paint the walls a little lighter shade of the same color. I'll paint the ceiling white. I need to paint the wall down the driveway the same color as the house...the other bathroom should get done in a few months (gotta pay for this one first) and then there is the aquaponics project which is a big goal for the year. More on that one soon, like in the next post!

Hay Que (poquito) Joderse - a New and Useful Phrase

So the bathroom stuff has basically not been bad at all - the guy shows up on time, works the whole time, and appears to do an adequate job. I've got a couple things that I think are questionable but since I love to control the world I don't know if they are really problems or not. I need advice! One thing was that they used "pared" thinset for the floor since it was already mixed. I believe wall thinset is a little stronger and they say it is "mismo" but is it really the same? The biggest problem is that there are 7 (out of 200) tiles that have problems - they sound different from the others so I think either the thinset didn't bond or the area wasn't (and won't ever be) level or whatever. One I know on the floor was because they walked on it before it bonded - the one in the middle of the floor. When they put it down I told them they should wait until the last thing (but they had thinset mixed already and tried but apparently didn't avoid stepping on it). They did have a large board on it so when they did step it spread the weight out. The other floor had tiny tiles that spanned less area and maybe that was why they didn't have a problem...these are big tiles. Next time a little smaller tile would be better since the floor may not be level and thinset doesn't compensate for that. But anyway - it doesn't rock (yet), we aren't driving on it, it isn't lifting (yet)....what is better? 1 leave it, grout it and watch it OR have them take it out and possibly wreck other ones doing it? It gets grout Monday or Tuesday.
The ones with sticky notes on them are the questionable ones. One is under the sink (who cares), the other is on the side of the toilet but the toilet doesn't sit on it (who cares) but the other is where you step out of the shower and you step on it when you go to the bathroom - should I care? Do I have them taken out or do we have them grout it and wait and see? I had them use spacers so there is space and I don't think it will affect other tiles. Is not replacing them just waiting for trouble? HQJ...


There is one partial tile in the shower I will insist they change out since it is in the wet area. Then there are 2 and maybe 3 behind the door...


The door will be over this area unless you close it when you are in there - but there is no traffic in that area - take them out or grout them in?

The other adventure is with the glass wall. I have closely monitored them - I can see what they are doing. but for an instant I blinked or something and when I went in there they were setting blocks on the white track for a dry run....but incredibly had already cut and screwed in the track that was TOO SHORT! I had laid out the wall rows and already snapped all the spacers into the correct shapes for the perimeter, bottom etc and they snatched from the wrong row and everything got mixed up! The guy did a curved glass wall before but apparently had not used spacers (they prefer to just eyeball things I guess) so off it came, I took charge, laid it out with the spacers and told them to measure 3 times and cortar uno or better yet - put the white track down and cut it after the wall is done! The too short piece can be used for the vertical part since the track doesn't come long enough for one piece anyway but jeez... this is basic. So I run down because one guy disappears to mix the mortar and I want to make sure it is the glass block mortar and that he puts in the fortifier (anti mold stuff). I had already piled the two together and marked the ratio so there wouldn't be mistakes. (they prefer to "eyeball" measure which tells me they do this a lot or that they don't do this a lot). Then I told them I was in charge of putting in the spacers so they wouldn't be upside down, or the wrong ones in the wrong place or placed so you could see them (they stay in). We joked around some and they are nice people but I do have to monitor them. So the mortar is not completely filling the outside of the blocks and I am freaking - es mal, no buena, por que no de aqui...lots of pointing. Then they tell me this is the first part and after they put something else to make the lines neat and finish it. I tell them NO thinking they want to grout it and after much discussion I get it - un otro capa de mismo despues - they will neaten it up after the wall is made, dry and then they finish it with more glass mortar so it look nice. The first part is to set the anchors, the metal reinforcers and spaces. So this is what stuff looks like so far.It looks great!

The color is off on the photos but I need advice before Monday when they return. Bust up and replace the bad tiles or leave them and see how it goes. Also, how long before you know if there are really any problems? We have the other bathroom to do and if everything holds I think the job is good enough to have them do the other. What do you think?

Bathroom Progess - Muy Rapido!

Day one involved demo of a majority of the bathroom. Carlos showed up at 7:10 and stayed until around 1:30 chipping away at the old tile. He got most of the walls and the front floor done, and the floor in the shower was waiting for the next day.

He showed up around 7:30 (his mother dropped him off) and chipped away at the rest and hauled the basura to the truck so I could take it to the dump (about 8 minutes away). I was pretty pleased that it went that fast, as fast as I thought it should, and was happy he showed up pretty much on time and worked the whole time. He didn't want a sandwich for lunch so he just had water occasionally. So now it is Tuesday and Jeff hasn't replaced the really old valve assemblies for the three shower knobs. We aren't changing locations of anything so he needed to replace the stems before the tile went up and who knows what the thingys are called. This is not something I could do. I went to HBQ plumbing or whatever it is called to get replacements but of course only Spanish speakers were there, my photos didn't show sizes, and they needed me to hand them the old ones so I could get new ones. I went home, turned off the water (keep in mind I am filthy from having just shoveled tile out of the truck into the dump) and gave it my all the get that stem out. It was bending a little, I couldn't turn it, everything was old and corroded and too difficult for me. So I tried to turn it the teeny way back....turned on the water....and water came shooting out of the top shower pipe into the gutted bathroom! Not good. I turned the water off. It is only 2:30. Jeff gets home around 6:45 and I am soooo filthy I just can't stand another minute of filthy tile dust . I can't turn on the water without it squirting full force into the bathroom. I call the neighbor and shower at her house (thanks Awilda!). Jeff gets home and happily can get it so we have water at night. The saga doesn't end. I make him take the day off so he can fix this because the guy is tiling the wall today. The problem is that they are coming at 7, they need water for thinset and HBQ doesn't open until 8. The water has to be off once he removes the parts. So I fill up buckets of water, tell the guys there is una problema poquito hasta mi esposo volver - no aqua. It is fine and they start putting the guide board up so they can start tiling. Until now there has been only 2 days of Carlos. Today Roberto joined him.

Roberto joined Carlos for the tiling event. He mixed the thinset and helped put the guide board up. Let the tiling begin! Meanwhile Jeff has returned with the faucet hardware and put it in and it was in before the guys got to that point. Hooray! I decide to leave Jeff to get the glass blocks for the wall. I head out and as I am almost home call to see if they started the trim. They have. Despite my explaining (to the spouse and tilers) that I wanted the trim 2 tiles high I arrive and it is going up 3 tiles high - uhh uhh. Quiero dos. Off it comes and I get what I want (I thought about this - trim is mainly a line for your eye that has a little more interest than nothing. Three high made you focus on it). So here's one wall with trim. I am not doing trim on the vertical part because it would look weird on the glass block side, looks goofy and is distracting. I want super simple and clean looking! I think it looks great (Jeff would rather the trim go vertical there = he thinks it looks unfinished)! Another little glitch was that I had set aside 6 tiles with a little corner chip in them - set them aside as ones to use when they had to cut tiles. Somehow 2 of them ended up on the wall and were taken down and unchipped ones put in their place - hey, this is the last time we do this bathroom! Jeff didn't notice the chipped corners, the guys didn't notice. Come on...in 2 seconds my eye spotted them! Yeah grout would make it disappear a little more but hey, there is plenty of tile!

They did the tiles in the shower area. I made things super simple for them by getting sheets of 2x2s so there was less to line up and they wouldn't need spacers. All my choices were made with tile size in mind so there would be less cutting involved and things would more likely be level and more evenly spaced. The empty strip is going to have cut tiles in it tomorrow and then the glass wall will be anchored into it. Very few tiles needed to be cut. Tomorrow the cut tiles along the floor will be put in and the main floor. I think it will be a short day. They aren't working Friday, but Monday should be a grouting day and maybe anchoring the hardware for the glass wall. I think Tuesday will be the wall, with Wednesday as a touch up, towel bar, finish the wall day. It is going fast! Do you think it's possible to have a new bathroom by xmas? Right now there are crystal blocks and towel bars under the tree - that's what I am hoping for....then it will be the other bathroom. So so far it is going extremely well I think. After watching and hearing about neighbors having workers not show up, not call, or come at 3 pm instead of 8 I was dreading this. Unless tiles fall off the walls I am pretty darned pleased! I did think about the design so a maximum of whole tiles could be used (for cleaning purposes and installation purposes) but I didn't really think he would show up consistently....but he has. Oh lucky day... he appears to know what he is doing and he comes on time and does it! Yeah!

Looks good, huh? They still need to tile the little wall, do the bottom perimeter which requires cut tiles and finish the floor.

Here's where the sink goes.

This is the sink area and you can see some of the floor has been put down and yes...I did buy spacers for that! Toilet goes on the right. I don't want metal towel bars and stuff since even stainless rusts here. I could only find two styles of porcelin towel bars and I'm not crazy about them but even on the internet it is all metal. So I got an 18 inch for in the shower to hang bathing suits on and a 2 footer for the outside wall. The toilet roll holder is brushed nickel to match the towel bars on the sink and have a low profile. I'm happy with these (once the towels are on there you won't see them anyway. I'm thinking about painting -believe it or not - a pretty bluish, tuqoisish green and getting some dark blue towels.This is hysterical since I couldn't stand all the different blue tiles and now I'm thinking blue? Maybe I'll do a light yellow orange and put orange towels in there - that'd go well with beige. Hmmm, wild purple towels with lavender walls>=? (too girly). The options are endless and all towel color based. Guess it is towel time.

Bathroom Re-do Time - Decisions are Made!

This is one of our bathrooms. It is a typical, regular sized bathroom (5 x 8) and we aren't doing anything dramatic - but come on, it is a little bit blue! In its time (30 years ago) this was probably a good design, but 30 year old grout just doesn't ever get clean and the color - well, take a look. I had no idea how difficult decisions would be though. In my logical mind I thought I'd be able to find one color/texture of tile that would come in several sizes and several shades and that things would "match." This is not how tile works. Everything has a different texture/design to it and nothing matches. Hard to have a simple, clean design when everything is different!


Right now the inside of the shower and the outside floor has little 1 by 1 inch tiles. I want as little grout as possible, but in a small shower you can't really put large tiles. Since we aren't tackling this job ourselves I want it as easy as possible for the guy who does it so I am going with 2 x 2 tiles that are in a 12 x 12 square. The shower doors are nasty, and metal just doesn't work here. I want low maintenance so I want glass blocks that don't move. I'm going with 8 x 8 x 4 since the wall they will sit on is a little over 4 inches wide and that will let me do a wall around 4 blocks wide and probably 8 tall. It won't block the window, will have no moving parts, will keep the toilet from getting wet and look a little more modern (I hope). The tile doesn't go all the way up the walls and we aren't changing that. I want some wall space so I can transform boring beige (commonly called "neutral") by painting color on the walls and getting colorful towels. I'm also thinking practical and will have a towel bar inside the shower to hang bathing suits on since this is a weekly occurrence.

The floor is also the 1 x 1 inch tiles and I am going with 16 x 16 inch big ones. Less grout means easier cleaning, because I don't care if you put sealer in the grout or not grout will always get nasty in the end!

This is the old sink and vanity. Kinda blue! There was a lot of room to store stuff, but luckily I'm not much of a girly girl so I can live with less. There was a grey/blue toilet when we arrived but we switched it to a low flow white one in the first couple months.

So the new scheme will be boring beige. I am drawn to all the cool Caribbean colors like turquoise, oranges, yellows, greens and blues but know better after doing wild colors in our previous house. This is the "accent" tile - two rows will go on top of the wall tile for contrast. It is the same shade as the tiles in the shower and should connect things well.

The light beige 8 x 12s are for the walls and the mixed beige 2 x 2s for in the shower only. The floor outside the shower will look like the lightest beige of these only will be 16 x 16.

I love the new sink/vanity. We found it here - in Puerto Rico - if you can believe it! It is modern but still practical. It hangs on the wall (so you can sweep and mop under it) and has room for a soap dispenser and toothbrush holder on top.

My favorite part is the bamboo-like zen faucet that conserves 5% more water than other ones but mainly I just like that it is a wide stream that sounds neat. Jeff also hooked up the hot water here too which is nice this time of year. So now the hard part. Who to hire? We've never had any one do work on anything so it is an adventure. All the old tile has to get chipped out and after doing some of it I decided I would rather hire it done than flying glass-like shards in my hair and clothing. This also means a trip to Fondo Seguro for insurance in case the guy chisels his leg off or gets tile shards in his eyes if he doesn't wear goggles. Things are different here definitely...we'll see how this goes. If it goes well, we have a harvest gold bathroom that needs upgrading as well...then there is the kitchen...I'm exhausted thinking about it. Guess I'll go outside and build something!