I Forgot to Expect the Unexpected.......

And just when things were moving along nicely.

On Friday (yesterday) I stopped at the kitchen/bath store to see if they could recommend a plumber, and got a couple names. I called the first one, Rick Littreal, and he had just finished a big job early (good sign) so he offered to come by that very same day and take a look at what I need to have him do. He asked if I had the spec sheets for the fixtures, so I downloaded them. Hmmm. I noticed right away that the toilet installation guide said "READ BEFORE INSTALLING!" "Non-standard installation!" Oh boy. I was hoping that I have a non-standard bathroom. But, no. He did admire my tile choices, so we were off to a great start. And the vanity base is no problem. But when I showed him the installation guide , he immediately spotted two things that will have to be changed. The guide specifies that the waste pipe should be a four inch pipe with no flange, and it needs to extend above the floor. The water supply line needs to come out of the wall at a point about 7 inches higher than it currently is. And the bolts holding the toilet to the floor will need to be pre-drilled and tile will need to go around those spots because he will not be able to drill through tile. Argh. So the short story is that it will cost about $500 to install instead of $100 for a standard installation. But he is Richard the Lionhearted Plumber - - did a thorough diagnosis and is not afraid of this totally unique installation, just letting me know it will cost a bunch. The guide said there was a template that the installer would use to mark the floor for drilling, so he suggested I get my hands on a template so I could continue with the tiling if that is the toilet I want.


So I am a little disturbed that the salesman at the K/B Store didn't tell me about this - they have it in the showroom, for pete's sake, so he had to know it is better for new construction than it is for renovation. I looked through my old bookmarks to see what other toilets we had looked at to see if any of those were standard and cheaper to install. But when I called my husband and told him I was looking for an alternative, he said no, Let's Go For It. That is the Toilet I Want. So I went to said K/B Store and requested the template from the floor model, he gave it to me, and I guess I will Go For It.


But I decided I would grout the wall tile (except for about a square foot right around the water supply pipe, which will need to be ripped out to move it) before I lay the floor tile. I got out my bag of grout and started mixing. Just as I was getting it all mixed up, I realized it was smooth...............too smooth. What is up? Suddenly, I realized ----it must be unsanded. I checked the bag, and dambit dambit dambit - that is exactly right! No sand!! This is not good. Unsanded is for very thin grout lines (or for applications with really polished tiles that might be scratched by sanded grout). My grout lines are going to be way too wide, sometimes more than 1/4", and those will be too big. I need the sand or else there is a strong chance that the grout might crack. I might be able to get away with this since it is a wall, not a floor. But who wants to take a $15.00 chance with $600.00 worth of tile??? Not worth it. Plus, I want the floor grout to be the same as the wall grout, so I had to just trash that whole batch of grout and drive back to the hardware store and buy new grout. By the time I got home, I had lost all my momentum. Ready to plop on the couch and watch "Blades of Glory".

Tomorrow is another tile day.

The walls are DONE.

Today I painted the walls. It took a lot of coats, but it is finally done. We (I) used a metallic paint that was the lightest silvery shade they had. It is a Ralph Lauren color from Home Depot.
I guess that little circular shape on the wall is a reflection of the flash, because I don't see that on the wall when I look at it. Tomorrow I will seal the tile so I can grout it.

I also put down the first layer of leveling compound on the floor. There is one corner that was lower than the others when I moved the ladder around the room. Here is the box of the stuff I used. When you mix this up, you need to be ready to spread it right away. It sets up in about 20 minutes, and I am not kidding. The first time I ever used any of this, it seemed similar to grout, and I mixed it and then started sweeping the floor I was planning to patch. By the time I was finished sweeping, the compound was solid, with the stirring stick stuck standing straight up. I had to throw away the whole bucket. Here is the floor area I patched, taken about 2 hours after I spread it out. I may need to add one more layer. It is better to do two or three layers, rather than try to do it all in one shot, since it will get sort of "wavy" on the top if it is too thick. There are a couple lumps on the surface, so I will need to smooth it out a bit even if it doesn't require another coat.

In the last post I mentioned that the strips of marble turned out to be very easy to cut. Here is a picture of my tile nippers and a piece of the marble. These nippers are nice new ones that are quite sharp, so it was really easy to snap these into smaller pieces to fill in the ends of the rows of tile sheets.

Here we go.........

Time to stop talking and start tiling. I started out by deciding exactly where I want the accent strip of tiles to go, which is directly along the line defined by the placement of the wall sconces that will sit on each side of the mirror above the sink. you can see the place where one of those sconces will go right in the center of this picture. I used a level to draw a line directly on the wall, and then nailed a thin board just under that line. I laid the single row of black accent tiles so that they sat right on that board, and then started in with the 12" x 12" sheets of marble strips. I thought these would be impossible to cut, but found out that I could snap them easily with tile nippers. So I put up a row of 12" x 12" sections, and then filled in the ends out to the wall, some with whole strips and some that I cut to fit. Here is a view of the edge of a row. This one obviously is not at the end of the wall, but you can see that if it was, i would need to fill in those jaggedy edges. As I approached the edge of the wall, I stopped when there was about 6" more to go. Then I picked out pieces that were various sizes so that it "matched" the randomness of the sizes within each sheet of strips. Sometimes I had to cut a piece to get a good fit, but most of the time I could sort through the pieces I had romoved from whole sheets just so I would have a bunch of single pieces to use for the edges. After putting a couple of sheets on the wall, I hammered in a little nail under the top corner strips of each sheet. That kept the sheet from slipping down the wall before the mortar was set. They stuck up pretty well all by themselves, but I didn't want to come back later and see that they had slid down even a little. All in all, I was surprised at how easy these were to put up. But there is a randomness to them, and a little droop here and there, so this is not something I would recommend for someone who is freacked out with slight imperfections. You can see that in the picture just to the right - - The strips are not absolutely perpendicular to each other, and the joints where they meet are a little more "regular" than the random pattern within each sheet. You can see that clearly in this picture of the wall after all the tile was up. You can see where the sheets meet right now, partly just because you can see the wall more clearly. But after the grout is up, I think those joints will be nearly impossible to see. In order to make them less obvious, I staggered the sheets to avoid having a ceiling-to-floor line of evenness . It is kind of hard to explain in words, but I think those lines are easy enough to see right now.

So all the wall tiles are up and the mortar is setting. The next step is to remove all the little nails, wipe this down and then seal the tile to get ready for grout. While that is setting, I will paint the other walls. If I didn't mention it before, I painted the ceiling before putting up the wall tiles. Now I am wishing I had already painting the walls, but too late for that now.

Woohoo - I FINALLY ordered the bathroom fixtures!

It was a tough making the final choices - there are so many choices out there - but I finally decided on the "hardware" for my 1/2 bath - I am not fond of the euphemism "powder room", but for the sake of clarity, that is the one I am talking about. I have been browsing online for months and knew what the prices were there, plus had a good idea of what I wanted. But if the prices are competitive, I prefer to buy locally. That way, if I have any issues, it will be easier to make an exchange or get a refund, as the case may be. So I went to a kitchen/bath store in Christiansburg (if they had a website I would put in a link, but they are a bit behind the times and don't have one) and asked for contractor prices if I bought all the rest of the stuff I will need to put the bathroom together. The guy agreed, and we got down to business. In about an hour's time, I ordered a toilet, sink and vanity combination, faucet, and 2 sconces. I already have 2 mirrors I bought at tjmaxx: one for over the sink, the other for a side wall. I have found that tjmaxx is a fantastic source for nice looking mirrors priced at about $30-$50. The only thing left to buy will be a towel rod and toilet paper holder. I may go back there for those, since they had some very contemporary ones that would look good. HD and Lowe's are a bit deficient when it comes to contemporary styles. Here are the pieces I bought:

TOILET

I posted it before, but here it is again because I love to look at this toilet. I never thought I would say such a thing, but there it is. The space is very small (5' x 4'), and somehow it seems like this will fit better into a small box of a room. I'm also already enjoying how there are no surfaces way down on the floor that will collect dust or whatever. Just the floor, the seat, and the top of the tank.

SINK BASE/VANITY

I tried to download a picture from the Decolav website, but that function was disabled. So you can see it if you click here. I was in love with a half-moon shaped vanity I saw online, but I just was not sure how it would look with the plumbing coming out of the wall and into the side of the vanity. So I decided to go with this rectangular one. This way I know the pipes will not be visible. The End. I am not sure if I will be able to use the square sink I bought from the Modern Danish site (via their ebay store). The top of this vanity has a large circle cut out that accomodates the sorta-squarish sink (shown in the photograph) that comes with it. If my very-squarey one fits, I will use that one, and if not, then I will just use the sorta-squarish one. I really want the very-squarey sink because it will be extremely cool with the very-squarey toilet. The vanity comes with a hole predrilled for the faucet, but I will have the faucet placed on the left side of the sink if that predrilled faucet hole doesn't show. And if the precut sink hole will still be covered, I will have the sink set slightly to the right of center.

After the stuff arrives, I will put it in the room and see what arrangement looks the best.

SCONCES

I first saw these online and fell in love with them, and found they carried them at the kitchen/bath store. The designer is George Kovacs and the brand is Minka. Again with the square theme. But one big difference with this light is that the shade is fabric. I think this will be a nice compelment to all the hard materials - tile and porcelain - and will soften it a bit. Also, I think this light fixture is pretty contemporary without going over the top, but the fabric aspect keeps it a shade (sorry) contemporary. I ordered it at the store, but they said it will be on backorder until the end of May. I have seen these online for quite a bit less money (less than half what I paid) so I may have to cancel that order and go with the online option for these.

FAUCET

The brushed nickel faucet is going to match the little 1" accent tiles that run along at the level of the sconces. I don't have a picture of the exact faucet I ordered, but it looks something like this, but with a bit more squarish style. And, like I said, it will be brushed nickel. I overpaid a bit on the faucet, but made up for it on the prices of the toilet and sink base, so it ends up being a satisfactory total.

So these will be delivered by the end of March. I will need another week to get the walls painted and tile installed, grouted and sealed, so that timing will be fine. As soon as I have a firm date for delivery I will schedule a plumber to come and install the toilet and sink. I have been mulling over that process and have decided I need to have a professional do this part of the job.

Well, I WAS going to start tiling.............

BUT - I got a great deal on a last-minute airfare to Denver to visit my daughter and family. Since I don't have that replacement box of tile anyway.......... it would be kinda stupid to start putting up tile now anyway. According to the UPS tracking info, it should arrive on Tuesday. So I will fly out tomorrow (Saturday) and come back on Tuesday afternoon.

In the meantime, here is the sink I just bought online at an ebay store. Snagged it for $79.00 plus shipping. It is also available on the store website for $99, which is still a huge discount, at Modern Danish. I love this website because they have such very cool and unusual stuff. I have a couple old friends who are Danish, too, and they are also very cool and unusual. Cultural trait, perhaps. Even better are the closeout and scratch/dent deals they have in the "Outlet" menu. Fabulously beautiful stuff, sometimes slightly damaged, but they have clear descriptions of what the damage is, with pictures so that you know what you will be getting. Some of it is just overstock or old stuff. I guess even sinks can go out of style. But mostly I think it is a matter of more and more interesting things coming onto the market, so that the "old" stuff starts looking stale, even though you have never actually seen it in anyone's house yet.

I am still trying to decide on the vanity base I will put in there. I know it will be black, and it needs to be somewhere between 25"-36" wide. The most critical thing is that it must be less than 21.5" deep so that the door can swing completely open.

I will think about it on the plane.

They are stepping up to the plate!

I contacted Ana Morales at Natural Stone Outlet and told her my tile order was goofed up. I was unsure how they would handle it, but I am happy to report that she immediately said she would ship out the replacement tile. Also, she will schedule a pickup with UPS for the wrong box I received. Couldn't be easier! I am a big fan! They have such nice tile and the prices are great. You can order samples, too, which is something I could not do on another unsatisfactory site I found. The unsatisfactory site had a minimum order size - - - sorry, no single tile orders. So I emailed them and asked for a teeny-tiny piece of tile so I could check the color before I placed and order and they said No. Too bad - they had a lot of nice tile, but I am not wasting time with a place that won't let me at least buy a sample.

Glad I Checked

I just got back from a week-long conference on the west coast, ready to dive right in and get the wall tile up. My wall tiles are "strips" of marble that come in 12" x 12' squares glued onto a mesh. This makes the installation significantly faster and easier. In this picture you can see one square with the mesh side up, laying on top of another square with the tile side up. These pieces are not tumbled marble, but they aren't polished either, so they have a very natural "stone" appearance. I bought them for $11.00 per square from a discount tile website called Natural Stone Outlet. This is a great price. I saw something very similar, if not the same, at The Great Indoors in Denver for about $30.00 each. Click here to see these tiles in a sample installation. I love these tiles. I ordered samples of the grey ones, too, but these black ones are so cool, it was an easy choice.

The edges of the tile blocks fit together so that the "seams" will disappear after they are grouted. Here are two tiles laying side-by-side on my kitchen countertop. At this point, the seam is obvious because the mesh does not extend out to the edges so you can see the countertop more clearly along the joint. My plan is to position the edge of the tile line about 4 inches out from the edge of the wall. This will leave alternating "gaps" of about 2" and 4". I will post some pictures to illustrate this when I start intalling them, so check back if that last bit was confusing.

I know that filling in those edge areas will take almost as long as laying all the rest of the whole squares, so having pieces of the right sizes ready to go will speed up the process. And when you are working with wet mortar, saving time is meaningful. I don't want to cut them if I don't have to, which is why I need to place the full squares far enough from the edge of the wall so that the gaps will be the same sizes as these pieces. So I have been cutting up some of the sheets of tiles and sorting them by size into several boxes.

Whenever you are laying tile, it is a good idea to take them from various boxes as you go, so that you don't end up with a region that is a different color than the rest. So I decided I should do the same thing for these little pieces. I have 5 boxes of tile, so I started working my way along through each of the boxes. And it turned out to be a good thing I did this for another reason: when I opened up the 4th box , it turned out to be a box of GRAY ones! This is a big pain right now, but it would have been a lot worse if I had been in the middle of putting these things up on the wall! Better to find out now while it is just an inconvenience to have to get a replacement box.

So now I get to find out how easy these guys are to work with on a return when it is their fault. They have a fairly strict policy with a stiff restocking fee for "normal" returns, which I can understand. They don't want to have people sending back remnants that don't match the color lots they still have in stock, and the boxes are damned heavy, too, by the way. Handling orders is a big deal and this policy helps them keep a decent profit margin on very discounted prices. But this is an error on the part of their shipping crew, so they should be willing to replace it at no cost and with a minimum of hassle. I will let you know how this turns out. I have a lot more tiling to do in this house, so I hope they will be cool about it.