Uh.. okay so this actually looks like the opposite of progress. But the sheetrock had to come out to make way for concrete backerboard -- something that should have been there from the beginning but was not... "Clint" and the other guy - we'll call him "Moe" - got here bright and early this morning to start laying tile around the bathtub... By 2 pm - the backboard was in and the old Jacuzzi was out.
It sounds much easier than it was. From what I understand - it should have been as easy as it sounded... but that's not how things work around here. Cutting out the new old sheetrock was easy enough... but when it came time to remove the Jacuzzi from its resting place we ran into a few snags:1) There was no access to the plumbing for the faucet or the drain. This was solved by cutting a nice big hole in the sheetrock at the front of the tub surround.
2) The plumbing was all copper tubing - more or less permanently fixed in place. There would be no easy unscrewing of pipes going on around here today.
3) There were no shut-off valves installed at the bathtub plumbing. This means they couldn't just turn off the water and hack off the offending plumbing to remove the tub.
The work-around for all of this meant actually cutting the old tub away from the plumbing. It was rather painful to watch as I was hoping someone out there would be able to have that pump replaced and use the tub. Not anymore.
The old jacuzzi on the back of the truck belonging to 'Moe.'With the old tub out -- the guys decided to drop the new tub in place to make sure it fit before starting to tile. No one wanted to tile the whole surround and then find out there is something that needs to be rebuilt later. If you have ever heard the term 'drop-in installation' - there is something you should know... Under absolutely no circumstances should anyone actually 'drop' the thing to be installed. These guys deserve a medal for not dropping anything.
The new tub fits. After testing it was removed (without dropping) and it now rests elsewhere in the bathroom waiting for permanent installation.
The backerboard was installed without incident -- and they then moved on to install backerboard around the fireplace (we hope to be installing all the tile at nearly the same time).
This should have been simple too - but yet again.. we hit a couple snags:
1) It was discovered that the newly installed firebox was not centered when it was installed. A quarter of an inch here or there we could have hidden with some clever tile installation.. but this was off at least an inch and I agreed with Dean that the difference would drive us insane later -- especially when tile and grout lines would make it impossible to miss.
2) The installer had braced the right side of the firebox with a 2 x 4 and screwed it into the rest of the frame in such a way that there would be no way to reach the screwheads without removing the firebox.
3) Neither "Clint" nor "Moe" nor Dean are firebox installers.
4) The new 2 x 4 brace just happened to be tightly resting against the gas line coming into the house -- making everyone a bit nervous about whipping out the reciprocating saw and hacking the offending board out of there.
What they did to fix it: "Clint" and I discovered that the new 2 x 4 was (thankfully) rather poorly screwed into place meaning that he could pry it off the other boards just enough to wedge the saw blade between the boards and cut the screws from there (and not hit a gas line and blow everyone up). Then it was just a matter of wiggling the boards loose and moving the box over to where it should have been.
The fireplace backerboard snags turned out to be much less disastrous than they could have been. What I learned today though - is that I am not the only person in the world who is totally paranoid about anything powered by gas.
"Clint" and "Moe" have moved on for the day now and promise to return at 7 am tomorrow morning and actually begin tiling. As for us - we have been left with a couple homework assignments:
Dave must find grout. Although Dean had said on the phone that we could use the grout in the garage... "Clint" thought that a lighter grout would be best -- and therefore a lighter mortar.. and left us with the task of choosing a grout color and rounding up the grout tonight. (We are leaning toward a color called "Malt" as other internet home improvement folks have called this color a 'perfect match' for noce tumbled marble.)
Then there is the matter of the fireplace tile. We now must actually decide on the tile that we want and how we want this tile to look. Then we must actually purchase this tile. "Clint" mentioned that the sides of the fireplace surround are narrow -- six inches -- and that I might want to think of how to handle tile in that area.. especially if I am considering using the same four inch tiles we are using in the bathroom. Half-cut tiles all the way up both sides of the fireplace might look a little lop-sided or busy... Therefore, I can either change the size of the tile.. or I can think about some sort of border tile for the outside edges.
More tile stress.
And I didn't even ask about the step!
The new tub fits. After testing it was removed (without dropping) and it now rests elsewhere in the bathroom waiting for permanent installation.
The backerboard was installed without incident -- and they then moved on to install backerboard around the fireplace (we hope to be installing all the tile at nearly the same time).
This should have been simple too - but yet again.. we hit a couple snags:
1) It was discovered that the newly installed firebox was not centered when it was installed. A quarter of an inch here or there we could have hidden with some clever tile installation.. but this was off at least an inch and I agreed with Dean that the difference would drive us insane later -- especially when tile and grout lines would make it impossible to miss.
2) The installer had braced the right side of the firebox with a 2 x 4 and screwed it into the rest of the frame in such a way that there would be no way to reach the screwheads without removing the firebox.
3) Neither "Clint" nor "Moe" nor Dean are firebox installers.
4) The new 2 x 4 brace just happened to be tightly resting against the gas line coming into the house -- making everyone a bit nervous about whipping out the reciprocating saw and hacking the offending board out of there.
What they did to fix it: "Clint" and I discovered that the new 2 x 4 was (thankfully) rather poorly screwed into place meaning that he could pry it off the other boards just enough to wedge the saw blade between the boards and cut the screws from there (and not hit a gas line and blow everyone up). Then it was just a matter of wiggling the boards loose and moving the box over to where it should have been.
The fireplace backerboard snags turned out to be much less disastrous than they could have been. What I learned today though - is that I am not the only person in the world who is totally paranoid about anything powered by gas."Clint" and "Moe" have moved on for the day now and promise to return at 7 am tomorrow morning and actually begin tiling. As for us - we have been left with a couple homework assignments:
Dave must find grout. Although Dean had said on the phone that we could use the grout in the garage... "Clint" thought that a lighter grout would be best -- and therefore a lighter mortar.. and left us with the task of choosing a grout color and rounding up the grout tonight. (We are leaning toward a color called "Malt" as other internet home improvement folks have called this color a 'perfect match' for noce tumbled marble.)
Then there is the matter of the fireplace tile. We now must actually decide on the tile that we want and how we want this tile to look. Then we must actually purchase this tile. "Clint" mentioned that the sides of the fireplace surround are narrow -- six inches -- and that I might want to think of how to handle tile in that area.. especially if I am considering using the same four inch tiles we are using in the bathroom. Half-cut tiles all the way up both sides of the fireplace might look a little lop-sided or busy... Therefore, I can either change the size of the tile.. or I can think about some sort of border tile for the outside edges.
More tile stress.
And I didn't even ask about the step!
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