House Tile – Master Bathroom & Closets, Last Update 3/14/2009

We decided to take off the week after we finished the master bedroom, but now we’re back to work.

Sunday

Today we moved everything out of the bathroom and closets, then we removed the linoleum and carpet.  All the clothes from our closets are now on Lillian’s bed for the week.

As before, the toilet is in the tub, though it doesn’t show in the photo.  We also put the doors to the closets in there, just because it was convenient.

Anyhow, here’s what the space looks like now that it’s been cleared out.

bath & closets clear

Monday

Field tiles have been laid in the master bathroom.  I couldn’t get any in the closets, because I’ll have to cut some tiles to get a line into either closet.  Anywho, before dinner I got a dozen tiles down, which covered a little more than half the bathroom.

field tiles 1

After dinner and a little TV time, I laid another 9 tiles to finish the main area of the bathroom.  Tuesday will involve a few cut tiles to let me get into the toilet area and the closets to finish off the field tiles.

field tiles 2

And yes, these photos are from the other side of the bathroom than the first photo.

Thursday

We (I) decided to take off Tuesday and Wednesday for various reasons (mostly I just didn’t want to).  Anyway, today I got the field tiles down in the closets.  I only had to cut a small notch out of a few tiles to get the closets started, then it was whole tiles.

Here’s what the closets look like now (mine then Barbara’s):

field tiles closet 1

field tiles closet 2

I’m not sure how much tiling we’ll be able to get done Friday night.  I think it’ll be well into next week before we finish, since we’re going to be visiting family this weekend.

Monday #2

After our busy weekend visiting family and friends we both needed a ‘mental health’ day.  After lunch, we took off the rest of the day from work, picked up Lillian and went home to get things in order again.

Once we had the house more orderly, laundry going and dishes washed, we were feeling more energetic and decided to get some tiling done.  I spent a few hours cutting tiles and now we have about a third of the perimeter tiles cut and ready to lay.

The plan is to spend Tuesday and Wednesday cutting the rest of the tiles, Thursday laying them all and Friday grouting.  Then on Saturday morning we can move things back into the bathroom and closets.

Here are the tiles we cut this afternoon dry-fit in place.

cut tiles 1

cut tiles 2

cut tiles 3

Tuesday #2

We got a few hours of tile marking and cutting done tonight before dinner time.  My closet is now done with cutting, the area in front of the tub is nearly done, and one wall of Barbara’s closet is complete.

cut tiles 4

cut tiles 5

Wednesday #2

Today Barbara wasn’t feeling very well, so I tiled by myself.  I also ran some errands after work, so I started later than usual.  By about 8pm I was able to finish off Barbara’s closet and the area where the toilet normally is.  Here’s how things look now:

cut tiles 6

cut tiles 7

Now all that’s left is putting the tiles in place, then grouting.  No more cutting!

Thursday #2

Okay, I was wrong about the "No more cutting".  I broke a tile getting them out of their dry-fit spots and had to re-cut.  Of course it was a doorway tile, so inside corners (not fun to cut).  However, I still feel safe saying: No more tile to lay!

The two photos I have won’t look much different than the Wednesday #2 photos.  The main difference would be that the tiles have spacers between them now; that and a bunch of random thin-set strewn about.  The less visually obvious difference would be that they’re not going to move!

last tiles laid

last tiles laid 2

Now that we have all the tiles down, we know what we have left over for return at the tile store.  Apparently our house is not 1600 sq.ft. but more like 1400 sq.ft. (I think they counted the garage).  Since we bought over 1730 sq.ft. of tile, we have a few boxes to sell back to the store (about 30 of them).  That and the unused thin-set and grout should drop our cost for this down from $3100 to about $2700.  Not bad to tile an entire home – and it only took 2 months or so of weekends and evenings (I’m not sure if I mean that sarcastically or not).

Anyway, tomorrow is grout, then we’re done with the entire house!

Friday #2

We’re done tiling the house!  We grouted as soon as I got home from work then went on to clean out the garage (our cars are in the garage once again!).  I forgot to take pictures until Saturday morning, because we were so busy all Friday night, but here’s how the bathroom looks now that the entire house has been tiled (can you tell I’m excited?).

bathroom done

bathroom done 2

Now we are going to take some time to relax, then we’ll get to all the finishing details (quarter-round around all cabinetry, touch-up painting, etc.).