Scattered Thoughts . . .

Tile installed, toilet flange installed... This morning, I primed the underlayment in our new half bath in preparation of tile. Funny thing about this "primer"... I had to search around for this stuff so I felt a bit relieved when we finally bought some at Lowes the other day. The moment I opened the container this morning, I recognized the smell... It smells exactly like water-based polyurethane... the same stuff I use on all of our trim... the same stuff I have sitting in a new gallon can waiting for the next trim to be installed. So... I'm left thinking that this primer is really just a sealer in the form of water-based polyurethane. As I waited for the primer to dry, I started cutting tile. When the primer was dry, I starting laying tile. I have to say it was a quick and easy job! I then installed the toilet flange and screwed that into the floor.  It is beginning to look more like a small bathroom rather than a closet!

New beadboard ceiling... Yesterday's exceptionally bad luck was left behind and today ended up being a productive day! I decided to install the ceiling in the new half bath. I had already pre-finished the boards for this project because it is easier to stain and poly when the boards are on sawhorses rather than on the ceiling. Gravity works against you when staining anything above you so I was thinking ahead and pre-finished the ceiling. Today, I installed this ceiling and it is looking great! The hallway and laundry room adjacent to this bathroom both have wood ceilings. We really like the warmth of the wood ceilings and plan to continue installing wood ceilings as we renovate each part of the house.  I also added a bit more drywall today. I managed to salvage just one small piece of drywall from yesterday's catastrophe. This one piece allowed me to continue on with another project too... I had to install an electrical switch box that is deeper than this thinner-th

All the electrical works! Dimmer switch at left, fan delay timer at center, and GFCI outlet at right. I managed to get a little bit more accomplished on the half bath yesterday. That wore me out and I had some health issues later that night so I took another day off today for rest and recovery. Actually, I slept the entire day! I installed the subfloor as well as the underlayment. That was a fairly easy job. We now have another clean and level spot in the old house! Oh, and a solid spot!  Once I get a primer for the self-adhesive tiles, I can finish the flooring. I have a couple of extra boxes of the tile flooring that we had installed in the hallway that we plan to continue on into this new half bath.  A week or so ago, I had written that I installed all the wiring and tested all the fixtures and everything was fine... While everything worked fine (meaning I had wired everything correctly), I had a problem fitting these bulky electronic switches/timers/outlets into the parti

Last weekend, I decided it was time to tackle the most difficult part of the waste plumbing project for our new half bathroom. Designing this plumbing was a bit of a challenge because of the very tight, cramped quarters. Not only is everything very close together providing little room for pipes to change directions, but there was very little room to work! Part of my struggles with Systemic Mastocytosis includes cognitive difficulties as well so this hindered my ability to effectively design a drainage plan for this new bathroom.  I must have been having an unusually good day a few weeks ago when I finally was able to clearly envision what I needed to do and I was able to sketch some plans. What is photographed here wass the first part of this project... cutting into the existing waste line and installing a new waste line with fittings for the new toilet, pedestal lavatory, our washing machine, and two new plumbing vents to the roof... all in a very tiny space!  I'm no small