Hardibacker

I finally got all the cement board up and after a close inspection, deemed the plywood subfloor in good shape, which is great for me because I don't have to replace it. I scraped off all the adhesive/cement particle bumps with a hammer and chisel.

Taking off the toilet was a definite first for me in home renovation. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but it was really easy, and from now on, I am going to recommend it to all my girl friends. First, take off the lid of the tank, and set it somewhere safely out of the way--because it's ceramic, a toilet is actually pretty fragile and easily cracked. I laid out a towel in my dining room in preparation for the toilet. Then I turned off the water, and flushed the toilet, and sponged all the remaining water out of the tank and bowl using a sponge, a bucket, and of course, a rubber glove. There are three bolts that connect the tank to the bowl, and I unscrewed the nuts and lifted off the tank. Simple. Now for the bowl. I unscrewed the nuts on the bolts on the base, and then wiggled the toilet a little, and then lifted it off. Much heavier than I expected. After the toilet was safely placed on it's dining room towel, I grabbed a scraper and got as much of the wax off from around the sewer drain, and then stuffed the hole with an old rag to keep the sewer gas from escaping.

Here you can see the chaos that is my house with my tools and toilet everywhere and barely a place to walk.



Now I could start on hardibacker-ing the floor. I used half a bag of thinset mortar on the plywood before laying down the hardibacker, which I had cut earlier with my trusty jigsaw. Mortar is necessary because it helps level the floor and prevent movement of the board. I had to have help with this, since sheets of hardibacker are deceptively heavy and unruly, so I had to pull Ross away from whatever he was doing to grab an end. Once it's placed on top of the mortar, it needs to be screwed down while the mortar is still wet. This job was a breeze thanks to the screw gun that I borrowed from my coworker Tina, an awesome lady whose I hold in high esteem, especially after this part of the project. The screwgun also made short work of mixing the mortar, after I attached a long mixing paddle to it.



I filled the joints between the hardibacker panels with mortar now I have one smooth surface to lay my slate on.

Demolition continued

We are very inconvenienced by my dreams of bathroom glory. We have one bathroom, but I've taken the sink out of it, so we are now brushing our teeth at the kitchen sink. We also had to take the door off, and although it's only Ross and me, it's a little weird. One is used to a certain amount of privacy during their bathroom moments. So, I've committed to this and have to keep going, and get it done fast, because I really need to be able to read on the toilet in peace.

Beginning on the great project "Bathroom" today, I fixed the broken trim with wood glue and rubber bands. And I sealed the slate, which is laid out on the guest bedroom floor. It's too cold outside for the sealer to work effectively, and I'm also afraid if I left it outside on the patio, my crazy girl dog Sam would run all over it, breaking it or at the very least putting dog prints on the freshly sealed surfaces.




Then I turned to the serious task of pulverizing tile.



I decided to break all the tiles up and get them out of the way before tackling the cement board underneath. I worked for a couple hours at the tile and then Ross did the last four when he came home. Check out how he's not heeding my advice to use the towel on top of the tile and just hammering away while chips of tile are probably flying everywhere. Luckily, he is heeding my advice to wear eye protection.




The cement board was harder to get up than I thought it would be. I used my trusty flat-edged shovel to pry it up, but I was constantly interrupted in my progress by the many nails that are, unfortunately, necessary to fasten the cement board to the subfloor. I could get little sections at a time, by popping the board off the nails, sending showers of cement particles down on me and the entire bathroom. I found myself wishing the person who had installed this floor had done more of a half-assed job and not used so many nails.

Another obstacle to getting the cement board up was the adhesive that the installer used sporadically in a few places. This stuff has bonded quite effectively to the cement board and nothing will get it off. I can scrape the topmost layers off, but there seem to be permanent bumps on the subfloor where the adhesive and cement combination will just not come off. It's like chipping away at concrete.


Tomorrow the plan is to remove the toilet, take up the last of the tile and cement board, cut and install the new Hardibacker, and install the tile. At least I'll try to get to that last part, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. We want to get it all done so we can put the toilet back in, since it is the only seat in the house, but I really doubt it will happen. I suspect I might take up a lot of time chipping away at some glue/cement until the floor is level. Or maybe I'll say screw it and just use mortar to level the floor. We might have to be happy with the Hardibacker and then put the toilet back on temporarily until next weekend. There's only so much a poor girl can do in one day. Although, today seemed REALLY long. I did all the above, managed not to hurt myself in the process, and had the time to do four loads of laundry, get some railroad ties for the vegetable garden I'm planning, and go see a guy about a pedestal sink.
Speaking about the guy with the pedestal sink, I found him on craigslist. He sold me a sink for $60 that will fit exactly in the space, but that's not the best part. We drove up to his house in Lakewood, and I immediately fell in love with the craftsmanship of his home. It really looked like the guy has spent a lot of time lovingly make it his personal palace. He also bought the house next door that he is renovating. He took the flat roof off and made a beautiful peaked roof in its place. There were these awesome metal sculptures too, near the driveway and the pond down in the ravine. He came out and took us to his garage, which looked like a storage for the most awesomest treasures on earth, filled with chandeliers and light fixtures, doors, sinks, faucets, and more that I can't remember because I was too obsessed with the chandeliers. There was a wooden one that was intricately carved with dragon heads. We loved that one, but it probably wouldn't fit in our house. John told us he was about to retire from contracting but he would try to renovate a couple houses a year since that was really his passion. I got such a warm, super vibe from him that I couldn't help entertaining the idea of him adopting me, maybe just so I could live in that house. Alas, we had to tear ourselves away finally, but not before he sold us a cool Moen faucet for the sink for $25. He has a little side business auctioning off the surplus building materials he has in his garage, called Howard's Garage. His number is 720-320-1492. He'll probably be a good source for renovating advice for me in the future.

My hands hurt. So I'm going to bed.

Bathroom shenanigans

Ha, I think I was a little ambitious with thinking I could possibly build walls and such when I'm already tired and I've just started. Doing the bathroom, a small cramped 40 square-foot space.

I decided to take out the tile that's in there right now, and replace it with slate. A little harder than I thought it would be! It's not as easy as it seems on those HG Network shows, boy. I started by pulling off the trim. It seems the short pieces around the dividing wall were already cracked a bit and when I pried them out, they split apart. Ooops. I will try to glue them back together and see if anyone notices.



I pulled off the trim and realized I had to take out the sink because it was attached somehow to the trim and not flush with the wall anyway. It was not necessarily something I was prepared for, but now I want to change it out and put in a pedestal sink for such a small space. Harder than it looks, unhooking a sink vanity from its wall.



After unscrewing the vanity from the wall I turned off the water through the hole in the bottom of the vanity, into which anything and everything has fallen in and collected. I reached in and pulled out what at first I thought was a used condom, but which turned out to be a latex glove. Lots of q-tips. I got the water hoses detached from the sink, disconnected the drain pipe, unscrewed the many screw holding this thing up and pulled it away, only to reveal the most disgusting sight I have ever seen:



It seems that everything that has fallen over the side of the sink has stayed there for the past decade or so. I don't know when the previous owner put in that vanity sink, but there was always a gap between it and the wall, and it always made me cringe when I looked into the crack, seeing only massive dust bunnies just out of my reach. And it turns out I really didn't want to know. I scooped out an old comb and lip liner and many, many other things I won't mention that have decayed over the years. So gross. I know I can convince Ross to get us a pedestal sink after seeing this. He thinks pedestal sinks are cheesy, but so is this.



I started banging away at the tile with a hammer and an old towel covering to keep the shards from flying everywhere. My friend Noelle came over and helped. We got about two rows done and then Ross came home. I hadn't told him that I was starting this already, and I hoped he would be cool. And he was, although Noelle caught this moment with my camera as I was explaining to Ross how gross the things were that I found in the sink crack. It looks like we are going to need couple's therapy or something.