Bathrooms.... and balding

Hi guys... well i have started my first bathroom. Cannot say it has been much fun. lots of questions and stress, steep learning curve. I hope that my plumber and building friends haven't got sick of me calling. Well the first thing was glueing the ceramic tile underlay. the instructions said to do so but none of the builders or tilers i talked to have ever done it. I decided not to do it. It i have to ever rip it up i want it not to take the subfloor with it. I hope it doesn't nip me in the bum later.

Secondly was laying embedding the shower tray. It said it was a no notching (meaning i don't have to cut it into the studs) however the base was bent and i am using 6mm villa board so I did eventually have to notch out the studs. After laying the base on a bed of mortar, i pulled it up to check it.. seemed terrific.. i piled the mortar up again and lay it a second time.... well i probably should have left it as it hasn't seemed to have bedded as nicely. Firstly it squeaked!...  drove me nuts.... debated weather to pull it up. Ended up putting a wedge behind the base where it was squeaking and a bit of polyurethane. I hope it doesn't crack if there is movement in the walls and floor. Then now the squeaking was solved when you stand near the back of the base you hear a slight crunching sound of the mortar. I have wondered if i should rip it up and buy another base. My usual saying is 'when in doubt rip it out' however this time i have decided to leave it... well have decided to shut my eyes and hope it is ok. I really want to get this bathroom done by the end of next week. But the plaster is not cooperating and taking ages to dry. Mother nature isnt helping either. All sunny for the beginning of the week then as soon as i have done the plaster it have turned cold and rainy again...

oh and i hurt my back today ripping up the old floor in the craft room...

ps... man what a whingy blog!!!! besides all the ruts in this road it is coming together well and i am really excited to see it finished. I am enjoying learning all these new things, however i am mindful of the expensive consequences if i don't get the upstairs bathroom right.

pps..  Heather and i have decided on carpet for upstairs and it will be laid in a week and a half, so by the end of these holidays i am planning to have upstairs finished!!! all going well : )

Bifold video

I noticed that when my email went out it appeared not to have included a link to the video i posted on the blog. If you click on the link to my blog you will be able to watch an award winning video starring the renowned actress Heather Ireland. Thanks.

Bifold Doors

Cygnet Glass made and installed the bifolds. I have to say they did a neat and tidy job. The poor fellows had to remove a window as the frame would not fit through the back door. Heather said it was hard work and she couldnt watch. Apparently two of the doors were still in the frame as they squeezed it through the window and then they had to carry it upstairs... that must have been heavy. I am really happy with how they look and they will look better after the architraves are installed and flooring. The final test will be will they keep the heat in the living area and clear the carpet when they are installed.....

Electrician and Skirtings

Yay! the electrician came today!!! I love the LED down lights they are so bright and do a terrific job...

I have put up the skirting boards and architraves in the lounge room too.... personally i love them.... photos not doing them justice.

All ready to paint and put together!

Well as always the holidays go by very quickly. The first few photos are of the old weather boards i reclaimed from when i redid the east facing wall. It was a lot of work as they were first covered in red oxide then oiled who knows how many times. I washed, scraped, planed, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded and sanded, then had to clean all my tools! but i think the end product is pretty amazing. I love how the old sump oil stained the wood and i still kept a hint of the rough saw marks. I didn't want to keep all of the saw marks as it made the room look too stripy. I love reusing the old timber, saved me a lot of money. These holidays and I think the second time in all my life i maxed the credit card out! So i will be glad to start school again next week and watch my bank balance recover... until the next holidays. 

This is a dummy run of my apple crate book shelf.....

I decided to paint my second storey doors..... when i did down stairs and was faced with painting 12 it was too daunting.... for some funny reason i made the bathroom door 720mm wide... when a normal door is 820mm wide.... the room is 2.1m by 2.5... so i didn't really need to do it but i am sure i thought i had a good reason at the time.... oh well...

Plasterer is now finished! So now it is time to paint. I am not overjoyed with some of the joins but with all the set joints at funny angles to each other it is pretty hard to do. I purchased some thing called StrainghtFlex which did a terrific job on the joins and i would recommend it to anyone wanting not to use cornices but he ran out and used paper tape instead which didn't give such a good finish.... oh well c'est la vie.  Just don't look to hard when you visit : )

So the doors are painted, architraves and skirtings are ready... all i have to do is paint and put it all together!  

Meet Bill and Bob

Hello everyone, I would like to introduce to you Bill and Bob. They are terrific workers, they do what they are told and are dirt cheap. These two handy T frames made out of stud pine helped me put up my raked ceiling up in the second storey with no one else helping. I wish i could take credit for the idea but it was father in law. Great idea Ian! 

Evolution of the Arch

The hardest part of the arch was plastering the internal arch. I managed to break about 5 of these long thin pieces as I tried to squeeze them into place. The first few attempts I had even wet them over night using a spray bottle. Eventually James, my plaster, came over to look at the job and said that he usually placed the internal strip over a round object and leave it overnight if it was a tight arch. So that is what I did. I used the plywood cut out of the arch to get the shape and placed the plaster over the top. I then sprayed it with water a few times and left it over night. 

The next morning it was pretty good however it hadnt gone all the way so i wet it some more and leaned some weight on the sides and vuola!

It fit perfect and is held in with only stud adhesive. Today I purchase some edging made out of plastic for the arch. The edging reminds me of those toy snakes, it never stays still! I love how my bedroom is coming together! Plasterer starts tomorrow!!!!