#spent maybe 3 hours on the model another couple hours for rigging... no idea how long the animating process was... but its all in this one

[oozeandgoo-art]

Planning on practicing 3D stuff (modeling, rigging, animating, the whole shebang) without getting too wrapped-up in tiny details by doing ArtFight attacks in Blender. This character belongs to gossiehawk!

Animation below the cut ^-^

[starlightwrites]

42 for either lola and mac or rae and garrus~

Hello @sumomoblossom77!

For the Angst/Fluff Prompt List!

Shopping

Officially, they were there to resupplyafter spending some time tracking down information for the Crucible.Officially.

Unofficially, Rae had received a comm fromJack, who happened to be in Citadel space on leave from training her babybiotics, and had immediately taken the lift down to the CIC and approachedJoker in her pajamas to tell him to turn the rig around. Apparently, the pilotwas more than happy to steer them towards shore leave instead of some far-flungrock in the middle of an asteroid field. Garrus leaned in the doorway as shebuilt her argument, having followed her thinking something might be wrong. Raedid not often stop to explain what she was doing or why. Either way, Jokerwasn’t going to argue and even EDI seemed on-board. By the time they went backto bed, they were on course, and when he rolled over in his sleep to feel hermissing, he woke up to Rae standing in the middle of her cabin in a towel,digging through her closet for a set of civvies.

(Continued under the cut!)

She bumped his hip with her own as theydisembarked and headed for the Silversun strip. Apparently, Jack had alreadymade plans for herself and Rae. They said goodbye outside one of thestorefronts and Rae took off, practically skipping. It wasn’t every day shetook some down time to see a friend. Nice to see her smile like that.

Garrus took the elevator to the refugeecamps set up on the docks. The Turian camp wasn’t holding up too poorly. Duringhis last visit, he had sent requisition lists to the Turian embassy, and itlooks like the supplies had made it. Mostly medigel and those modular temporaryhousing units, but it was better than nothing. His contact in the docks,Kyrdos, assured him that they were finding space for everyone. Still, in theshort time Garrus was there, the community on the docks accepted three newrefugees—two from Palaven and one from Epyrus.

He decided to give himself a littlebreather as well, since the camp was in good shape and Rae was still with Jack.Figured he’d earned it, given all the overtime he’d been putting in fighting Reaperson-foot and running back and forth across the Galaxy. Besides, he’d better takehis own advice, or he’d never convince Rae that running herself into the groundwas a bad idea.

The Zakera Ward was still half underconstruction, but it was in far better shape than anything on the Tayseri Ward,and at least the café he liked was still up and running. After the attack, itwas one of the few places that still had halfway decent Palaveni food. Not likeTurians were known for their cuisine, but sometimes it was just nice to get alittle taste of home.

He snagged lunch and took off for the Commonsto browse the shops. That was one of the things he’d forgotten he’d liked.Sometimes, it was just nice to browse the stores on the citadel and look at allthe newest mods and tech. Besides—practical applications. He wouldn’t buyanything he wouldn’t use, and tuning up his gear would be a nice way to winddown back aboard the Normandy. Alittle treat, since there was almost never time to tinker anymore.

Kassa Fabrications had the same crapinventory they’d had the last time he’d stopped by and checked, so that was abit of a bust. Nos Astra had a couple of Rosenkov armor mods that lookedpromising, but weighing out the specs, there really wasn’t a vast differencebetween the mod he was eyeing and the one already installed on his chestplatethat boosted his shields, so it wouldn’t be worth the price, especially notsince shortages had made supplies so damned expensive. He did pick up a littlesomething for his rifle at the Cipritine Armory, but they didn’t have anythingelse that really caught his eye. In fairness, Rae’s entire crew was routinelyoffered gear either before or right as it hit the market, so he was ahead on alot of the trends already. Afterall, everyone wanted the Shepard team to havethe latest tech; how else could she be expected to pull off the impossibleevery other week? He shouldn’t be disappointed, but still. Some part of himmissed the long hours spent building, repairing, and modding. Quiet, except forthe whir of the ship in the background. Rae had suggested that he take uppuzzles. Maybe he would.

He didn’t have high hopes for AegohrMunitions, but he stopped by anyways, just in case. Their catalogue had reallybeen hit by the shortages; it looked like most of their side-arms had beensold-out completely, and they only had one low-end scope in stock. He was aboutto walk away from the kiosk when he spotted it. The Kuwashii Visor. Fullycustomizable, average battery life of eighty hours (Palaven time, though hecould figure out the conversions to Earth time she asked), multi-window readoutwith enough memory to store a library of vids and presets to track heatsignatures, heartrates for up to twenty targets, environmental factors,radiation signatures…you name it, the Kuwashii can trace it. At least, that’swhat the advertisements said. The screen panel was a little big for his tastes,but Rae. Rae had been looking for one. She’d been eyeing it for weeks—saving upwhatever pay the Alliance sent whenever she could. With the lines ofcommunication all shot to hell, though, she hadn’t gotten much. The Normandy tended to get by becauseeveryone was willing to fund the Shepard crew now that they finally believedher, but that didn’t leave a lot of credits left over to buy herself thespecific gear she wanted. For now, they were getting by on donations half thetime.

The human model was a little more expensivethan the Turian model (figures), but still affordable. He wouldn’t have muchleft over after, but what else would he spend it on anyways? This was tooperfect to pass up.

He asked the Salarian behind the counter ifhe could have it gift-wrapped, but he wasn’t surprised the answer was “no.” Nota concern. He’d gotten good at making-do.

Garrus beat Rae back to the ship andscrounged around in her cabin, looking for something to wrap the box in. It wasan Earth custom, something Rae had showed him. Humans liked to cover theirgifts to each other in brightly-colored paper. All they did was tear the paperapart, but if it made her happy, he’d do it.

She didn’t have much. Paper was an Earthexport, and Earth wasn’t in a place to be exporting frivolous junk, so heimprovised and wadded the box up in a clean towel. Close enough.

It was late enough anyways where he decidedto stay on the ship and wait for her to return. Besides, that gave him some timeto tweak the barrel on his rifle with the newest mod he’d snagged. He spent afew peaceful hours by himself before she pinged his omni. Universal message tothe whole crew. Returning to ship. Departurein Tminus 1 hour. All aboard. Liara sent back affirmative. James messaged andif I’m running late? Shepard’s second message to the crew read Anyone running late can join the Keepers. Hearthey’re looking for people to clean the vents. James messaged back On my way.

At least everyone was in good spirits.

He waited patiently for her to make it upto her cabin, sitting way too stiffly on her couch. She probably made therounds first. Check to make sure everyone makes it back aboard safely, set acourse with Joker, check her messages with Traynor. Sure enough, right as theywere taking off again, the door to her cabin slid open and she stretched, yawningwidely as she kicked off her boots.

“Did you have a good time?”

She grinned at him softly when she droppedonto the couch.

“I did,” she said. Rae looked like she wascovered in at least eight new bruises, just based on what he could see of herarms. “Remind me to take you to Arimax at some point.”

“The arena?”

“Yeah. They let us go a few rounds forfree.” Rae slumped and exhaled at the same time and for a second, it lookedalmost like she was deflating. Still, even with her eyes half-closed, nothingcould have wiped that contented grin off her face.

“How’d you do?”

“High score! Jack used her biotics to breakoff a panel from the arena and use it as a shield while we were running. It wasbrilliant! Probably not a legal maneuver, but brilliant!”

Warmth spread through the pit of his gut asshe described it, grinning widely to show all of those blunt little teeth. Thrilled.Rae was absolutely thrilled. She detailed all eight bouts in a meticulousplay-by-play. Every step, every strike, every high-five. There was nothingbetter in the world than hearing her laugh hysterically through a descriptionof how she drop-kicked a broken turret into a mock Cerberus mech and blew it topieces.

Next to seeing Jack, his present was goingto fall a little flat, but regardless, once she settled a bit and after shetold him all about the match where they faced a team of computer-generated Shepards,he pulled out the little box from under the coffee table and set it on her lap.

For a second, she just stared. Then,realizing that there was a box under the mound of towel he’d given her, shelaughed hysterically. Not the reaction he’d expected, but still good.

“Is this my face cloth?”

“Well,” he sighed. “You said humans wrappresents, but I couldn’t find any paper.”

That sent her into another spiral ofgiggles, and she laughed so long he was a little concerned he’d done somethingwrong. When she finally calmed down and swiped the tears from the corners ofher eyes (a good sign, she assured him; a good cry, not a bad cry), she peeled thetowel back from the visor. It took her a minute to read, her eyes dartingback-and-forth as she skimmed all four paragraphs of text on the side of thebox. One she set it down, though, she pushed herself up into his arms andkissed his mandible.

“You got this for me?”

“This is the one you wanted, right?”

“Yes!” She turned the box over in herhands, grinning like her face would split in two. “This is the exact one I wanted.How did you remember?

“I’m a genius, clearly.”

“Garrus.” Her arms wrapped around his neck,pulling him down far enough where she could press her forehead to his. “Thankyou for thinking of me.”

“Well. No problem,” he said. Garrus brushedsome hair back from her face. The pad of his thumb brushed over her constellationof freckles—tiny splotches sprinkled over her cheeks and nose. “You’re alwayson my mind.”

[vladora-sims]

Thank you for tagging me @strangetomato.  This was fun!

When did you start playing Sims?

I’m not sure, maybe 2010-2011?  I started with The Sims Social on Facebook.  It was pretty good, but I got tired of the limited number of moves and the pay-to-play-more mechanic.  The Sims 3 was out at the time and I remember debating whether to get that or Sims 2.  Eventually I picked up a copy of Sims 2 from a used book store and the rest is history!    

Fun fact:  When playing Sim Social I had no idea who Bella Goth was and thought she was there to appeal to Twilight fans.  

Have you been playing consistently or do you have breaks in between?

Breaks in between, especially now I’m back in school.  I thought I’d get one 15 hour semester this Fall, but it turned out you can’t take 3 classes in the summer.  So I’ve got two more 18 hour semesters to look forward to.  

Do your family & friends know that you play The Sims?

My parents know.  I’ve been playing one game or another pretty much forever so I they’re used to it.  My dad actually got me into computer games when I was a kid.

Do you spend more time in build or live mode? Why?

In total, live mode.  I like building houses because it’s kind of like putting together a puzzle to get all the proportions right.  It’s so satisfying when it all fits together (and you get a decent roof, too).  The time it takes to build a house isn’t comparable to how long I play most of my families in them, though.

Do you play with supernatural creatures (like Vampires, Werewolves etc.)? Why not?

No, they’ve never really interested me outside or inside the game.  I’m more into traditional fantasy type creatures than old movie monster type creatures.  

Do you have one specific family you play with all the time (like a legacy of some sort) or do you rotate between a couple of households?

Rotations!  Even when I’ve done legacies, they’ve branched out into rotational play because I like to play the spares.  One of my favorite parts of the game is watching a neighborhood grow and evolve and seeing how the families interact and intermix.

Do you like to create your own neighborhoods or do you play with the existing families? Tell us about your progress :)

Overall, I’ve spent the longest time playing the neighborhoods I’ve created myself.  I feel more connected to Sims I’ve made because they feel more personal.  I like to dabble in premade neighborhoods.  It’s fun to play out the story lines (or mess them up) and give makeovers.  I just don’t feel that sense of ownership with them.

Do you create custom content? If so, what keeps you motivated? (If not, would you like to? What stops you from learning it? For players that don’t use mods, why do you stay away from CC?)

No, I did 3D modeling/texturing/rigging/animation/coding in school and I found out it’s not really for me.  However, I have a lot of respect and appreciation for CC creators and modders.  Thank you for making our games look and play excellent! <3

If there was one piece of CC or (if you play without mods) one piece you wish the developers implemented, what would it be?

This is a hard question!  So many great mods have come out recently.  I’d like a CC organizer that shows you previews of everything outside the game.  You can delete things quickly or change a piece of clothing’s category.  I think Wardrobe Wrangler does some of this but it has an error on my computer due to the graphics card or it being 64 bit?  I don’t remember.  And I know this is a pretty impossible request, haha.  

What other expansion and/or accessories pack do you wish the developers would have come out with?

The Sims 2 Lifespans.  With extra ages, especially preteen and middle age.  You can kinda do this with CC and cheats, but I’d like if it had actually been implemented in the game.    

Lastly, tag 5 of your favorite simblrs!

I’m sorry, I don’t remember who has done this already!  Please do it if you’d like to.  

[sporadicbeepboops]

20 Games I Loved in 2016

The Switch delay. Several big AAA duds. Another year without an official Mother 3 U.S. release. 2016 could have been a disappointing year. (Outside of video games, it certainly took its toll.) But at least from my perspective, the good far outweighed the bad. Virtual reality finally made it out of the gates, and despite some hiccups, it shows real promise. Long-delayed games like Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian somehow made it to store shelves AND surpassed expectations. And love it or hate it, Pokémon Go inspired a genuine pop culture craze the likes of which we’ve never seen before, at least as far as games go. I think all of that is worth celebrating.

Before we get to the list, some quick shout-outs and no-brainer caveats…

2016 was not kind to the Wii U, but the 3DS quietly had one of its best years ever. That’s partly reflected here, but I couldn’t make room for Dragon Quest VII, Fire Emblem Fates, BoxBoxBoy!, Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Gotta Protectors, to name a few. Sometimes it felt like Nintendo was just cleaning out its closet — how long ago was DQVII released in Japan? — but we benefited either way.

Overall, I played fewer games this year, but the ones I did play held my interest longer. Thanks to various microtransactions and DLC, 2016 probably hit my wallet just as hard.

What didn’t I play? Stardew Valley, SUPERHOT, Final Fantasy XV (at least past chapter 2), Frog Fractions 2, Hitman — oh, and I didn’t get to stuff from last year like Yakuza 5 or The Witcher 3, either. Yakuza 4 was pretty solid though.

I left off any new ports of games that came out last year or prior, unless there were substantial additions that changed the experience in a meaningful way. That meant The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD and Mini Metro weren’t in the running, while Rez Infinite technically was.

Love making lists, hate ranking items in said lists, just because I’m incredibly fickle. There’s a good chance that I’ll want to shuffle everything around the moment I publish this. But my podcasting buddies are counting on me here, so it’s time to be decisive.

Keeping all that in mind, here are the games I really loved in 2016…

20. The Witness - I’m already cheating because if I’m being honest, I didn’t actually love this game. The Witness takes a couple dozen hours to finish, and I spent at least half of them staring at a notebook, drawing grids, connecting dots, and having no idea how to pave forward. But even if I didn’t love the game, I respect it immensely. I admire Jonathan Blow’s commitment to this singular idea, of taking the kind of puzzle you might see on a restaurant placemat and coming up with every possible permutation of it. And there is of course a “meta” layer on top of that, where solutions to each component change the environment around you — tree top bridges that unfold based on the paths your lines take, or colored glass panels that create new puzzles on top of old ones. It might be cold and off-putting at times, but The Witness is still commendable as the ultimate puzzle box.

19. SuperHyperCube - I bought into PlayStation VR for games like Rez Infinite and RIGs — big, flashy, “immersive” experiences. And they delivered! I’m a very happy PS VR owner, and I hope Sony builds on its momentum this year. (I’m skeptical, but then being a virtual reality early adopter was always a leap of faith.) However, while I got exactly what I expected from most of the launch titles, it's the simple puzzle game seemingly modeled off of “Brain Wall” that I keep coming back to. I turn on the headset to play Job Simulator or Battlezone, but I always play a couple rounds of SuperHyperCube before I’m done. A solid case for virtual reality not as a thrilling roller coaster, but a hypnotic, relaxing voyage.

18. Headlander - The best game Double Fine has put out since Iron Brigade. Free-roaming Metroid-style exploration, a perfect 70s-synth sci-fi score and a fun body swapping gimmick at the heart of it all. I wish there were more vessels for your noggin to control, but there’s a strong foundation here. 

17. Kirby: Planet Robobot - It’s easy to take Kirby games for granted, and that’s especially true of Robobot, which uses the same engine and many of the same powers as the recent Triple Deluxe. What does the former bring to the table then? Smart level designs that take advantage of the new mechs without letting them dominate the action. A novel mechanical world that feels distinct from the typical pastel meadows. New amiibo support. OK, so maybe it doesn’t add that much to the series, but it’s right up there with Super Star anyway. 

16. Pokkén Tournament - This game is a fresher, more enjoyable fighting game than Street Fighter V. It doesn’t even matter (too much) that the single player is pretty thin or that the roster is small. When’s the last time you played a one-on-one fighting game that felt truly new? Pokkén is a great 3D fighter and a great 2D fighter at the same time, which is no small feat. And it’s also a gorgeously animated recreation of those battles we all imagined happening in our Game Boys 20 years ago.

15. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - The popular sentiment seems to be that Madagascar is when this final Uncharted entry really takes off. Slow drama and frequent cut scenes give way to island exploration and memorable shootouts. My take? The back half is fun and the epilogue is lovely, but I could spend an entire game in Nathan and Elena’s living room, or hopping around the globe for the next story sequence. Wherever you stand, this is a fine way to close out a reliable series.

14. Picross 3D: Round 2 - Seven Picross games — eight if you count the Twilight Princess freebie — on the eShop. That’s a lot of a perfectly fine thing. But none of them are Picross 3D. Thankfully, the real deal finally arrived this year, with hundreds of puzzles and a few extra gameplay wrinkles. Worth the premium price tag.

13. Titanfall 2 - The campaign didn’t need to be good. Multiplayer FPS games live and die by their multiplayer, and many developers seemingly write off the single player experience as an afterthought. That’s why Titanfall 2 is such an unexpected treat. The factory, the time hopping, the airborne carrier — all cleverly designed, with platforming gimmicks that would feel just as suited for a Metroid Prime game. I think the reason the new Mirror’s Edge fell flat for me was that this game featured the same parkour moves in a much more exciting package.

12. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - This crossover game is Persona-lite, yes, but I think that sells the characters and world a bit short. While its inspiration focuses on the pressures of being a Japanese high schooler, #FE is all about the Tokyo show biz scene. Pop music, soap operas, microwave cooking shows — it’s all very goofy, but the game still takes its protagonists’ dreams and ambitions seriously. #FE also makes clever use of the Wii U GamePad, turning it into a tablet/social app that helps keeps the conversations going. Even if you’re not into this particular “scene,” #FE may still win you over.

11. Rhythm Heaven Megamix - I can’t get enough Rhythm Heaven. They could put 20 new musical minigames on a cart annually and it’d make my list every year. Sumo wrestlers, lumberjack bears, monkey slumber parties — all magic.

10. Severed - A Vita game! It’s great to see DrinkBox Studios stretch beyond sidescrollers with this first person dungeon crawler full of grotesque monsters and creepy, colorful mazes. Swiping and poking on the Vita’s touchscreen feels great. The controls are key to Severed’s success; if battles were menu-driven, the entire game would fall apart. 

9. Pocket Card Jockey - I hope Nintendo keeps letting Game Freak be this weird. It’s not just that it’s horse racing plus solitaire. It’s your jockey biting the dust and being brought back from the dead to repay his debt to the angels. It’s the brassy, big band score that accompanies every race. It’s horses with luchador masks and cats hanging from their backsides. Pocket Card Jockey is a miracle of localization.

8. Pokémon Sun - Yes, another Pokémon game. The Alola region is the best thing to ever happen to this series. Previous games had regions based on cities like New York and Paris, but the results always felt half-hearted. In Sun (and Moon), the tropical island setting influences everything from the creatures you catch to the trials you complete. I’ve never demanded a believable world from this series, but that’s kind of what we get here, and it’s terrific.

7. Inside - This is the type of game where the less you know going in, the better. It’s Limbo — a previous Justin GotY — filtered through a twisted dream logic that I still can’t get out of my head months later. 

6. Paper Mario: Color Splash - I know you don’t like Sticker Star. Rest assured: that 3DS oddity feels like a rough draft for Color Splash, which improves upon its predecessor in every way. A textured, vibrant world that rivals Tearaway in its papercraft. Thrilling scenarios like a train heist, an underwater game show and the throwback above. Hilarious dialogue that mostly makes up for the many, many identical toads. I miss the liberties Intelligent Systems used to take with the Mushroom Kingdom, but everything else about Color Splash restores this spin-off series to its former glory.

5. Overcooked - This year’s couch co-op champ. Cooking with a partner is all about communication, and that’s doubly true when the kitchen is split across two flatbed trucks or on an iceberg rocking back and forth. My friends and I love head-to-head games like Smash Bros. and Towerfall, but it’s nice to play a game that’s all about puzzle solving and careful planning together. And I love the wistful stage select music.

4. Dragon Quest Builders - Minecraft has always fascinated me, but I don’t do well without direction. That’s why I’m so grateful for Dragon Quest Builders, which breaks down the open world construction into small, manageable tasks. I started off just sticking to blueprints and keeping decorations to a minimum; now, I’m spending hours building up towns the way I want them to look, for no other reason than my own personal satisfaction. Even taking the crafting element out of the equation, Builders does a great job of capturing the adventuring spirit of its parent series.

3. Pokémon Go - I didn’t set out to put THREE Pokémon games on here, and in a vacuum, this is much less satisfying than Pokkén or Sun. But we don’t play video games in a vacuum, and certainly not this one. I played Pokémon Go in Central Park, talking to strangers to find out where the Ivysaur was hiding. Or I played on my lunch breaks, exploring parts of South Street Seaport with coworkers that I had ignored for years. Go’s peak came and went, but it remains one of my fondest experiences of the year.

2. The Last Guardian - Another game that’s more than the sum of its parts. The Last Guardian is finicky and sometimes frustrating. Trico is hard to climb. The camera doesn’t know what to do when you’re up against the wall. So what? How many games feature a creature this lifelike? He may be an illusion made up of A.I. routines, scripted animations and fur shaders, but all of those elements come together in a uniquely convincing way. His evolution from reluctant ally to friend has a subtlety I’ve never seen before. I’m glad Ueda spends as much time focusing on the inner struggles as he does the external ones. Hope it doesn’t take another decade for his next game.

1. Overwatch - I didn’t even know what Overwatch was until two weeks before its release, and even then, I didn’t expect much from it. I had played Team Fortress 2 and thought it was just fine. I knew what to expect. Medics, tanks, builders — that sounded familiar to me. But I was so wrong. Overwatch isn’t just a team-based shooter; it’s the superhero team-up game I’ve been longing for since “The Avengers” was in theaters.

All 23 (and counting!) heroes have their superpowers, and all of them have their jobs to do. What really sets Overwatch apart is when these heroes are bouncing off of each other. Any combination of six is going to have its own dynamics. Mei dropping ice walls to give Reinhardt time to recharge his shield. Junkrat dropping traps to help Bastion watch his back. Mercy gliding up to Pharah to give her rockets a little extra punch. Every battle brings new possibilities and strategies to the table. I’ve played over 100(!) hours and feel like there’s still so much to learn.

But it’s not all serious business either. The colorful personalities, animations, costume designs and more do so much to shape the world, even when I know next to nothing about the overall “lore.” Last year, Splatoon felt like the only shooter I’d ever need, but Overwatch has actually managed to supplant it in my heart. That’s something this Nintendo fanboy never thought he’d say. Can’t wait to see how Blizzard builds on their masterpiece in year two.

[homewoodpage]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath syndicated from https://chaisesofassite.wordpress.com/

[sureyhny]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

from Home Improvement http://diydiva.net/2018/02/the-long-neglected-upstairs-bath/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[prouxvaire]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

from http://ift.tt/2ERRrnm

[cessanderson]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath http://ift.tt/2ERRrnm

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

Kit

[darensmurray]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

[homewoodpage]

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath

Three years ago I had a great idea. An idea that was mostly driven by my desire to have one bathroom in this house that contained a tub suitable for soaking.

Anyone remember this tub (with an effing fireplace?!) from my last house?

Yeah. Me too. With pain in my heart every time I think about it.

This house has three full bathrooms, and, for the first 3 years I lived here, zero working bathtubs. I mean, there was one, kinda, but if you put more than 6” of water in it it started to leak… and it also had iron stains that made it look like someone had previously been dismembered in there.

  So, back to my great idea. Three years ago I decided to do a “quick” overhaul of the upstairs bathroom. In my mind that meant taking out the old tub (which meant the old tile had to come out too) then putting in a new tub, re-tiling the floor, and maybe a coat of paint. Voila! Done! Right?

Ha. Hahaha.

Yeah, no.

What actually happened was that I tore up the tile and realized the toilet had been leaking into the subfloor for the last twenty-ish years…

I mean. I could have picked any hobby in the world. I could have been a person who golfs. But no. I had to pick the one that means I’ve spent more hours of my life then I care to think about scraping up subfloor that has been rotted and soaked through with sewer water.

Sigh.

After the trauma with the subfloor and my desire not to spend any more time in that room, it took me a whole year to finally tile the shower surround (and only got it done because Sarah–from the Ugly Duckling House–came to visit and got my ass in gear)…

Then I had a failed attempt at leveling the floor, and finally just said “screw it” because you can, in fact, use a bathtub that only has a raw pipe as the faucet in a bathroom that has a plywood floor…

And then, guys, I just straight-up ignored this room for the last couple of years. I mean, literally every time I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, and then had to walk downstairs and to the opposite end of the house… at those times I was keenly aware of my failure to get the upstairs bath finished. But otherwise I mostly just avoided the idea of finishing this room.

I probably would have gone on that way for another year but when my mom was up at the house for Christmas and I was talking about my 2018 projects, she gently steered the conversation in the direction of the upstairs bath. Like, she might of mentioned how much my quality of life would be improved by having a working bathroom upstairs, and then didn’t say anything else about it until she showed up at the farm every weekend for the last 2 months with a bottle of wine and innocently asked what we’d be working on in the bathroom that day.

Moms. Amirite?

She gets all the credit for the progress I’ve made on this room so far.

First, I tore out my previous, unsuccessful attempt at leveling the floor. Then I cleaned and primed the subfloor (and drank some wine.)

I’d been very leery about using a pour-on self-lever for a lot of reasons, mostly involving prep, but I figured I couldn’t have made a worse mess than my first attempt, so used a spray foam insulation to seal any gaps between the old plaster walls and the framing, and rigged up a cardboard “seal” around the toilet plumbing.

Then we went for broke and poured the first coat of self-leveler. Mom was chief in charge of mixing…

While I poured the leveler and worked the float.

One of the many joys of a 170 year old house is that this bathroom floor was ¾” off-level over a 3-foot run of floor. Which is to say, it required a second coat of leveler the next weekend.

Because I let it sit for a week before putting the second coat on I needed to re-prime the surface (aka drink more wine)…

But after a second coat of leveler, we got there. (Or, close enough to there.)

Here’s the new floor, pre-tile:

Once the floor was mostly level I installed Schuler DITRA underlayment, and then started with the tile.

(Also, you can add “tile saw” to the list of tools my mom now knows how to use, since I conscripted her in to being the Chief Tile Cutter for this project.)

I bought this tile three years ago, when I thought this project was going to take a couple of weekends. (I know, I know, keep laughing.) At the time I thought I might try a herringbone pattern with these 8×24 tiles, but the day I was going to start laying tile both my mom and my grandma were up at the farm helping with some other projects, and when I mentioned the herringbone idea they both gave me a look that can best be translated as “are you out of your effing mind?”

And, you know, good point. It’s been three years. The last thing I need to do is make this more difficult.

So I just ran the tile straight, and they actually look great that way. It’s a lesson in 1.) don’t make things harder than they need to be, and 2.) always listen to your mom and grandma.

It’s actually been a solid seven years since I’ve had occasion to tile a floor. (Pretty sure this was the last one. [LINK]). In the intervening years there’s been an explosion of younger, awesome tradesmen who use instagram as a platform to share their work. I’ve been following @tilefreak for a couple of years, which is how I learned about the Perfect Levelmaster T-Lock system…

They aren’t cheap, but The idea made a lot of sense to me and I wanted to check them out. Because I follow the tile guys I know that you have to be very conscientious about backbuttering and having enough mud under the tiles. It didn’t make it easier to lay the tile, but I think the floor is probably the best one I’ve ever done because of it.

Once the tile was in, it was time to address one of the biggest issues in this bathroom… the plumbing.

(That’s the view looking up from the closet in my home gym, which already had the ceiling torn out from the previous leaking.)

The old toilet had been leaking because the flange for the toilet was set below the tile floor (I assume a product of needing to raise the floor so much to level it.). You can see in this picture, the wax ring was barely dented and wasn’t providing a great seal.

I cut out the old flange before leveling the floor, and now that the new tile was in I was set to replace the old soil pipe with a new one.

Here’s a thing I love about my life these days. I have a tool for everything. Need to cut a PVC pipe in a tiny space? I’ve got the saw for that. Need to drill a hole through tile? I’ve got a bit for that. Need to open cans of Oatey PVC primer and cement that I literally cannot untwist the lids from? I legit have a designated can opener FOR JUST THIS REASON.

(P.S. Oatey? If people have a designated can opener just to open your shit, maybe you’ve got a packaging problem? Just sayin.)

But, despite all the tools needed, at the end of the day I had a well-installed toilet flange.

And, even better, a few days later…

A WORKING TOILET.

I realize that shouldn’t be so exciting, but seriously, it’s been three years. And I have a working toilet.

Also, this is actually a toilet that Delta Faucet sent me 4 years ago to review, so… this is why I don’t do product reviews anymore.

I don’t think that after 4 years you can legitimately call this a “sponsored” product (I’m not sure they even make this model of toilet anymore, but they do make other ones.) I will say that one thing I consistently love about Delta faucets–AND this toilet–is the integrated plumbing. Their faucets hook right into the water valve and the same is true of the toilet, which made it a quick and easy install.

So, here’s the awesome thing…

My upstairs bath now has:

A working bathtub

Working sinks

A working toilet

It’s pretty much a working bathroom, you guys!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s still very much not-finished.

I’ve got an ugly fan/light to replace…

Some drywall to patch where I had the old awkwardly-placed outlets moved…

Plus a few spots above the shower…

Here’s the current to-do list, as it stands:

Tear out closet and patch drywall

Re-face cabinets 

Level, tile, and grout floor 

Tile tub surround 

Patch ceiling 

Move outlets and patch all drywall 

Replace plumbing and install toilet 

Caulk tub and toilet

Paint radiator

Paint ceiling and touch-up walls

Install baseboard

Install new light fixtures and switches

Add cabinet “feet”

Finish tub plumbing for working shower

Get and hang mirrors

Get hutch for storage

Install shelving, towel racks, etc.

And then getting the plumbing finalized so the tub has a faucet (and working shower), and putting baseboard in, plus replacing the light in the shower, and figuring out why the other one in the old closet area won’t turn on…

And then there’s a ceiling to paint, and walls to touch-up, mirrors to buy and hang, and a hutch to find to replace the bulky closet I tore out.

It’s not exactly “close” to being done, but it’s very close to being functional, which is really what counts around here.

Who knows… if my mom brings up enough wine I might even get the kitchen done this year?

I mean. Don’t hold your breath though.

The Long-Neglected Upstairs Bath syndicated from https://chaisesofassite.wordpress.com/