A Helping Hand

Where to start? Should the floor or the wall be tiled first? Jim has done some of both. 

It isn't an easy job.  Tile is expensive and has to be handled with care.  It's a case of measuring twice and cutting once, which, of course, should be the rule with all construction projects and likely some other types of projects as well. 

Those blue thingys are levelers and fit in the spacers to make a nice even wall. 

Jim had his tile cutter set up on the patio for awhile, having to move it when rain is predicted. Now, he just walks up to the shop, cuts the tile and walks back down.  

A first peek.

Jim is working on the floor tile.  Both kinds of tiles are similar in color and design.  The floor tiles are matte and the wet room wall tiles are shiny. The floor of that room are different altogether. 

Jim is a very meticulous worker. It takes longer to get a job done. When it is done. It is done right.

Besides, it's a lot easier to protect tiles than clean them off. 

Bonita is here for a visit and a valuable helper.  It didn't help this day. I made pies, peach and pecan.

Jim has put up the railing bars around the edges for the "floating" ceiling, a grid set up with tiles so he can get the tile in place to finish that wall. 

 

Set In Concrete

Any project always takes more time and more money than expected. Jim is particular, which is a very good thing, because if you're going to make something lasting, it needs to be right the first time. This is the shower area with a bench and niche. Jim has the concrete board on here.

This is the vanity spot. Jim had his tool bench here, if you look at previous posts.  This doesn't need concrete board, but it has the kind of drywall that resists mold in damp areas.  Now he has to use the top of the pony wall as a small tool holding area.

This is the bathtub area complete with concrete board and ready for the water proofing membrane.

This little spot is where what Jim calls the linen closet goes. It probably will be some sort of storage since I lost two closets in this deal.

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Waterproofing is done on the floor.

The waterproofing stuff is "glued" onto the walls with "thin set."

 

Now, the walls are done, and fittings on. It's ready for tile.

Heating Up

I see that I've been about a month behind in keeping up with the basement progress. In my defense, I've been insanely busy, which me makes me too tired to do anything rational. We've been travelling quite a bit as well.

 We've almost given up on the garden. It's been hot, and we've been busy, gone and tired, as afore mentioned. Jim has been able to put in some longer working days. These photos were taken before we left late in July to take Barry on his '14 year old trip' with Gramma and Papa. 

On the left where the pile of tools and junk is a temporary shelf where the vanity will be. It butts up against the "pony wall", which will divide the "wet room" from the rest of the bathroom.

For those who don't know, a pony wall is a short wall in the middle of whatever. The wet room will be shut in by a glass wall and door and is where the tub and shower will be. The tub on the left the shower on the right.

The first photo is the preliminary framing up the pony wall.

  

I doubt that these next few photos are of interest to very  many people. Jim wanted photos of what all the piping looks like before it gets covered up. It seems to me a bit convoluted mess. Jim knows what he's doing, however.

Here is a photo of Jim's organizational system. 

Concrete board going up.

Niche to put things in. 

Shower "turn on", since I don't know the real name.

Next, this orange stuff goes on that hold the wire that heats up the floor. 

Around the drain.

Finished

Threading wire in between the bubbly bumps. That was tricky, since there was barely enough to go around. Jim had to reconfigure it a couple of times. 

After this, on to vacation. 

 

It's Always Messy Before It's Done

The next job after the ductwork was put in, was texturing the walls. First, Jim put MDF board on the side, whatever that is, and boards underneath it to fasten the 'floating' tile ceiling. 

It is really hard to keep a working area tidy, since the only place to store things is in the work area and so many things are needed!

Underboards in place.

Taping off, getting ready for the texture.

Nice and 'clean', for a little while.

I'm not sure how this texturing thing works. I didn't watch. Jim textured the first section that's hidden behind the blue tarp himself. For the amount of work and material, it seems better to hire 

the larger part done. 

 

Concrete Ideas

Next stage concrete forming up.

That's done, with shower drain planted and third concrete stage ready.

Jim has formed up a sidewalk by the chicken house/garden shed, hoping they would bring out the truck instead of mixing concrete by the wheelbarrow load, but they didn't.

....And done.

No more ceiling in any place, (except the bedrooms and laundry room and furnace room.)

Before we started on the "replace the carpet in the living room" project upstairs that ended up being "replace the kitchen, dining room and living room floor with LVP and build a new fireplace" project, 

we planned to replace the basement ceiling. We wanted to for a long time since popcorn ceilings are out and we've had some water leaks over the years and it was stained. The climax came when Jim heard a dripping at 4 in the morning early in 2024, if my memory serves me correctly. It was coming from under the kitchen sink and filling the space between the floor and the ceiling. Jim pulled down part of the ceiling and we used to shop vac to clean up after the waterfall ceased. Now we had two holes in the ceiling. The first, at the end of this hallway, happened when we had internet cable put in. The company we changed to, wanted to just lay the cable on the ground, for now. Jim wasn't having any of that. He bored in a conduit to run the cable through, drilled the hole through the brick where HE wanted it, and pulled it through the walls to the opening he made and chose. It THEY do it, they just go any old way and don't made it nice. They had a bit of a fit, saying he wasn't one of their contractors, which was hogwash because Jim has put in plenty of their cables. So, it was done, the way Jim wanted it.  A couple of days later, a Spectrum truck pulled up (oops, so much for hiding, hee hee) and I asked them what they were up to, and they had come to finish the job, hooking up and whatever. !!! I said it was already done, up and going, nothing more to do. I sure made me wonder about their communication!

The duct work has been taken out.

We replaced the glass brick windows with new bricks because the other ones had "vents" in them. 

All these photos with the extra shiny lights are bothersome. I don't know how to make my camera make a change, perhaps it can't.

Next step is replacing the duct that is gone.