Really? A year??

In an attempt to NOT be the worst blogger in the history of bloggers, here's an update...

So it's been not quite a year since I've left any type of message at all. Sorry about that. Not sure there is anyone still checking this, but if you are - thanks. You rock. If not, just consider this the same noise a tree makes when the forest is empty.

Well, there is really not a lot to update. There have been no real changes in our lives as of late. The most impressive occassion, I suppose, would be that we have been in the midst of re-tiling our shower. During the past (insert embarrassingly-long measurement of time here) we have had some grout and plaster issues in our main bath tub surround. Meaning, the grout has been developing holes and the plaster has gone from a small hairline crack, to something that resembles an earthquake and small amounts of sand occassionally sifting onto our heads during showers. Not pleasant. So, after many procrastinations, we have finally begun to tackle this much-needed project. Two weekends ago we popped off the tile, tore down the plaster and drywall boards behind (drywall was new when our house was built and they didn't quite "get it" yet), and replaced the plastic vapor barrier.

Lets start with the tile. The tile was surprisingly easy to take off the walls. This may have something to do with the fact the they had almost no glue on them, or that the walls themselves were crumbling off. In any case, many of them came off relatively clean. Why, you may ask, are we taking the time and energy to pop off the tile, rather than just crushing them in demolition? Well, we have a tile wainscot around the entire bathroom, which we are not looking to replace. So we needed to salvage as many as possible in order to at leaast try to use them to tie in the the new tile. This went pretty well. And Dustin has been working hard to scrape the glue and remaining plaster from the backs of the tile, to prep them for reinstallation.

Next came the plaster. Normally - and we remember quite well from our last demolition project - plaster is not an easy thing to demolish. Especially when it has 18" strips of drywall behind them. Essentially, a full inch of reinforced concrete on the face of the wall. But the rest of the house did not have plaster that was completely saturated with water. This time it was as easy (and disgusting) as poking a hole in the wall, forcing a hand through, and pulling off large quanities of mildew-soaked mush. Gross. And smelly. But it was eventually all removed, and the window was left open for an entire weekend. Luckily we had great weather!

The plastic, which is typically transluscent, was black. We removed it and, after spraying the blackened studs with bleach, replaced it with new plastic. The insulation was actually in very good condition, so we didn't even touch it.

This was a productive Saturday, and the next day, we (and by "we" I mean mostly Dustin) installed a layer of 1/4" waterproof underlayment, then 1/2" of cement board. We had to build up the walls so that they would flush out with the existing plaster that remained.

For the past two weeks, we have been showering with plastic over the newly-prepped walls (this is our only shower at this time). We have also been trying to figure out our options for retiling. When we began, we had in our minds a plan to use some cheap (14cents a piece) tile that we found at Home Depot, but now that we have removed some of the existing tile, we've realized that the sizes don't match exactly and using them directly next to each other will not work. So we've come up with a new and much more elaborate plan that involves a chair rail accent band that will continue around the rest of the bathroom, as well as across the shower. Then using all new tile above the accent band, and another smaller accent at the top of the tub. (I've attached my computer rendering of this design, unfortunately I don't have a "before" photo at the moment. Maybe my next update I'll have a before & after.) Last night we ordered the accent pieces and found the chair rail pieces. Of course they were not from the same store.

This week Dustin will have a few days off, so we are going to get everything ready so that he can use his time wisely. We are hoping that he/we can at least get most of the tile up by next Wednesday. The accent tile will take ten days, so we'll just have to leave a space for it, I suppose. But I am very excited to have this all done. I want to clean my house without having a layer of dust settle two minutes later.

So that's where we are at the moment. Just a few other highlights about recent events:

We went to Belize this February, which was amazing. Maybe at some point I will actually post some photos and a bit of a recap. I've been meaning to, but you know how it goes.

My friend, Anne, has had a baby girl, Lillian Rae Wiltscheck, this past Saturday. She is amazing. Mother and baby are doing well. They are both cute, as is the new daddy.