La Ristrutturazione del Bagno è Finita

That's Italian for 'the bathroom renovation is finished'! It sounds so much prettier in Italian just like my 'new' bathroom is so much prettier than the 'old' bathroom.

Painting was easy -- I did it all in one day. I also put the toilet together and fixed the gouge in the tub from when I dropped the tile. A 'field trip' to Bed Bath and Beyond yielded a new, extra-long shower curtain, towels and floor mats. The shower curtain will look better once it has hung for a few days and after a couple of steamy showers takes the wrinkles out. I certainly am glad to be done. I promise, these are the last pictures of this bathroom you will ever see. (However, I do have two more bathrooms that need painting . . . next year.)


Happy . . . sitting down and relaxing and enjoying the rest of the day!

A Sweating Afternoon

Yes, I know, you are very tired of seeing pictures of my bathroom. But not many more -- hopefully. Today I sweated copper pipes for the first time in 30 years and I didn't set the house on fire! In yesterday's post, I shared with you that I had planned to just get a cheap faucet which clips on with a hex screw and an Allen wrench. Then later, I could hire a plummer to come make the pipe the right size. But after finding out that there is no such thing as a cheap faucet -- and I already knew there was no such thing as a cheap plumber -- I walked out with a Do-It-Yourself-but-don't-burn-down-the-house-pipe-sweating-kit.

The product's name is funny -- Bernz-O-Matic! The kit contains flux, a brush, propane container and torch.
It was easy to connect the torch to the container, just like the propane tank on the grill only not as heavy. The other things that I had to buy was emery fabric to rough up the pipe, a pipe cutter and the copper tubing, threaded nozzle, and connector. One thing that I already had that came in very handy was a pair of fire gloves. The first thing that I did was put the threaded end on the pipe. I can't show pictures of myself sweating the copper pipes as I can't hold solder, the pipe and an I-phone! But the gloves came in handy. The pipe got really hot but I never felt it with the glove on.

After I got that done, I cut the pipe to the measurement I had calculated. The pipe cutter was a little small and hard to tighten down after every turn or two. But I was able to make it easier by using a pair of pliers. I guess my hands are not as strong as they used to be.

What is the saying about measure twice, cut once? My calculations are not as good as they used to be either and I might have done better if I had thought about it first. After I put the connector and pipes together to test the length, realized that a 6 inch faucet did not mean I needed a 6 inch pipe, and I had to remeasure, recalculate and re-cut the pipe.

One other purchase I made ended up being a good idea, too. It is a heat shield that you put up behind your pipe and it protects the area behind it. The guy at Menards told me that I could burn the ceramic tile -- pop them right off the wall. So I thought it was a good idea to get one of those. And after I started to sweat those pipes, I was really glad as I couldn't get an angle that the flame didn't get too close to the tile. I finally got all three joints soldered and the water running.

I finally was able clean my tub. After weeks of demolition, mud and tape, thin-set, grout and caulk -- that was one dirty tub. All in all, I am pretty happy with the results and I think that my $60 purchase was most likely cheaper than a plumber. And you never know when I might want to sweat some more pipes.

Happy sweating!

Another Long Day in DIY Remodel-land and Too Many Trips to the Hardware Store

Today, I started my day by taking out the rest of the inner parts of the toilet and removed the tank. The toilet has been hard to flush and I decided it was time to replace everything as long as I was fixing up the bathroom. I actually started this task last week, but since I had not actually checked out what kind of insides this toilet had, I assumed it was like the one I changed out last year. Not. So I had to make a trip to the hardware store on Thursday to get more/different parts.

In order to change out all the parts, I had to remove the tank from the bowl. The tank is held on with three long bolts which go through a rubber washer, down through holes in the bowl and are held tight by a nut at the bottom. And here is where my day started going badly. The top of the bolts had a slot for a flat-head screw driver. But as soon as I tried to loosen the first bolt, the top of it started to disintegrate and the bottom of the bolt was corroded so getting it off was not going to be easy. Lots of WD-40; a hacksaw and an hour later, I finally removed the last of the three bolts. Unfortunately, I had planned to reuse the bolts so I made another trip to the hardware store.

Which 2 colors would you pick?

Not too bad on the caulk job!

After returning, it was already noon, and I wanted to get the caulk around the tub done since that takes awhile to cure but still needed a second coat of grout sealer on the tile first. I did that and caulked the tub. I had already purchased paint samples last weekend and put all three colors on the wall around the edge of the tub. I needed to "reflect" on the colors for awhile.

I know you will think that I am silly, but I had already planned to go to the hardware store to buy the shower head and tub faucet trim. Why didn't I get it then? Don't ask me. Off I went to pick out my shower head and tub faucet. I knew that I wanted to use a Price Pfister trim kit. The previous hardware was Price Pfister and I didn't want to have to re-plumb the valve, so I had to find a Price Pfister that I liked. Four hardware stores later, I finally had my trim kit and headed home. It was 4:30 in the afternoon.

Installing the shower head and faucet handle was easy. Everything went according to plan until I realized that the tub faucet was too long for the pipe coming out of the wall and it required a threaded pipe. So back to the hardware store. Again.

My thought was to get a cheap tub faucet for a few dollars and then get a plumber in to put in what I needed. I have done soldering of pipes in the past, but did not have a torch and soldering supplies, so I was thinking that would be a stop gap until I got a plumber later in the year. But after finding out that there is no such thing as a cheap, temporary tub faucet, I came home with a new toy! I did some soldering of copper pipes years ago, but never really had the opportunity again and of course didn't own the equipment -- now I do!

By the time I got home it was 7:00 PM and I had not eaten yet so I decided to throw a couple of steaks on the grill for me and the DH. After dinner, I was too tired to think about burning down the house, so I am putting off finishing the tub faucet until tomorrow. I did clean up the bathroom a bit as I was tired of tripping over tools that I had not put away. I mopped the floor and whipped down the counter top and removed and replaced the caulk in on the counter top.

Tomorrow is another day!

Happy remodeling!

Put a Little Mustard On It

I did some grocery shopping on the way home from work today. I made my way through the produce department looking for something different. You could say that I found it. Mustard greens.

I have never had mustard greens. It isn't because I thought that they would taste icky, but more because I had never thought about it. I looked at them and they looked fresh and crisp. A small bite of a leaf gave me a decidedly peppery flavor -- somewhat like green cabbage hearts. I didn't know how to cook mustard greens, but I knew Google would!

Rich in vitamins C and A, mustard greens are related to spinach, collard greens and kale. They are purported to lower cholesterol and are rich in glucosinolates -- a cancer preventative. Different varieties are grown in all parts of the world and are featured in many types of cultural cooking.

I found a recipe on Simply Recipes that I thought would suffice and began preparations. I noticed right away that the greens were pretty covered with sandy grit. So I rinsed the greens and let them soak in the sink, swishing them to remove the silt.

While the greens were soaking, I sliced the onions in thin slices and began heating the olive oil in a pan. Following the recipe, I sauteed the onions and garlic and added a few table spoons of homemade chicken stock. When the onions had become translucent, I added the piles of mustard greens that had been cut into rather large pieces.

I did not use the sesame oil due to allergies but this dish was pretty good. I only cooked the greens just past wilted stage. So they were still pretty crisp. The DH said he liked them -- better than spinach. I thought they had a bright, fresh taste. I imagine that if you cooked the devil out of them with a couple of pieces of bacon they could be that much better! All in all, I think I just added another vegetable to the rotation.

Happy cooking!

Couture Class

I've suddenly become enamored of couture, don't ask me why. I began on-line research of the subject which led me to Susan Khalje Couture. I looked at her website and decided that I wanted to take her class. Alas, I am unable to afford the near $1,000 price tag for the 6 day long class. Oh, how I wish money grew on trees! But wait! Upon further research, I found that Susan had teamed up with Crafty to put together an on-line class in couture! Now this makes a couture class affordable for me.

I quickly paid my fee and the "class" was immediately available to me; however, the Vogue pattern #8648 that was included as part of the price of the class will take approximately 10 days to arrive. That's OK by me as I want to listen to all of the lessons before beginning any project. My plan is to make either view D, E or F as I kinda like the flouncy skirt. But of course if any of you know me well, my mind can easily change. I have not decided on if I want a sleeve or not. That might be entirely dictated by the fabric that I choose. If I find flashy evening wear fabric, this may end up sleeveless, but if I find a fabric that would be great for work, it will more likely have sleeves.

So far, I have worked my way through the first 7 of 15 lessons. And it has definitely been worth the money. All those years that I made clothes and they only ever turned out "alright" because I really didn't know how to sew like this. However, couture is not quick and easy and is absolutely not for anyone who desires instant gratification. This is labor intensive with a lot of hand work and way more steps than are on the back of a pattern. Susan Khalje uses the analogy of food. You can eat with a fast-food hamburger and fries or you can eat a 7 course gourmet meal from a 5 star restaurant. Both will fill you up but they are very different.

Happy sewing!

Tiling a Bathroom is HARD WORK!

I spent a lot of time last week reading about how to tile and watching videos on how to tile. I have done several tile jobs in my life, but never a shower. If I made a mistake with this project, I could be looking at some very expensive water damage, so I wanted to make sure I did it right.

Although, earlier I had measured the walls when I initially bought the tile, since my brother and law did all the work to re-frame the tub, I needed to recheck the numbers and make a final decision on what I wanted to do design-wise. I laid the measuring tape on the floor and lined up the diamond featured tile alternating with plain field tile. I then figured out how small a piece would have to be cut on both sides. One of the things that I learned was to not cut too itty bitty a piece for the corners if you can help it. I lucked out -- big enough.

Using a level, I started by drawing a horizontal line the height of one tile minus 1/8 inch off the bottom of the green-board. This gave me a slight overhang on of tile. I will fill this space with caulk when I am done. According to my calculations, I had to center one tile on the back wall. So I measured 1/2 the distance of the wall, made a mark and using a level, I drew a vertical line (the red line in photo on right). Then I drew two other perpendicular lines on either side of that line between which was one tile wide. This gave me my starting place for my first course of tile.

I am using Ultralite Mortar by Mapei. It is a thin set mortar with an approximately 2 hour pot life. Although the bag gives directions to mix the entire bag at once, I did not see being able to tile the whole thing with all the cutting inside of one day -- much less 2 hours. So, I have been mixing smaller batches. One of the problems that many of the articles I read noted was that Do-It-Yourself-ers like me usually don't get the thin-set mixed thick enough. It has to be peanut butter consistency not mayonnaise consistency. When you have s scoop on your "spoon", it should hang there and not drip off. I made sure that I had everything ready to go BEFORE I mixed the thin-set. This was good because all my preparations and recalculations -- not to mention another last minute trip to Menards to pick up the right sized trowel -- the thin-set would have sat there over two hours by the time I got to it.

About half-way through the day, I realized that the 2 X 6 bull-nosed tile that I got to go around the edge was not going to work. I can't go out to far on the sides, or I would hit the mirror. Taking it into where the original tile left off didn't work either because I would have left me cutting corner pieces that were only 3/4 of an inch wide. Ugh. So that meant if I was going to fix it I had to do it quick before the thin-set dried. I popped off the 18 or 20 tiles that I had placed, scraped off the thin-set and started over. Then, back to Menards I went and exchanged the 2 X 6 for 4 X 4 bull-nosed tiles. Or I should say two Menards, since the first one did not have enough for me.

I started tiling around 12:30 or 1:00 PM and tiled into the evening and got nearly 3/4 of the job done by 8:30. At that point I was finished with my third batch of thin-set and my patience was gone. You could see the design coming together, but the hard cutting was yet to come as I had left the wall with the faucet for last.

I woke up the next morning and felt like I had been hit with a Mack truck -- every muscle in my body was screaming. However, there is no stopping now since I have house guests coming at the beginning of July. I have to get the bathroom done or everyone will be sharing the master bathroom.

I worked out where the pipe for the faucet was going to end up. I had anticipated needing to drill a whole in the middle of a tile and bought a carbide hole cutting bit. I was lucky and won the hole cutting lottery! Both the faucet and handle holes were on the edge of tiles and I was able to cut it out using my tile saw. (Yes, I own my own tile wet saw -- best tool investment I ever made!)

I kept working up the wall and cutting the tiles to fit into the corner. I got up to the design rows and realized that my rows were not matching up to the back wall that I finished the night before. By the last row of the wall, I was off nearly an inch at the top! I looked at the tile and realized that the second box of 4 X 4 bull-nosed tile was slightly wider than the 1st box. Since I was lining my course up with the bull-nosed tile So I took off the top 4 rows and trimmed the nubs off of one side of the bull-nosed tiles to make them a little smaller and narrow the grout line. By the time I got back up to the top, I was even with the back tile. Like I said, my little wet saw is a do-it-yourself-ers best friend.

Nubs

No Nubs!

All in all, I am pretty happy with the job. In two week ends it went from this:

to this:

Now I gotta get rid of that robin's egg blue!

Happy tiling!

Skull Quilt Blocks

I posted a couple of these pictures on the Quilting Board that I occasionally frequent along with the message that I was making this quilt for a baby and got some very different opinions. Some people were horrified that I would make a skull quilt for a baby and some people thought it was very fresh and "out of the box". While a skull quilt for a baby has its nay-sayers, it is what the mom of the baby likes and she has already decorated with skulls. A somewhat older sibling (6-ish) is also just "gaga" over skulls.

Skulls are everywhere, on t-shirts for both genders for all ages (and even dogs), on shoes, the subject of video games for girls, on fabric, and toys such as stuffed skulls, etc. This trend has been out in pop culture for quite a few years now. I thought it would die off quickly, but no. I have done a bit of internet reading and there are two lines of thought as to where this trend came from: 1) popularity of pirates and 2) the Mexican holiday of Day of the Dead or El Dia de Muertos.

If you have an opinion on why skulls are popular or if a skull baby quilt is horrific or cute, I'd love to hear your comments. Regardless of why skulls are popular, I don't think it will disappear overnight especially for this baby's mom. I think it will be an interesting baby quilt, and if the baby is scared of it -- I know mom will love it. I will post more pictures when the quilt is finished.

Happy quilting.

Come Fly with Me! Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away. . .

"Flying In Formation" is on its way to the quilter! Obviously, I did finally decide on a name for the yet-to-be-named-quilt. While I was sewing the quilt top, I kept singing a song made famous by Frank Sinatra:

          Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
          If you can use some exotic booze
          There's a bar in far Bombay
          Come on and fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. . .

I had fun with the boarders and used a different fabric for each side that matched an airplane in the quilt. I little easier than piecing all of the wonky piano keys that have been on the last four or 5 quilts. Hopefully, this quilt and the too pink quilt will be back quickly and I can get them out to their respective owners!

Happy quilting!