Stay-cation: Day Four

So maybe this update every day thing wasn't the best idea. I'm not sure if people would rather read a short post every day about what we did the day before, or whether I should just save it all up and do a monster post on the weekend when we're all done.

I do know that these little posts are seriously cutting into my video game time...

So yesterday was all about getting the tiles cut and fitted for the bathroom. Given that the bathroom is only about 30 square feet, you wouldn't think it was an all day job, but as I keep reminding people who ask why it's taking so long, I'm not exactly a professional.

Anyway, I hied myself off down to the Home Despot yesterday and rented the big wet saw again. I had to wait almost fifteen minutes to get someone out to help me load it into the truck, but I'm getting used to that by now. Slackers.

Once I got it home, I thanked the capricious Victorian weather gods for what turned out to be a pretty nice day, and set up a little cutting station in the driveway:



A tip for using one of these bad boys: keep the pump in a bucket of fresh water instead of in the tub under the saw. That water gets all gummy and dirty really fast, and the clean water means the pump doesn't get clogged, and it helps wash off the tiles when you cut them. (Just remember to keep an eye on the level of water in the bucket!) I think I went through about ten or twelve bucketfuls - hence the hose waiting at the ready. I also put down a rubber mat to stand on; partly to ease the pain of standing on concrete for long stretches, but mostly so I wouldn't be standing in the dirty water while I was cutting and thus not track it back into the house.

Anyway, not much else to say about the job yesterday. Including two trips to pick up and drop off the saw at Home Depot, it took me about six hours to measure cut, and dry-fit the tiles. The hole around the toilet flange was really fiddly and painful, but I'd managed to plan out the tiles so that I only had to cut two instead of three or four. (Okay, that wasn't planning so much as dumb luck, but still.)



So today I get to actually set them in thinset and maybe - depending on the drying times involved - grout them, too.