Bathroom Reno Day 9

Today's blog entry is dedicated to good friends - Ken and Paul. Many of you know Ken from Bangor Bungalow, Sarah's amazing partner in crime. Others may know Paul, my super friend who has lent a hand in just about every project I've done in the Bangor Foursquare. Both of them helped me immensely today and I am so grateful to have wonderful friends who are knowledgeable, helpful, and - most importantly - extremely patient with me and my begging for help. Thank you, guys.

I started the day by doing something smart - I opened the package I ordered months ago containing my tub/shower faucet. See, I really thought I had purchased only new handles, a faucet, and a shower head, while in fact it came with a new valve as well. Very exciting and much more reasonable now that I consider the price. I'm glad I did this first thing, however, as it possibly meant that I would need new holes in different places, etc., thus delaying the completion of the backerboard hanging. So, I called in a pro - Ken. He and Sarah wonderfully came by and he not only installed the new valve but showed me a thing or two along the way. I love learning new things. It generally fit what was already there, thank goodness, and no leaks! Here's the fruit of his labor:

I'm really hoping that this new valve will go a long way in helping us with a little more hot water pressure in the tub - something we haven't had since moving in.

Then I was able to tackle the rest of the backerboard, which I did with Paul's help. Thom pretty much reached his limit today but I am nevertheless thankful for the help he did contribute over the past few days. (As I've mentioned before, Thom hates home improvement and we generally don't work well together in these kinds of projects so the help he gave was wonderful.) Paul came over to help hang the last couple pieces of the DensShield, which I admittedly was a bit chickeny about as it involved cutting the holes. Given my propensity to measure incorrectly it was helpful to have someone as experienced as Paul make short shrift of the whole thing. We got the last three pieces hung up in about an hour.

I then taped the joints and mudded the screw holes. The process is much like drywall taping, except you use fiberglass tape and you use the thinset you use for your tile. I felt a little more proficient at taping after my kitchen experience a couple summers ago but it's still not as smooth as it could be.

My lack of skill in this area has made me rethink the height to which I was planning to tile. OriginallyI thought I'd go a row or two above the shower spigot but now I'm thinking I might go all the way to the ceiling. To paint this stuff you need to skim coat it with JC and, as I mentioned, I'm not the best at doing this. But, I don't know...I know I don't want to tile the ceiling but I don't know what else I'd do with it. Ideas?

So, tomorrow begins the fun stuff! Hooray! I'm going to start tiling the shower (white subway tile with an accent row of blue glass tile) and perhaps Lowe's will finally deliver the beadboard so I can get that put up. Then grouting on Tuesday. Then all that is left is the floor tiling, floor grouting, trim, toilet, vanity, sink, medicine cabinet, paint, and lights (phew!). Anyway, another great day - thanks again, guys.