i’ve been on a bit of a grump about jm recently: not only did janeen miss a weekend to go on his ‘make money for jm’ cruise trip (nope, it wasn’t even a benefit), but when she came back she’s been sick! now i’m sick too, so not much has been happening around here.
last weekend, i was realizing just how slow it is to try to reuse wood. We have the old wood, covered in paint, chipped and dented with holes in it from nails. Then we need to strip it down to the wood to make sure there are no nails hiding in there that could become projectiles when i cut the wood or shape it with the router. Then we need to sand it, and fill all the dents and scratches. then sand again. then prime. aiiieee!
above left shows the wainscote in the bathroom with most of the paint stripped off it. i’m not sure if we’ll bother to strip it all off, because the left side will be behind the vanity (which i still need to make). On the right, i’ve started to install the door jambs. it took me a long time. the wall framing is not necessarily perfectly vertical, so the door jambs are shimmed away from it with wedge-shaped pieces of wood. I kept shimming the jambs, checking for level with the plumb bob (a heavy pointed metal piece attached to the end of a string), and then accidentally bumping them. there’s probably a better way.
Now this part feels like progress: To waterproof the shower, we are using a special waterproofing membrane made by schluter-kerdi that has a bondable surface so you can apply the tile directly to it. I like it because it keeps all the water out of the shower backing. Traditional showers have a layer of mortar over the top of the waterproofing membrane; the mortar never completely dries out between showers: mold. Although we used cement backer board everywhere, apparently this stuff allows you to use plaster (gypsum) board. On the left i’m putting in the bottom piece. it goes in quite easily: you press it down against a layer of thinset mortar. There’s also a special drain with a really wide flange that also has a bondable surface. The kerdi membrane adheres to this also. on the right, half the shower is covered. almost ready to tile.