Concrete is neat

Bathroom bathroom blah, blah, blah.

I wish that I had something to show you that wasn't bathroom related but the truth is that we've been stuck working in that confounded room for months. Months!

When the mortar on the wall seams has set up nicely, which it does if you go away for a week after applying it,  you're ready to pour the concrete floor of the shower.

Step one. Once again, mark around the outside edge of the shower so you know how high up to build your layer of cement. In this case, that's an inch and a half.

Step two, get the cementitious vessel and commence amalgamation.

Definitely wear a mask when you're doing this stuff.

Think about it: To make cement you mix it with water. What happens to all that cement dust when you inhale it into your nice moist lungs?
Ya. Not cool.

Because we took the time to mostly level the shower floor before installing the membrane, all that needs to happen now is to apply an even inch-and-a-half thickness of cement over the whole floor.

Like so. I am screeding. The captain is giddy because I used his new favourite word. As I got to the drain I needed to continue the slope of the floor up to and under the metal shower-drain cap. The cap still sticks up about the thickness of a tile and a bit of mortar so that when the tiles are installed the drain will, hopefully, be level or slightly recessed.

And that's about it. Again, we wait for the concrete to set and next step is putting in the tiles. Exciting.

Oh, and we put the greenboard on the shower ceiling so that part is done now, too.

One good boat between us

It seems that we're fated to never have more than one good boat between us.

Mom and Handy Dad joined us for the day on Sunday recently, when Dad's boat started to misbehave. The engine cut out once on their way over, and although they made it to the cottage, he struggled to get the motor started again.

It cut out again on the return trip, and eventually, just as they were entering the marina inlet, it cut out and refused to start again.

This is how close they were to shore when it cacked. I actually took this photo standing beside the truck. Again, I'm nothing if not helpful. When you trip and fall, I'll point at you and laugh. Then I'll take your picture. Then I'll help you up. Then I'll write about it on the web. With photos. I'm good that way.

The captain puttered over in That Damned Boat ™ and towed the pontoon over to the dock. It was a tricky feat of navigation because normally dad has to turn the boat 180 degrees from the direction he was travelling to park his boat in his slip (it's around the back side of a long dock).

When you have no motor and have to drag the boat down the dock by ropes... it's tricky, to say the least.

Currently the boat is at Harris Boat Works in Gores Landing. Hopefully it'll be a small thing for him to get it back up and running again.

Murphy's a dork

Murphy's a dork.

What!? It needed to be said. Murphy and his damned laws.

The one time we need the boat to go because someone was waiting over on the landing to be picked up, of course is the one time the boat wouldn't actually start. Why? Because Murphy is a dork. Also, because the battery was dead.

Thank heavens Handy Dad left a battery charge in the garden shed so we were able to pull the battery out of the boat, plug it in, and a short time later got enough juice into it to fire up the boat and vroom over to the marina to collect the girls.

Shortly after all this happened I lost my cellphone forever. It is nowhere to be found, and I'm very fearful that it has gone to the briny deep.

Scrapping

Among my set of girly friends "scrapping" usually refers to our weekly Friday night Scrapbooking get togethers. I invited them up for a weekend of scrapping at the lodge, but got into a very different kind of scrapping myself, with very coarse/unrefined paper. A.k.a wood.

I made a bench! Not bad for $12 worth of wood, huh? I used 4-ft lengths 1x10 that you can buy open stock at the Despot. It's intended for shelving, and generally it's carp. Knots, chunks missing, gouges. Not pretty wood. But, if you're going to paint it and distress it, junky wood is not so bad. I also used 5 ft of 1x4 pine for the strips along the side of the seat.

The plan is another one from Knock off Wood, but I modified her dimensions to suit the bench location. Her bench was way bigger, and wider too. Oh, and it had semi circles at the base of the sides that I would've had on my bench too had someone (*coughcoughcaptaincough*) not decided to use my jigsaw as a reciprocating saw (advice: don't) and snapped the blade.

This little cutie is intended for the bathroom and will sit just below the window at the edge of the shower. I built extra cubbies underneath because, well, yes, I have a storage addiction. I just need to find some 11.5x6" baskets and I'm in business! I plan to paint it the same colour as the vanity doors (Metropolis grey).

It's comfy, too.

So, if you see 11"x6" baskets kicking around, let me know, o.k.? Colour isn't important because I'll just be spraying them white.

Thanks!

Girlie weekend

I invited some of the best girls in the world up for a relaxing weekend at the cottage, away from the demands of their kids. Unfortunately, only three could come, and they could only stay for a portion of the day instead of the whole weekend. )-: Drat.

In spite of the truncated nature of the weekend, we had a lovely relaxing time.

After a bit of a delayed start (battery post to follow later this week) to the day, they arrived at the dock in the new-improved much-speedier Damned boat. They had brought their scrapbooking laptops with them, but we never seemed to get around to the actual scrapping part of the day.

We sat on the dock and chatted. And we drank slushy drinks. And we got slushy drinks up our noses.

We sat on the porch and chatted. We ate. We ate banana monkey bars, and buttertarts, and pie, and home-made quacamole and blue corn chips. Burf.

I have difficulty sitting on my butt doing ... little... at the cottage, so while they sat and chitty chatted I worked on a little sawdust inducing project of my own.  At some point during the day I lost my cell phone. I still haven't found it. I suspect it's gone to the briny deep. Dangit.

We had a big dinner of the Captain's bbq'd ribs and garlic roasted potatoes (nom nom!) before we loaded up the girls to head back to the landing. Pity it had to be so short!

Back hall

A few quick photos today showing the progress in the back hall.

A coat of primer (please say hello to the Glad Man on his day off)..

and a coat of paint was all it took to spruce things up. If the wall colour looks familiar, that's because it's the same colour we used in the kids bunk-bed room.

We've also installed the new flooring. This is the best photo I have of it, unfortunately, which shows it covered with packing material from the flooring boxes. It looks a lot better than subfloor.

All that's left now:
- a coat of paint on the door
- cupboard doors installed and painted
- trim (baseboard and doors)

So.. ya.. .that's more than just a little bit, but it feels like next to nothing.

Clean = good.

The biggest cake I have ever iced

Are you sick of shower posts yet? Let me tell you how sick I am of shower construction! We can only work on it during weekends, and even then we do a step and wait a day, then do a step and wait a day. (sigh).

It.
Is.
Taking.
Forever.

Today, behold the biggest cake I've ever iced: the shower!

With the cementitious backer units installed the next step is to mud and tape the seams, much like installing drywall with a few key differences. One, the fibreglass tape is of hardier stock than your run-of-the-mill mesh tape. Two, rather than using joint compound, you use dry set mortar; the same stuff you use to stick your tiles on later.

Step one, apply sticky mesh tape. I found it doesn't grip the wall like drywall tape does, maybe because the CBU has an irregular surface so there is less area for the tape to stick to? Some books say to apply mortar, then tape, then mortar again. Others say to tape then mortar. And instructions vary based on whether you have an amended mix (i.e with latex or other additives).

In short: What you need to do is read the package instructions for your mortar product and act accordingly.

Here's what a taped up shower looks like. OOoooooo.

With the tape in place, it's time to whip up a bucket of baby poo. Or, if  you're not crazy about the bucket of poo, you can opt for mortar.

With a spackle knife and/or some sort of trowel, commence mashing mortar into the taped crevices. Mash mash mash.

I was trying really hard to make it fairly smooth, because I didn't want to have to work around rock hard nubbins of mortar at the next step. But guess what?! Mostly wasted effort! Once the mortar dries you can actually skim a spackle knife over it and lop off any stickyouty bits.

Slop, spread, smooth.
Slop, spread, smooth.

Next it was time to work on the curb. This was challenging. The concrete board along the edges was jaggedy and rough, and -due to a slight miscalculation - we had to join two pieces to adequately cover the length of the curb, so there were plenty of seams.

It was a lot like icing a cake.
Slop, spread, smooth.
It's forgiving stuff to work with and doesn't start to set up right away.

Here's what it looked like when I was all done.

Not shown: kitty cat foot prints in the curb mortar after Indy decides we've made him the best deluxe cat box ever and walks the length of the curb before hopping in. Garg!!!

At least the mortar was still soft enough to clean up the footyprints. The cat was less pleased about being stuffed into the sink to have the mortar washed of his feet, though.

My new favourite word

My new favourite word and/or insult is "cementitious"....

"Why, you cementitious lunk head!"

Seriously. Is that not awesome?

So the Captain began the installation of the cementitious backer units (CBU) - a.k.a concrete board - in the shower stall. Why did the captain do it without my help? Because they're frickin' heavy, that's why! Each board weighs a millionbazillion pounds. (Yes, I mirthfully engage in hyberbole, why do you ask?) In truth, each board weighs 33 lbs. I know this because the Despot's website told me so. What's unnerving is that each board is chockablock full of polystyrene beads (known to the world as styrofoam). Without those, the boards would easily weigh a millionbazillion pounds. Easily.

The big challenge with CBU is, in addition to its weight, that's it's cement! It's really hard to cut. We went through probably 10 utility knife blades scoring and snapping each board. Each one has a fibre mesh outer layer that reinforces the panel. You have to cut through this mesh before you can break the boards.

You can buy a carbide scoring tool,  for this but, well, we didn't.

Here, the captain measures and marks his cut line. I am so grateful for that pounded old level that Handy Dad donated to the lodge. Two out of three level bubbles are busted, but it makes a fantastic straight edge!

Score with the knife....
The captain gave up trying to score a straight line and just "winged" it. Wung it? Cut free-hand.

Then, pull the board up towards you and SNAP! It's worth mentioning that this stuff makes an awful mess. We had grit and styrofoam everywhere before we were through.

Measuring your cuts is very important; it's almost better to cut the board a little short than it is to cut it too long because it's near impossible to trim it down by a quarter of an inch once you've snapped it. The captain chewed away at one board with our tile nippers trying to shave it down to size. Lesson learned.

Once cut to the right size, it's time to hang it.

We picked up a kit at the Despot that included the fat-headed CBU screws and fibre-glass mesh tape that's meant for CBU (normal mesh tape won't cut it). What a good idea that was!

Don't these panels look heavy!?

Fast forward a couple of hours and the shower panels are installed! The hardest part of the install was measuring/marking/cutting the 4 holes for the shower head, faucet and controls. They recommend putting lipstick on these items and pressing the board into them to leave a mark. We didn't have any with us (lipstick? Cottage? Puhleez!) so I wedged my arm in behind the panels as the captain held them in place and marked the spots as best I could with a pencil.  He then drilled a series of holes with a masonry bit (don't use your normal drill bits for  this!) and then tapped out the centres with a hammer. The holes are a little jaggedy, but they do the trick.

If it looks like the floor is uneven in this photo, that's because it is: the shower floor is level, the curb (which follows the bathroom subfloor) is not.

Did you notice the upside down panel at the bottom? I wouldn't mention it to the captain. a) it doesn't matter, and b) he might call you a cementitious lunk head.

vapor barrier

Another shower post today, as we creep towards completion.

After the membrane (♫insane in the membrane♪) was installed and tacked in place, the next step was to hang the vapor barrier. For some reason, you can only buy massive rolls of vapor barrier plastic (in our case, it's 6 mil). Sooooo.... if you ever find yourself in need of miles of heavy-duty plastic, you know who to talk to, right?

Vapor barrier is dead easy to install. Hang it from the top of the 2x4 framing and staple away.

Cachunk

Cachunk.

Cachunk.

Really the only trick to it is making sure that it overlaps the top of the membrane by at least 2".

Shower membrane

Last post I showed you the installation of the dry pack mortar bed.

This time I have the next step: the membrane.

Is it just me? I can't say "membrane" without singing ♫ Insane in the membrane* ♪
Just me? Hmm. Ok. then.

A shower pan membrane is a thick sheet (40 mil) of PVC rubber/plastic. You can buy it as a kit from the depot, and I strongly recommend that you do, if you're planning to build your own shower. More about that later.

The membrane is the main water barrier between your shower floor and the rest of your bathroom. You measure it to the size of your shower plus 6 inches up all sides - and possibly more for the part over your "curb" or shower lip. Measure twice. Membranes don't come cheap and you don't want to screw this part up. I won't lie to you: this part made me nervous.

Once you've measured and cut your membrane, you want to let it acclimate. We did this part on a really cold day (it was 18 C in the cottage) and I found myself wishing we had done it during a heat wave. The warmer temps would've allowed the creases in the membrane to soften so it would lie nice and flat.

With the membrane roughly in place, the next step was to prepare the drain. We carefully pulled back one side of the membrane to get a the drain insert. We didn't want the membrane to shift out of position at this point! I put the screws back into the drain insert and a bead of silicone caulk was applied around the top of it before the membrane was carefully lowered over top. With the membrane back in place I could feel for the screw heads, cut small Xs in the membrane, and pop the screw heads through.

Next I put the orange-y drain ring sandwich-y thinger dinger (yes, very technical terms here... try to keep up!) on the drain and twisted it slightly to catch the screws in the locking holes. I could now trace the drain opening onto the membrane with a pen. Off came the orange ring so I could trim the membrane drain hole to size with a utility knife, and then the drain ring was reinstalled and this time the screws were tightened.

With the drain in and the screws tightened, the next step was to tack down the membrane onto the walls. You want to staple it in place 1/2" from the top edge of the membrane. If you go any lower you might introduce a spot where water can escape. And that leads to mould. Ick. the paint can and inverted cereal bowl were to hold the membrane flat while the caulk set. I was worried the folds and creases would introduce leaky spots.

The corners are a little fiddly because you need to do "hospital" corners, which means the folded seam (no cutting!!!) of the membrane is a smooth line from the bottom of the corner to the top of the corner, with the folded flap neatly tucked away behind the membrane. Long staples are a good idea; like, 10 mm or longer or they don't hold the three thick layers of folded membrane in place.

The final step is to seal up the corners at the shower curb. This is where it pays to buy the pre-packaged shower liner kit from the Despot. The kit comes with two cute little dam corners that are already molded to the shape you need. You just need to apply some Oatey X-15 adhesive (use the right stuff!!) to bond the corners to the membrane, and you're done! The X-15 is narsty fume-y stuff though, so be sure to have really good ventilation when you're working if you don't have a respirator handy (really... who does?)

I don't have any photos of me gluing in the dams... probably because we were so spaced on fumes we forgot.

---

*It's a song by Cypress Hill.

Mortar bed

Does it feel like the bathroom renovation is creeping along? That's probably because it is. Slowly, slowly, inching towards completion. We've been at it for months, one weekend at a time.

We recently started the shower stall. The framing is in and the plumbing is installed.

Next up is the shower floor. Building a custom shower stall is a long and tedious process with many steps. Twenty six steps, actually, according to the Home Depot Plumbing book, with many broad, sweeping steps like "prepare the floor" or "tile the walls". Fully half of them are about water impermeability; redundant moisture barriers to keep the water in the shower.

The first step of the shower floor is to get the drain installed. Check.

Next you need to mark the shower stall for level. You want the floor to slope up as you move away from the drain so that water is funneled into the drain. Makes sense. It makes sense as long as you have a relatively level floor to begin with. The floor in the cottage bathroom happens to slope 2" over 4 ft. *face palm*

This is me marking "level" around the shower base; the point at which the shower floor is level with the drain. Please note: this was impossible on the left hand side because the wall was already above level on that side.

Once you mark level around  the shower, you go around again and mark the finished height of the mortar bed; this will be raised 1/4" from level for every 1 ft you travel from the drain. For my 4-ft.-wide shower with the drain in the centre, we travel 2 ft. from the drain to the wall, so I added half an inch. Now that I think about it, I only needed to add 3/8ths of an inch on the front-to-back slope, but I think I marked it for 1/2 an inch all around. I hope the shower-base police aren't reading this! That 1/8th of an inch will make a huge difference. Not.

So, once level is marked and you've added another mark for the finished height of the mortar bed, it's time to start making snow balls. Mortar balls. When you mix up your Sand Mix concrete (Sacrete Sand Mix), at this stage it's called a dry pack. There should only be enough moisture in the concrete to enable you to form balls of concrete in your hands - like a snowball. Pack-y, but not wet. Make sense?

Dump the dry pack into the shower base and commence screeding.

The captain's new favourite word: Screed. That and slake. Screed and Slake. Slake and Screed.

We needed to add one-and-a-half inches of concrete on the right-hand side just to bring the floor height up to the right level.

We had not factored this into our Sand Mix calculations, and we ran out on the left-hand side of the shower. Dangit. Please thank the captain for this charming picture of my butt. Thanks.

Fortunately this is the side of the shower that's already above level, so the overall grade still slopes down to the drain. We had hoped to put a 1/4" token layer of dry pack here, but there just wasn't enough. As best as I could, I tapered the dry pack off to nothing. It's pretty coarse stuff, though so it wasn't without a bit of a lip. *bites knuckle* I'm hoping I can bodge the rest at the next level.

Why, why, why isn't there a Despot on the island?