So we’ve officially started working on the downstairs full bathroom! And my oh my is it coming along beautifully. I am so excited to have our very own shower.
The weekend of New Year’s we started hanging drywall and even got a little bit of mudding and taping done! We had to finish mudding and taping the following weekend which put us another week behind schedule, but c’est la vie! I am currently just keeping my fingers crossed we might be able to have a completed shower by the end of January instead of my original hope for a fully completed bathroom.
It took up some extra time installing the cutout for the vanity medicine cabinet. For some reason I was originally thinking just a mirror would live there, until I remembered “oh yeah – storage!!” So important!! We don’t have nearly enough storage in the Cabin, so passing up the opportunity would have been down right foolish. However, thinking of it so late in the project definitely added some time. Oops.
So once we got everything taped and mudded, we went about getting the shower ready to tile. We installed our shower niches and then put in the concrete board. My goal (which I now realize was outrageously out of reach) was to prime and paint the walls over the week before work so the following weekend we could tile the shower, grout the tile, install the shower door and shower hardware, put flooring down, install the door, install trim and the blinds, and bring up the vanity and toilet for installation the weekend after. Guess what. Didn’t work out. Go figure. It’s laughable how immensely I can underestimate the time projects actually take.
Well, I did get all the priming and painting done in the mornings before work. It wasn’t the easiest to wake up extra early and start working, but it was rewarding. I went to work each morning already feeling accomplished and ready to take on the day. Then came the weekend, and let me tell you, looking at the progress I am really happy with it. However, looking at the goal list, it was pretty sadly under accomplished.
So what have I learned (for like the 237th time over the past two years of this endeavor)? Projects take so much more time and effort than what I usually have allotted. And more materials. And more experience. What can I say? I’m a work in progress. I’ll keep trying to estimate better and create more appropriate goals.
We were able to get the shower entirely tiled (minus the niches which we still have to figure out). And I am so happy with the choices of tile and layout we made. It looks amazing, and it will only look better and better as it gets wrapped up.
Next weekend I will hope for a completed shower, I will shoot for completed flooring, an installed door, and maybe even some trim. But I will be happy with whatever progress we are able to complete in the more limited time we are allocating to working on the Cabin. And that’s the best anyone can do, right?
Let’s finish off with some fuzzy goats. Because I just adore their thick winter coats. Though I am looking forward to Spring at this point 🙂
The Homestead Journey 