Hall Bath Phase 2 - What Goes Under Tile, etc

the rate that this bathroom remodel is going is slower than i allowed myself to believe when we started. but i think if i was realistic in my planning, i would have realized this is just how long it takes. when you are doing everything for the first time, and you want it to be perfect, and your life is already full time full. i am telling myself that we could now have it done a month from now.

problem is that we couldn't make up our minds about tile until a few weeks ago, and the floor tile was 4 weeks out, and the shower tile 6 weeks. 4 weeks sounded like a long time but it's actually how long we needed to get everything ready.

the tub went in first after spending a month airing out in the front yard (that's a thing, right?). we had our plumber put it in since the drum trap below needed to be replaced with a more efficient p-trap. we've done everything else though, one lesson i'm learning is that it's ok to do something over. this is a frustrating lesson to me but the second time i always get it right. the first time is more like a practice round sometimes.

one of the most time consuming things so far has been patching all the walls. there were dozens of holes and torn paper where the molding was glued on that needed to be repaired. each spot takes 3 rounds of compound and sanding and takes so long and is so dusty. saturday night i did the first round of paint on the ceiling and walls. this shines a light on spots that weren't repaired well enough, so i will still need to do one final patch round and painting round.


we have paid for other work to be done in our house but nobody cares about your house like you. that being said, i kind of wish we would have paid somebody to put in the walls and floors. they are not perfectly even and i am losing sleep about it. i wonder if the unevenness is only a big deal in my head and the thinset/tile combo will solve everything? or if i'm making a huge mistake and the whole bathroom is going to cave in. don't cave in.

it is nice to look back at the before pictures to remind myself how ugly it was.