Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Weekend as a Diary - or what did you do?

Weekends as a rule are a time to relax after a long working week. I tend unwind with a Saturday morning ride. Its now Autumn in Melbourne, a nice time to be here. The grass is growing with a lush greeness, and the leaves take on the colours of orange and light brown as they fall on the courtyard bricks of our back yard.

BUT, NO Saturday morning ride today. Sue is having the vanity and toilet delivered and I need to be home. Yesterday our Plumber arrived to work on the pipes and now its my turn. A weekend of flurry.

The plumber took out the toilet and the basin during the week so I had two days to get my bum into gear. I actually felt quite guilty not riding the bike this weekend.
The walls and floor require a coating of membrane that protects the base from moisture. When we had our renovations done over two decades ago, I discovered that the so called professionals took short cuts that now see the need for me to renovate the renovations. Not happy - when I see their short cuts.

He also cut the water flow within the bathroom so I could prepare for his next visit.
We are doing these upgrades for the future when we sell up,  but regardless,  our renovations will reflect a certain amount of integrity. After all, this is the house where we were married, raised two boys, celebrated many family occasions. It's a house that another family we hope will do the same.

So it was off to Bunnings to get the materials I required. On the list was fibreboard for the walls, paint on membrane to seal the walls before tiling and some other bits and pieces that depleted my wallet. No special treats this week for lunch.
Back to our weekend - it started with the membrane painting. The joins required a section of fibreglass webbing which was laid upon the first coat of membrane coat and then took a second coat to seal the joins. That took all of Saturday and part of Sunday.

All the corners have been 1st coated with a water proof membrane and a section of fibreglass webbing which is given another coating to seal the joints against moisture. Why didn't the professionals two decades ago do this when they did our renovations????
On Sunday afternoon, I'd finished the waterproof membrane base. The next step is to mark out the tile laying. We are using the same tiles that we laid in the family room and hallway the leads to the bathroom. The tiles need to convey a symmetry and so I laid out the pencil marks that would visually achieve this. At this stage I'm actually getting rather excited.

I finally completed the walls with the waterproofing membrane coating.
The next step was to mark out the tiles location. Now I'm not a square sort of person so I'm laying the tiles in a diamond shape - very Mediterranean, don't you think?
I do apologise for my poor photography but after all this work over the weekend, I'm passed it. More next weekend.
Now tell me - what did you do this weekend?

6 comments:

  1. Tiles on the diagonal sound rather nice. I'm impressed that you're doing much of the work yourself. My weekend - weeding and cutting grass yesterday. Watched a bit of F1 today.

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    1. Craig - I'm even impressed that I'm doing much of it myself as well. I'm a first timer Bathroom Renovator but Sue is doing all the research and bargain hunting so we make a great team.
      Use to stay up to watch F1 myself but these days its the springtime cycling classics and of course Le Tour.

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  2. It looks like a big job to tackle if you've not done anything like it before !! Well done !!

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    1. Jean - It might just end up like one of the many unfinished jobs we start. Well maybe not. My supervisor is looking over my shoulder.

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  3. Well done Leon - we are not surprised that you are doing most of the work yourself - we always knew you were an 'expert' with toilets !!!

    Love Carol & Mikee

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    1. Shall we keep the reason for your comment private - please!

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