Day 14 (Wednesday) - Flooring, primer

1. Matt had previously picked it up the Marmorette & let it come to room temperature at his house.  He dropped it off for installation.
2. Mario arrived to install the Marmorette flooring.  He spread something over the plywood & let it dry for about an hour.  Then he laid the flooring.  It's awesome!
3. Matt primed the walls with a no-VOC primer to prepare for tomorrow's painting.  He also dropped off the paint - again a no-VOC choice -- Rodda Horizon.  Jose, who's the painting expert, likes Rodda best.  I like the low/no VOC formulation options.
4. Matt also brought a couple of LED floods for the bathroom light fixture as a thank-you & apology for not finishing on Wed.  :)

Day 13 (Tuesday) - Texturing & some electrical

1. Joe Liberty, the "patch master", arrived in the morning.  
• He lightly textured the walls ("orange peel"). 
• He also textured the patch above the shower (where the soffit was removed) to match the rest of the ceiling.  It's needs a couple coats of primer to build it up & soften it so it totally matches, but it's already so close!  That's why Matt calls Joe the "patch master".
2. Somewhere along the line, Matt installed & wired the exhaust fan & shower light.
3. Matt delivered some bad news on the flooring.  I had wanted self-coved linoleum (also called flash-coved), which is kind of a lost art, and Matt's floor guy had said he could do it.  But the room is tiny and complex with lots of inside & outside corners, and Matt was concerned that it might not come out well, since Mario hadn't done self-coving in some years.  So he used Angie's List (lol - good to know I'm not the only one) and found one father-son team in Portland who could do it - in fact the only ones in Portland who could do it.  Problem is... they quoted $1500 for the job.  Way out of budget.
   We thought about it & decided to go with tile.  Matt said he could get tile base that matches the shower -- it's a good match with the floor and will blend in with the tile on the front of the shower curb.  It may not be quite as easy to clean as self-coved, but good enough.
4. In the afternoon, Luis arrived with and installed the glass door & surround.  I asked about care recommendations & he said: 
• don't use an ammonia-based glass cleaner because it hurts the metal trim
• apply RainX (the car windshield product) every 4 months to keep waterspots from forming. Wiping down the glass (what we do) works fine too. 

Mid-day, after texturing

Mid-day, after texturing

Orange peel texture

A day later, you can hardly see the transition

Luis bringing in the glass

Glass installed

Self- or flash-coving; guess we'll go with tile base instead

Day 12 (Monday) - Washing the walls

This was a short day.

1. Calixto, the drywall guy, prepared the walls by giving them an acid bath.  Not much to see, as afterwards the room was all sealed up.  :)

All sealed up

Self- or flash- coved floor.

Day 11 (Saturday) - Getting ready for texture & paint, electrical, floor

I'm not sure what all was done today:

1. I brought home some flooring samples & we decided to go with Parchment Beige.  There's none in Portland; the nearest is in Seattle.  Hopefully it will arrive here in time to stay on schedule for Wednesday completion, but it may not.
2. Everything that's not going to be painted has been carefully taped off & protected.  On the downside, however, we can't see the counter, tile or backsplash now to try to figure out paint color.
3. One of the switches seems to be in, as well as the can light for the shower.
4. Something's been applied to the floor & planning for the self-coving has been done.
5. The back patio is no longer full of equipment.  It's all been put away & the space cleaned up.

Something's been applied to the floor

Floor planning

Day 10 (Friday) - Grout, more electrical, wall patching

1. The double switch looks to be wired.  On the left (closer to the shower) will be a timer for the shower light & fan.  On the right (closer to the heater) will be a timer for the heater.
2. The shower and backsplash are grouted & it looks great
3. The half-wall & seam area next to the shower & various other wall spots have been patched.
4. Matt arrived with the Marmoleum mid-day.  It's supposed to acclimate awhile before installation.  Bad news, though --- it's the wrong color!  Mushroom instead of Parchment Beige.  We put the roll in the bathroom to see if maybe it would be ok, but it seems too dark.  :(  In the morning I'll go check out samples of Parchment Beige & Mushroom & bring them back to compare.  Assuming we still like Parchment Beige the best, Matt will get it reordered right away & try to get it here in time for Wed. install.
5. I've been researching toilets & stopped by Home Depot to looked at them.  I was hoping to actually sit on one ;) to see if "comfort height" really was comfortable, but it wasn't possible - the display was mounted high on a wall.  The Kohler Cimarron 1.6 gpf looks nice, gets pretty good reviews, & I think is the one Matt likes for the way the tank & toilet bolt together.  

Matt working on the switch.

Day 9 (Thursday) - Mosaic liner & backsplash, subfloor.

1. George installed the mosaic liner in the shower and tiled the counter backsplash with a combination of shower tile & mosaic.
2. The drywall was patched around the shower.
3. Another layer of 1/2" plywood subfloor was installed, covering all the patches.

George working on the backsplash installation.

Backsplash

Mosaic liner in the shower

Day 8 (Wednesday) - Tile, electrical, countertop & sink

1. This morning George brought sheets of the mosaic that will be used as an accent line in the shower and on the backsplash.  We determined how much to use each place.
• The mosaic sheets have a repeating pattern every 3 rows.
• The plan for the shower is 6 rows of mosaic.
• The plan for the backsplash is 3 rows of mosaic, with shower tile above and below that.
2. The shower tile is laid, including the shower cubby, with spacing left for the mosaic liner.
3. The shower floor tile is in.
4. The countertop arrived and was installed with the sink under Matt's supervision.  The installers made 2 dry-runs with a luan template to plan out how to navigate the corners & line things up before they brought the counter in.  The fumes from the adhesive (apparently the catalyst that hardens the epoxy) were dreadful, but relatively short-lived.
5. Preparations for the fan & switch install were done, e.g. mortising & running electrical cable and the fan was installed.
6. The guy who will fabricate the glass door & half-wall came and took measurements.

New fan mounted in ceiling

Matt and George