Bathroom Chronicles, Vol. 4

This week has been going great. The Red Sox shut out the Angels 4-0 in Game 1 of the ALDS last night, AND I've been working in the bathroom all week. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't spend 8 hours a day at work! As of my last post, the bags of pellets were doing their thing and I was prepping things for the plumbers to come back. The floor sanding adventure went well, although it did take two trips to the rental center to get the right kind of sander. I originally rented a vibrating pad sander since I was terrified that a belt-type in my hands would gouge the floor. The problem with the pad type is that even with 20-grit paper, I would've been sanding the floor for about a week. It was the equivalent of trying to dig a ditch with a teaspoon. Given our limited time-frame, I broke down and rented the belt-sander. I was relieved to see that my fears were very much overblown. Don't get me wrong, you can gouge the floor if you're not careful, but they're easier to control than I thought. I had the entire floor sanded smooth in ~4 hours. Here's what the unfinished floor looks like now. You can see the before & after at the doorway transition.

The plumbers returned today to get the toilet and shower stuff installed. Well, I'm happy to report that this latest round of plumbing work went off without a hitch and we're now the proud owners of a working master shower and toilet! thank you...thank you very much... I even got the shower seat and trim pieces installed (see lovely blue painters tape in the photos, which is needed until the silicone sets up).

The plumbers will have to come back one last time to install valves on the hot & cold supply lines to the vanity. Unfortunately, the vanity we picked out has an enclosed back, which means that valves shouldn't be installed ahead of time unless you want to cut out huge holes in the back of the cabinet to let them through. Oh well, I'm not too troubled by that. After all, we have a toilet and shower again >;-D