Drip drip drip

We were all set to start tiling, but got a call from our HOA president that there was a huge water leak in the garage below our bathroom. <Dramatic Music>

The next day was spent dealing with a plumber and the HOA to figure out that the unit above us had a leak that was dripping down to our floor and seeping below into the garage. In fact, you could hear a "drip drip drip" noise behind the wall of our bathroom.

Contractors came out and tore out an entire wall (behind the toilet) and installing these huge industrial dryers in the bathroom to dry out our wall/floor.

You can see some water damage in the wood flooring behind the wall, too. Now... we have no wall.

At least this means the HOA will pay for repainting the bathroom (plus the new wall)!

We finally begin tiling...

Tile Makeover

This is what I had been anxiously waiting for since we started tearing down the tiles... picking out new tiles! Easier said than done, though. There are just SO many options. We had to decide on a look first. Modern? Classic? Marble?

We went to a lot of different tile specialty shops and saw some really pretty tiles, but they were pretty pricey.

Then, we realized we were limited by the way we did our cement boards. They stick out a little over the wall.

So, we realized we couldn't get tiles that need to be flush with the surrounding wall. We needed a curved end tile, similar to the style we just tore down!

In the end, we ended up at Home Depot to get the white Dal tiles that had curved end tiles. But, we did change it up a bit by getting rectangular subway tiles instead of the square ones we just tore out. Here's a pic of the tiles we bought online...

And we got some pretty accent tiles, too!

I was deciding between green ones or blue ones and went with green. Relaxing.

We bought some tile spacers to make sure we left enough room for the grout between the tiles. We're all set to start tiling! Except... disaster strikes...

Cement Boards Up!

After putting up the greenboard, another waterproofing layer of cement board goes up.

Eric had to use special screws to get these cement boards in place.

Again, as with the greenboards, we had to cut these to the right size to make sure they fit properly. Surprisingly, just score and snap and they break off into pieces. It wasn't as easy as it was with the greenboard and a lot messier, but it wasn't all that difficult, except around the waterspouts.

We also made sure that there was a slight gap to prevent water from being absorbed up into the cement board from the tub layer.

Next time... tile selections!! Seriously, the best part of remodeling... picking your new look.