Master Bath Tile Complete!
Yes we are so excited to say that the tile in the master bath is done! I must admit that I didn't think we would get to the master bath for a few years, but we are getting there. When I say we, I mean Tor here because I haven't been helping much these days although I did help with this project a little bit.
Pictured here is Tor working on prepping for the heating element. We used the same floor heating system as we did in the living room.
This is a quick shot showing what it looks like as we walk into the space. There are two closets on the side (note that there is electricity in the room now) as you first walk in. Toilet room is next, followed by the laundry room. Straight ahead is the walk-on shower and the space to the left is where the vanity and tub will be.
Bjorn wanted to go to a movie with his brothers, but got roped into helping with the floor when he got to our house. They never made it to the movie. Here he is helping apply pressure to the waffle wire element. It is important that this is completely flat so that the tile has a nice surface to get set on. Tor rented this roller from Broadway Rental here in the Twin Cities.
Just another picture of the shower. The cool thing here is the drain at the end. No, Tor did not miss the orange element at the end. The entire floor in the shower is slanted towards the drain along the wall. Tor is really excited about this and spent a lot of time investigating it to get it right.
The tub isn't in the correct location exactly. It won't jet out into the hallway space at all, but for the sake of holding down the orange element it sat there for awhile. Now it is in the bedroom again.
Here is where my effort came in. See all the blue wire? I put all of it in place. It took me three times to get it to time out correctly at the end without any cold spots in the room. This is tricky business because you can't cut the wire and it all needs to be spaced a certain way. Oh by the way, I am seven months pregnant! Sitting on the hard waffle orange stuff, moving around, pushing the wire into place within the little tabs on the orange part was hard to do when I can't move very easily. I was glad to help out and Tor even said that he has never installed heating elements because I have done them all in the house. It is kind of fun to be able to say that.
Tor hated this part. The adhesive to get the blue waterproofing system in place was messy. He still has some on his lower back even though he did this part a few weeks ago. If you ever have to place this yourself, be sure to try to flatten out the blue paper before setting it in place. It kept rolling up which made it hard to work on the next piece. He was up until 4 AM one night trying to finish it before the tile guy was coming.
YES!! THESE THINGS ARE AWESOME. Also YES WE ACTUALLY HIRED SOMEONE TO DO SOMETHING IN OUR HOUSE! Ok so we have hired people before, but our avid readers know it is few and far between. Ok so back to the picture. These little things are levelers and help keep all the tile aligned while the thinset cures. Tor was very worried that the floor would turn out after the fiasco with our kitchen floor the first time we hired someone to install it. He may have been bugging the guy we hired this time a little too much, but the floor did turn out nice.
Another view of the floor in progress. This is amazing to see how perfect it was installed and that my perfectionist husband can feel at ease.
Alas! The finished shower. The fixtures still need to be put in, but otherwise it is complete!
This is the main space in the bathroom. The half wall and unfinished wall will have wood on them like we have in the living room. This was my idea so I am excited to see how it turns out.
A quick look into the laundry room and toilet room from the mail space. The heating thermostat is what is hanging from the wall. One thing worth pointing out in this picture is that we chose to go with tile as our trim work along the bottom. The top edge is a metal piece that gets tucked behind the tile with a nice sleek finish along the top.
Brin did a little photobombing here, but you get the idea. The point of this picture is to showcase the contrast between the tile walk in shower against the "gonna-be" wood wall. It is going to be pretty awesome when it is all finished!