Rou Baffroom Adwentier, Pert Elebmuh

Whew! We finally got the shower surround caulked and grouted.

They always warn you in any major home improvement project that you need to keep your momentum or you risk losing your drive to finish the job. This is very very true, as both I and my friend Joe can attest.

Back when Joe was a wee lad living near Starkville, MS, his parents purchased some land near the Longview community and proceeded to build a house upon it. They got the framing, wiring, flooring and most of the drywalling finished and then moved into the place, thinking that they could finish the rest of what needed to be done better from within. Moving took a lot of energy out of them, so Joe's parents decided to take a small break in the building process. At last count that break has lasted nigh on 30 years. From all indications Joe will have to finish the project when he inherits the home following their passing, some time in the future.

That lesson in hand, we were determined not to lose our momentum on the bathroom. After we got the tile in place, we decided to give the room a week or so for it to completely set before we could caulk and grout and then start on the floor tile. That was about a month ago and the most we actually accomplished from our list of things to do was the caulking.

Finally, this past Sunday, the wife and I decided to just go ahead and do both the grouting and our taxes, the two major projects we'd been putting off. Turned out neither task was all that painful. Now that we've finished the grouting I realize that it was an easy enough job that I could have done it by myself a LOOOONG time ago. But being the under confident soul that I am when it comes to home improvement and doing the job right, I wanted the wife to be there too, if only to share the blame if things went south.

And, continuing to build momentum again, as of today we've also cemented down both of the floor boards in preparation for tiling, installed the tub faucet and shower head (including the hand-unit for the shower), installed the shower curtain and hung up the shampoo holder hangy dealy over have made the tub pretty much usable. We've even tested it out.

Now we just have the rest of the room to do, which will commence later this week and through the weekend with the floor tiling. And just to make things more challenging... we're laying the tiles at an angle! (Could we live more exciting lives?)