Since we decided to pay someone to install the siding, that means we have to cut out expenses elsewhere. We had been toying with the idea of having a professional do the shower tile, but that pretty much went out the window. I did a bunch of edumacatin' of myself on the subject of tiling and waterproofing showers, then got to work. The first thing to do was build the little diagonal footrest in the corner, and the shelf/niche next to the valve:
With the framing taken care of, it was time to drywall the enclosure. And nope, this isn't green board, or Durock, or anything like that... just regular drywall:
After the drywall, I glued in the floor drain (the drain plumbing was already under the floor from months ago), then mixed up a batch of deck mud and formed the sloping pan to the drain. Yep, that is a wheelbarrow there... I didn't have anything else to mix the mud in, so I hauled it upstairs:
After the mud pan was dry, I installed this funny-lookin' waterproof membrane called Kerdi over the pan and sheetrocked walls. The tile will later be set directly over the Kerdi- no backer board or mudding of the walls is needed. It's better than the old-school shower method because the entire shower is waterproof, and the mud pan doesn't get saturated with water... which means in traditional construction, the mud pan never really dries out, leading to more issues with mildew. So anyway, here is the Kerdi installed and with the pan partway filled with water for the flood test:
In the midst of all this, there was a little bit more framing-type stuff to do- one of the stuffs was to install the pocket door kit for the bathroom. It went in pretty easy, and I'm hopeful the door will work well once it's in place:
I also built the attic access door, and the doors for the under-stair access down next to the dining area (note also the insulation in this photo... it's been great with how much warmer the house stays now... should be even better once the drywall is up) :
So there was a long list of additional things to do prior to drywall, which are all pretty much done now; such as finishing installing the kitchen lighting, insulating the kitchen ceiling, finishing some framing in my closet upstairs, installing furring strips here and there to make sure the drywall comes out looking nice and flat, etc., etc. Pete's been over the last few nights to make sure we're ready for drywall this Thursday (still waiting for confirmation from the drywall folks though). One other thing I did was install a few runs of electrical conduit, both from under the house up to the second floor in a couple spots, and also from the attic down to an outlet box in the back bedroom- that way, wheneve the Cat 5E ethernet cable becomes obsolete (debatable whether is already is) we can just pull new cables through in an hour or two, rather than spending a whole weekend cutting out drywall and drilling through floors and other such crappy activities. Or, we could just use the wireless connection...
Oh yeah, and the siding... we're quite happy with it. Sure, you never quite get the attention to detail from a subcontractor as when you do it yourself, but it's just fine for the price we paid, and the best part is that it's done. It would've taken Pete and me probably two months to get this done, so it is very nice to know that it's one big thing we don't have to worry about. Here's a photo with the board and batten installed around the deck:
And here's a photo of the board and batten around the bottom of the house, with the lap siding almost complete on the east wall upper half:
I don't have any photos yet of the siding completely done, but I'll get some up soon.
One of the last few things left before drywall is to make sure all the studs plane evenly so that the drywall won't bulge out anywhere. Over the next couple nights we'll get all that done, again with the intent that the drywall guys will be in here this Thursday. I hadn't made any videos for a while, so here's a short little video of Pete planing one of the wall studs:
And that's basically it for now... I hope the next time I write it's to announce that the walls are finally closed up, and the upstairs is more like a real house. Then it'll be on to painting, then installing the doors, then tile and fixtures in the bathroom, then trim, then maybe flooring, followed by installing the electrical fixtures/switches/etc.... the list goes one, but we're chipping away at it at least.
