Tina earned the title of “The Grout Queen” this week.

She started by grouting the base tiles around the floor of the guest bathroom.

Then she moved on to grouting all of the wall tiles in the guest bathroom.  I was really pleased how the grout hides all of the mistakes I made when laying the tile.

We are both really pleased with how it came out looking.

My primary focus this week was getting the wall tile up in the master bathroom.  I started by doing around the tub.

Like in the guest bath, we decided to put a trim line around the middle.  But this time we chose to use all glass tiles and they are quite a bit bigger than the glass tiles in guest bath.

These were a nightmare to install.  Like the mix of glass and granite in the guest bath, they need to be cut VERY carefully or the tiles shatter.  Plus, because they are all glass, they cannot be installed with the same thinset (mortar) as the ceramic.

The thinset for the glass is mixed with some kind of chemical, rather than water.  It is caustic as hell and burns any skin that it contacts.  Plus, it has a very short working time.  From the time I mixed it until when I had to have the tiles all set and the excess thinset cleaned up was only about 20 minutes.

So I had to make sure I had everything cut and fitted perfectly before I mixed the thinset.  I found cutting each piece and fitting it into place with blue tape worked about the best.

Once everything was exactly how I wanted it, I carefully took each piece down and made piles with everything in order.  Then I could mix the thinset, apply it and quickly set the tiles and clean up.

The chemical that is mixed with it also stinks to high Heaven.  It is the kind of smell that makes you nauseous for a day afterward.  All in all, it is a very unpleasant thing to work with.

But once that was all done and dried for an hour or so, I was able to move pretty quickly on the top half of the wall.

I was very proud of myself that I remembered to keep the tile pattern constant as I moved from the tile below the trim to the tiles above.

We let that dry for a day, then Tina grouted the tub.

The finished, grouted version really came out looking good.

Meanwhile, I continued tiling the shower in the master bath using the same crappy process of fitting the trim exactly before attempting to set any of it.  The shower also had the additional challenge of trying to not make too big of a mess on the finished floor.

But we got it done.

The shower actually went pretty quick once I got up above the trim.  I measured and cut the tiles, then Tina would mud them while I climbed the ladder and got into position to set them and clean up.  It was a physically brutal job, but it did go pretty quickly with the two of us.

We ran out of energy today to grout the shower.  So Tina will go over this coming Thursday to grout it.  I will be out of town all week on business.

Beyond that, we did a bunch of “busy work” this week. Tina finished some more mouldings and she got the last coat of varnish on the vanity top for the guest bath.  I got the island cabinet permanently positioned and glued in place in the kitchen.

Finally, I got the guest bathroom put back together and ready for the plumber to come back and finish it off.  (Yes – I know very well how to do basic plumbing.  No – I am not going to do it because I want the plumber to come back and hook up all of the propane anyway.  Since I absolutely HATE doing plumbing, that is a problem I am happy to solve with my checkbook.)

But I did reinstall the toilet so we are back to being a “two-flusher” household.

The next 2 weeks should be pretty exciting at M.T. Acres.  We will be getting a lot of work done and we will not be the ones doing it for a change!  Next week, the electrician is supposed to come out and get the kitchen wiring topped off as well as getting all of the data line connected.  (Do not ask me about the data lines!  It is a requirement by the county that I have the entire house wired with Coax and Cat-5 even though I will not ever use either of them!  GRRR!!!)

The following week, they are coming to install the countertops and the plumber will be out to finish his part.  After the plumber is done, all we will need to do is a get load of propane and we will have actual hot water!  WOO HOO!!!