“Grouting is a serious shoulder workout.”
THIS is Season 6 of the Jeffrey Court Fall Renovation Challenge, where we will renovate our kid’s full bathroom… taking it from an outdated, carpeted, builder-grade bath to a functional, beautiful oasis where my boy-girl siblings can fight over counter space in style!
14 contestants – 1 grand prize winner – YOU get to choose!
Come behind the scenes with me on INSTAGRAM, where I will show you live video of the entire process. Then, hop over to the blog for a weekly breakdown of our progress. Lastly, head over to the Jeffrey Court Site and VOTE VOTE VOTE for our design along the way! The design that YOU – the voters – choose will win a grand prize of $5,000!
You have the chance to vote once a day EVERY day, from each internet-accessible device you own. Your cell phone, tablet and computer? Absolutely! And don’t worry… I’ll remind you 🙂
WEEK 6
RECAP
In week 1, we removed the vanity doors, took down the hardware, and demoed the shower. If you missed the before pictures or the design plan, you can find them HERE.
In week 2, we had the plumbing roughed in, removed the tub, and finished demoing the rest of the bathroom – mirror, countertop, and floors. You can find the week 2 blog HERE.
For a list of tools I like to have on hand during demo, head back to my WEEK 1 post. I have found several must-have bathroom reno tools that I will list when we are done with the project.
In week 3, we laid cement board on the floors, framed out the niche and built up the curb, installed the shower pan, put cement board up in the shower, and waterproofed the shower walls with Redgard. The tile was delivered (Yay!!!) and we purchased a tile saw.
In week 4, tiling began! And other than learning how to mix mortar and use the tile saw… that’s your recap of week 4. Tiling LOL
In week 5, I showed you my favorite tools and we had a tile vocabulary lesson. There was a lot of visible progress in the bathroom, with the countertop being installed and finishing tiling the shower walls.
This week, I have a to do list a mile long and I am just not sure I have time for it all. I decided to cut out building new cabinet doors and I will be refinishing the existing doors. We also had a hiccup with the shower doors. We had purchased pre-fab doors from Home Depot, but since my walls lean and are not plumb (the tolerance for out of plumb was only 3/8”), our only option would have been to order custom glass doors. Because of this, we decided that we will be using a shower curtain for now. This may end up being a blessing since my daughter is so young. The shower curtain will be more manageable for her, so maybe it was meant to be!
We covered a lot of ground this week, so I am going to touch on each section and will be sharing more detail over on Instagram.
TILING MOSAICS
I was fairly confident going into tiling the floor since I learned so much tiling the shower. But it turns out mosaics were much harder for me than the large format tile. It was hard to get enough thinset down without TOO much squishing up into the grout lines. I finally got the hang of it, but I definitely spent a good amount of time cleaning in between the tiles.
The hex tiles were the easiest to work with… the penny tiles on the shower floor and the herringbone in the niche were trickier. I am so glad that we decided on the charcoal grout to hide any imperfections. Big lesson learned… the smaller the tile, the more difficult to manage. You have a lot of control with the larger tiles. If you’re deciding what to use for your first time tiling, you might want to start with a larger tile or a field tile. The mosaics are beautiful, but they definitely gave me a run for my money.
The best decision I made on the mosaics was doing the layouts and making my cuts first. This made the tiling go a lot faster, which I was grateful for since we only had a few days left!
GROUT
I found mixing grout to be easier than mixing mortar for two reasons. One – because the bags are smaller, and they specify how much water to use. The mortar bag does have a ratio but it’s difficult to measure the powder and convert the water quantity. Two – the consistency is different, and it mixes up a lot more smoothly.
Mixing grout is similar to thinset… you mix for several minutes, let it sit for 5-10, and then mix it again before using. The grout was a little thinner than the thinset, although it dries out a lot faster. You are only supposed to mix as much grout as you can lay in about 30-40 minutes. After that, it becomes too dry to work with.
We used Prism grout in Platinum and Charcoal and I found their product extremely user friendly. Professional recommendation – wear gloves when working with charcoal grout. Or your hands will end up looking like this…
PAINTING THE CABINETS
As I mentioned before, I have used a sprayer in the past, but have never gotten the finish I wanted. I have had issues with coverage, spitting, clogging… you name it, I have dealt with it. But this sprayer. THIS SPRAYER. It was so user friendly and the finish on the cabinets came out beautifully! Even my dad was super impressed!
The Wagner SprayTech Flexio 3500 offers a smooth and consistent finish, with super easy clean up. I used the detail finish nozzle on the cabinet doors and they just turned out perfectly.
I started with a bonding primer because my doors had a slick finish on them and despite sanding, the paint was still scratching off. Once we had two coats of that on the doors, I was able to spray the latex paint and had no issues with it sticking.
Also, I did end up thinning my paint, mainly because I was nervous since we are on a deadline, but this gun has the power to spray materials straight from the can so I am excited to try that on my next project.
Another great Wagner product I already had is the Studio Spray Tent. If you’re like me and don’t have a designated space inside to spray, this tent is perfect for keeping overspray away from your house AND protecting your work from things falling in it.
SHOWER SYSTEM
I have to give a shout out to my dad who helped me not only with the tiling, but helped me get all the plumbing hooked up! Drilling through the tile was nerve racking but we did it and it looks beautiful!
MY TEAM
I can’t give a shout out to my dad without mentioning my mom too. She took over a lot of the painting so that I could focus on other things. She gave all the trim and the bathroom walls a fresh coat of paint and helped with touch ups along the way. She also ran multiple errands and did many store pick ups for me! There’s no telling how much time she saved me in the end!
Last but not least, my husband. He not only works so hard so that we could make this renovation happen, there were many nights that he singlehandedly wrangled, bathed, fed and played with our kids so that I could work work work. I love you babe, I couldn’t have done this without you.
THE BIG REVEAL
Here she is! Honestly, as hard as this was, I am SO proud of the outcome. I am a perfectionist, and I know it’s not perfect, but for my first tile job, I think I did ok 😊 My son loves it and that’s what matters! I would love to know what you guys think!
FAVORITES ROUND UP
I want to share my favorite must-have products for this renovation. I did end up getting a lot of new tools but several definitely stuck out as can’t-live-withouts.
- Frogtape – I did use some of the classic green tape, but the MVP for this project was the Frogtape for delicate surfaces. Being on a timeline, I was often painting one day and needing to tape the next, so this tape was AMAZING and did no damage to any of my freshly painted surfaces.
- Wagner Flexio 3500 – I will be completely honest and say that in all my years of painting furniture, I haven’t ever really found a sprayer I loved. But this sprayer changed the game. I used my Wagner Spray Tent and it made painting my cabinet doors unbelievably easy.
- Bosch Laser Level – from lining up the tiles, to drilling for the fixtures, to hanging hardware, this is my new favorite tool
- Chisel Scraper – I have chisels and I have scrapers, but I reached for this during almost every step of the renovation
- Color Match Silicone – In the tile section, they have a silicone sealant that matches the Prism grout colors and this was perfect for all the corner joints in the shower that require caulk. It matches the grout perfectly and really ties everything together.
Thank you SO much for being here and following along! I am so grateful that I got this opportunity. As with any DIY project, my sanity was put to the test and my limits were pushed. But I AM so proud of what I accomplished and all the new skills I learned.
In addition to tiling, I removed and installed plumbing, replaced a light fixture, learned to use a paint sprayer, and took down and rehung a door and frame. I feel like I have so much new knowledge, I can’t even cover it in a few blog posts.
If you have any questions about tiling, painting, or anything related to this project, please feel free to email me or reach out to me on Instagram. I love talking DIY with other creators and am happy to share everything I learned over this six weeks!
Don’t forget to follow along on INSTAGRAM for behind the scenes video and DIY tips! And you can vote DAILY* at Jeffrey Court’s Renovation Challenge page HERE!
*Voting is accepted once a day per voter and resets every 24-hours. Voting closes November 14, 2021 at 11:59 pm EST.