The Great Bathroom Remo: Phase I -Teardown

This project has been on the radar for a couple of years now.  We have lived in this wonderful house for almost 20 years.  Every other room has been fussed over but for some reason the guest bath has been overlooked.  It wasn't bad, just tired.  This year I said "yes" so it's on its way Plus I really wanted to go up to San Miguel de Allende and needing new tiles was the best excuse!

The bathroom as it originally looked.  Not bad, but not great, either!

It has been almost impossible to find a contractor or worker who is not up to his (and yes, they are all males) eyeballs in work.  Two reasons:  lots of new construction in this little village AND houses built in the last 10 years are now needing repairs.  This is a very unforgiving climate.  But we finally got a commitment from Everaerdo (Eve) to at least start on our "needs repair" list at the top of which wis the downstairs bath.  He began the demo a week later that he planned but as long as it's done before we leave on May 1 I'm okay with that.  The rest (and there's al lot; as I said, we've been here almost 20 years and the house was 10+ when we bought it) he will work on during the summer when the pace slows.

Eve and his mozo  Luis showed up last week, sledge hammer in hand, ready to do some serious damage.  Here's what it looked like after the first day.

The first problem of the day was the ceiling;  it appeared that there was a leak coming from the upstairs bathroom above.  My fear was that the floor in our shower would have to be ripped up for repair but a quick check revealed that a strategic application of silicone sealant would take care of the problem  Crisis averted.

At the end of the day the walls had been stripped of all tiles, the basin and its built-on surround hds been removed, the shower floor taken up, the medicine cabinet carefully taken down, vanity doors off, and it was a  frightful mess.  But sweet, shy Luis took up his broom and dust pan and tidied up as best he could, and left for the day, stopping to say  adios before heading home.  (One of the nicest things Eve learned while working for Jaime is that you ALWAYS  greet clients formally when you arrive and when you leave whether it's in the morning or  comiida.    Nice touch.

More of the same the next day.

Then it was time to start filling up all the holes they had knocked in the walls. They tap-tap-tapped along all the walls to find any pockets of loose cement or disintegrated bricks or weak spots.  Found a couple and prepped the wall for repairs.

First he built this little scaffolding in the shower

This is the sort of thing they were tapping for,  The original bricks just disintegrated with age.  The whole wall has to be removed if such damage is widespread.  Fortunately is was relatively minor and can all be filled in with cement.

Another god-awful mess but all the holes are taken care of and he's ready to rebuild the top of the vanity for its new bowl and the walls for their new tiles.

Stippling

With his trusty hammer and a chisel Luis attacked the walls and prepped them for the pegamento for the tiles.   Speaking of that, we went to Tecoman and loaded up the car with bags of stuff for the walls.  Cement, adhesive, and something called marmolina that I know is not for slathering on scones but I don't know its purpose. All I know is that it took two burley men to get it out of the car an into the garage.

The vanitity now has a new top ready for the sink a tiles and the shower for its new shelf to hold soap, shampoo bottles, etc.  The rest of the room is ready for wall tiles and some snazzy color spots.

The shelf will fit nicely between the wall and the glass blocks we will have in lieu of a shower curtain. It will be covered in yellow tile.

That about does it for Phase 1.  The next step is getting the tile design finalized with Eve , I think tomorrow.  I have been plagued by the idea that I do not have enough tiles for the job; 360 tile is not enough???  But this morning I re-counted  the number I need to make it work and I think I will have 2 tiles  left over!  That's if there are no breakages.