Set in stone

The first tile came off the wall on January 14th. We've come a long way since then. Maybe a little slower than one would hope, but nevertheless we are making BIG progress on the bathroom! I am so proud of Steve for doing every little thing himself with zero experience, but lots of patience, love, and determination! If you are wondering why it has been 6 months, and all we have to show for it is a tub, well here is how it works in this household. Steve has to learn every step of the process from scratch. He researches by reading books and watching youtube, and then he researches some more. He spends countless hours at Home Depot carefully choosing the materials, then has to take back those materials because he bought the wrong ones, then he goes back to HD to buy new materials. All of this makes him want to read again, watch another video to make sure, measure, measure, measure, and then take a couple of days off to recuperate from all of that planning. So, basically each step is a two week long process. This is OK by me, because as long as I have a functioning shower and toilet, I am fine. 

Two weeks ago we spent the weekend finally installing the bathtub. I feel like I have mentioned that we were installing the bathtub months ago, but it has been a lovely fixture in our living room while he installed plumbing, the new valve, some 2 x 4's, followed by lots and lots and lots of leveling and measuring, and testing the placement of the tub. We literally carried that tub into the bathroom at least 100 times over the past two months. I even bought some new gloves just for this exercise. Apparently, you have to set the tub in concrete to make it secure in place. (Know how they always tell you to lay in the bathtub during a tornado? This is why!) So, it's a huge deal to make sure to get it right. Removing concrete is not something we wanted to do!

So, finally two weeks ago we (he) were ready! Here is a picture of the sub floor prep. Steve marked out where the concrete was supposed to go.

And here is where the pipe on the tub has to go into the pipe in the floor. I was in charge of getting the two to go together once we brought the tub in. And I did it!

We got one of those big plastic party drink tubs to mix the concrete in. Good idea, Steve.

I couldn't snap any pictures of the process because it was a race against time. But, Steve splattered on the concrete into the marked area, and then we brought in the tub and gently set it into place. Then, I lined up the pipes and Steve stood in the tub so that it sank into the concrete nicely. And ta da! Our new tub is SET IN STONE! :)

Getting closer...!!