We finished Phase One: Shower today. We learned a TON but are really happy with the results. Let me show you. 
Here is the bathroom pre-destruction. It is hard to get pictures of it because of its size, but you get the idea. Plain white tile in the shower with gross grout. Half carpet and half laminate. I am personally opposed to carpet in the bathroom and would rather use rugs to stand on for warmth. Also, lest you think we chose the lovely lavender color - we didn't. Just wanted to clear that up.
Here goes the destruction! I was so nervous about this because there was no going back after we ripped it out. Look at the nasty semi-rotting carpet pad underneath!
Here is the original flooring that was under two other layers. Wow.
Our poor shower. We actually ended up removing the drywall as well, but when we started the destruction phase we thought we needed to preserve it - you don't. Actually you shouldn't have regular drywall behind tile in a shower, it should be cement board. What can we say? We learned A TON on this project!
Now you can see the cement board starting to be put up. Scooter and his friend are doing a bit of plumbing work. They decided to raise the shower head a couple feet. And fix a small leak.
Our poor counter was probably so confused by the non-bathroomy items covering it.
Scooter laying the first tile.
An hour later he started working in the mosaic border.
We had help from three really great friends. We absolutely never could have done it without their support and help. Literally they spent hours and hours at our house this past week. We were really nervous to take on this project because it was our first big project that involved something that wasn't basically just painting. They helped us feel confident enough to do it.
This is Matt.
Vohn.
and Kade.
We even had Matt's wife, Reagan contributing.
Kade and his wonderful table tile saw.
We were so so lucky for some reason we had to make very very few cuts. We only had to cut about an inch off the bottom row and some notches for the plumbing. Amazing!
The last row and some difficult cuts.
Even the mud worked out perfectly. We used every last bit, but didn't have a ton extra.
Laying the last tile.
Phase One: Shower - Completed!
Next up? Phase Two: Floor
Here is the bathroom pre-destruction. It is hard to get pictures of it because of its size, but you get the idea. Plain white tile in the shower with gross grout. Half carpet and half laminate. I am personally opposed to carpet in the bathroom and would rather use rugs to stand on for warmth. Also, lest you think we chose the lovely lavender color - we didn't. Just wanted to clear that up.
Here goes the destruction! I was so nervous about this because there was no going back after we ripped it out. Look at the nasty semi-rotting carpet pad underneath!
Here is the original flooring that was under two other layers. Wow.
Our poor shower. We actually ended up removing the drywall as well, but when we started the destruction phase we thought we needed to preserve it - you don't. Actually you shouldn't have regular drywall behind tile in a shower, it should be cement board. What can we say? We learned A TON on this project!
Now you can see the cement board starting to be put up. Scooter and his friend are doing a bit of plumbing work. They decided to raise the shower head a couple feet. And fix a small leak.
Our poor counter was probably so confused by the non-bathroomy items covering it.
Scooter laying the first tile.
An hour later he started working in the mosaic border.We had help from three really great friends. We absolutely never could have done it without their support and help. Literally they spent hours and hours at our house this past week. We were really nervous to take on this project because it was our first big project that involved something that wasn't basically just painting. They helped us feel confident enough to do it.
This is Matt.
Vohn.
and Kade.
We even had Matt's wife, Reagan contributing.
Kade and his wonderful table tile saw.We were so so lucky for some reason we had to make very very few cuts. We only had to cut about an inch off the bottom row and some notches for the plumbing. Amazing!
The last row and some difficult cuts.
Even the mud worked out perfectly. We used every last bit, but didn't have a ton extra.
Laying the last tile.
Phase One: Shower - Completed!Next up? Phase Two: Floor
