I have been doing a lot of house projects lately. Maybe too many. I don't think I've had much time to get into my workshop and do some woodworking. At least I can rest easy knowing that all the fascia and soffit boards are nice and new as well as the gutters!

Even though I haven't had much time to work on some new projects, I did manage to squeeze in enough time to make a nice maple and mahogany chessboard. I decided to make it into a box so that I can just easily store the pieces and clock inside it.

I'm not into turning, so I didn't make the chess pieces. That's not something I think I'd want to get myself into. I think if I was going to do it again though, I might dress it up with some inlay or maybe some decorative, but simple, carving around the edge. I'm using some embedded rare earth magnets as the means to keep the lid in place and right where I want it. Checkmate!

As promised, here's a few photos of the tile installation.  They funny thing about it, is that the amount of work to get to this point was quite considerable!  Since I was putting in a tile floor, the sub-floor needed to be very stiff so that it wouldn't flex and pop the tiles.  The larger the tile, the more important this is.  My tiles were ten inches square so they were definitely big enough to be concerned about it.

So what did I do for prepwork?  First, I had removed the old oak strip flooring to get to the sub-floor.  Once I could visually see it, I made sure it was structurally sound and didn't have any rot or other problems.  This bathroom is on the first floor and above a crawlspace so I ended up doing some crawling too.  I went in the crawlspace and inspected the joists.  They were spanning the entire distance and were two by eights (2x8).  That spanning distance for that dimension lumber was at the near maximum allowed so I had to fix that.

I ended up getting three two by twelves (2x12) that were sixteen feet long and glued and bolted them together to make a single large beam.  This beam was set in the middle of the joist run to reduce the span load and strengthen the floor.  This was one of the 6 ways to stiffen a bouncy floor as detailed in the Fine Homebuilding magazine.  I used custom made Simpson Strong-Tie joist hangers to attach it.

With that out of the way, I laid down some Durrock using thinset and screws to attach it.  Next, I laid out all the tiles and looked to see how they looked.  Since the Italian tiles are hand-made, the color glaze is slightly different for each one and I wanted to make sure it looked pleasing to the eye.

I numbered each tile with a piece of painters tape before I pulled them all back up.  I didn't want to lay them back down in the wrong order, since I spent some time rearranging them.  I put down the thinset for the tiles and quickly got them all put into place.  I left off the few I needed to cut for the toilet and pipes.

I used a piece of cardboard and made a template for the hole in the last tile so I could accurately measure it when I was in the shop cutting it.  The tiles were thick so cutting it took quite a while - and expensive enough I didn't want to break it!  Luckily, when I had measured out the bathroom, I had the perfect dimensions so that I didn't need to cut any of the side wall or end wall tiles!  That definitely sped up the tile installation!

I let the thinset dry for a few days before I came back and put down the grout.  As you can see in the picture above, I had the tile for the toilet cut because I really wanted that in place before doing the grouting.  I had a couple more holes to cut for the water supply lie for the toilet and the radiator on the opposite wall.  I used a tile / stone diamond hole saw to make those holes. 

I actually ended up replacing one of the tiles because the plumber had tried to cut the hole with a plain hole saw and ended  up cracking the tile.  After telling me the tile was too strong and it couldn't be cut without making bigger holes, I proceeded to do it properly and told him to let me know if there's any other holes to be made - as I didn't want to replace any more tiles that he would break.

I think the final result came out excellent.  Tile work isn't too hard, but you need to be patient and don't mind working on your knees!

So I really should have posted some pictures by now!  Trust me, I definitely would be hearing about it from my wife if I wasn't done with the bathroom project! 

Luckily, the rest of the bathroom project went smoothly.  I had laid the subway tiles on the Durrock for the shower enclosure easily enough without too many problems.  Perhaps my biggest mistake was miscalculating the number of tiles from the top lip of the tub to the bottom of the window.  That, combined with the slight slope of the tub, I ended up having a slightly larger gap between the tiles on one end.  This looked kinda poor and very noticeable before I grouted.  I  was pretty concerned how it would come out, but with the white grout instead of the dark gray of the Durrock, I couldn't tell at all!  Relief!

I used greenboard for the ceiling since it's a high moisture area and used V-groove wood boards for the walls.  The boards made for a more interesting wall than just drywall or plaster.  It was pretty fast and easy to installed too!

I lucked out on the floor tile too!  I was modified the length of the bathroom just before I framed, and that slight modification (2 inches) made a big difference.  I had used a cobalt blue Italian tile that was ten inches square.  With my slight modification, the only floor tiles I had to cut was the ones around the toilet flange.  I actually had to do the toilet tiles twice, as the plumber had broken the tiles trying to install the toilet, so I had to pull them all back out and lay them back in.  To my relief, he left the flange there, so I could do all the cutting and pre-drill all the holes so they wouldn't break any more.

The bathroom ended up turning out very nicely, if I do say so myself.  It was nice building it out when you have another full bath available -- there isn't quite the rush to finish if there wasn't one.  In addition, the location of the new bathroom was "off the beaten path" of everyday foot traffic, so the dust and tools didn't get in the way with day to day activities.

With the walls of the old closets removed, the framing could begin to form the layout and physical boundaries of the new bathroom.  It also meant that the design could be modified (easily) so we had to be certain about our plans.

Photo: Screws used for framing

I have a small compressor that's great for finish and brad nailing, but not framing.  I decided that it'd be cheaper and easier for my small project to use screws for the framing instead of renting a larger compressor and framing nail gun.  I had picked up a nice Bosch impact driver that did the trick -- it's light and plenty strong enough to whip through the project I had.

The framing was straightforward, the only delay was laying down some new oak flooring to patch in where there was plywood on the floor (hidden by our washer and dryer).  In addition to the framing, we put in a new window so there would be some natural light into the bathroom.  We didn't want a full size window because it'd be in the shower area and the water would destroy it pretty quickly.  We decided upon a vinyl window and I'd use some waterproof material to frame it in the tiled bath.

Photo: Starting to frame bathroom wall

The window went in quickly, as did the rest of the wall.  I put in insulation, plastic/waterproof layer and then finished with some felt paper.  I had to use some odd spacing to make sure there was stud walls where I need them, but those were in addition to the 16" OC walls I had.  I wanted to make sure I had something to nail into at the end of the tub as well as decent blocking for my sink!

Photo: Electrical for fan and sconce lights

Photo: Insulation on wall

I had also decided to add some sound-blocking insulation since the kid's playroom would be just opposite one of the walls.  This would keep things quiet and personal in the bathroom even if it wasn't really critical or necessary.

The electrical was pretty straightforward.  I had put in a fan at the end of tub so I made sure it was UL approved for a wet location -- which it was, as long as it was on a GFCI circuit.  I also made sure the GFCI outlet was on a different circuit breaker than the lights in the bath per code.

With the walls in place and some insulation on them, I could really see the shape of the bath and get a feel of the space.  The plumber came in and put in the tub and roughed in the other plumbing.  Things were really moving along!