Here’s what Jeremy and I did this weekend. We installed a tile floor in the master bath. When we first moved in, there was stained beige carpet in the bathroom that was so icky that I didn’t want to step on it. The walls had beige-and-blue print wallpaper, and the bathroom vanity was original to the (1964) house. It took several months to get the wallpaper off and repaint, but that’s as far as we got before summer plans got in the way. I’m very excited about our new tile, and about the prospect of having our own bathroom again.

We tore out the carpet in May, and underneath the carpet was a thin sheet of waterproofing plastic which had not quite been sufficient to keep the wood from getting wet on occasion. Under the plastic were thin vinyl tiles, which peeled up quite easily. There was some damage to the wood, but we figured that we’d make it worse by trying to rip out the rot, so we left it. We laid ‘hardibacker’ cement board on top of the plywood subfloor, using thinset and screws to hold it in place. We caulked around the tub (just to be sure) before laying more thinset, and then the tiles. It’s less than 60 square feet, but it took three hours because over half of the tiles had to be cut to fit.

Tomorrow I’ll remove the spacers and mix up the grout. I grouted our kitchen in the old house, which was maybe five times the size, and it only took a day, so I think this will go quickly too. Once the grout is cured (2-3 days, if I remember right) all we have to do is re-install the toilet and assemble the vanity and voila, a functioning bathroom.