School House Part 1 - Laundry Room, also Part 1

I'm calling this part one but there are things we have already done that I will post about later, so these posts won't necessarily be chronologically correct. I'm sure you can live with that, I know I can.

So this picture really doesn’t show how disgusting this room was. Plus I didn’t get a picture when the disgusting cupboards were still here. They have since been burned in a bonfire, that’s how bad they were!

We pulled off the wallboard, which was not gyproc but hardboard, so every nail head showed. But...what was hiding underneath? Ship lap! I thought I had struck gold!

I changed my plan from tiled walls to painted shiplap.

However! It was a mixed blessing because the shiplap was installed using big ardox nails. In case you don’t know what that is, they are the twisty nails that are NOT meant to come out. What a job!! See the wall on the left? That whole wall of shiplap needed to be removed so it can be insulated. I also removed a few boards (as carefully as possible) so that electrical can be done.

We both had to work on this wall because it was so physically demanding for my old body. We used a variety of tools to get this done. Then Johnny took over and removed the rotten bottom plate which he replaced with pressure treated wood, and a few studs that had been pretty cut up to make room for plumbing, which we removed. This room was originally a bathroom for the students.

So today was the beginning of tiling. I first had to scrape the whole floor to prep for tile.

After 3 hours of that I was ready to begin.

Where is my tiling partner (Budd) when I need him?!! I’ve only tiled by myself once, I usually cut the tile and be the gopher. He mixes the thinset, lays the tile, and cleans up. Yup, I’ve definitely been spoiled, until today.

But I got this much done, this is 5 hours of tiling by myself. I didn’t cut any tiles today so a couple of broken pieces were used for spacers and I'll cut tiles tomorrow to fit in those spots. That rectangle in the middle is where it’s sloped for the floor drain, so that will take some special care. I will continue tomorrow...if I can move!

If you're still here, thanks for reading!