...doing the bath redo "hokey pokey"...

it was an "interesting day"...

R was toughing it out with an injured shoulder...
[probably a rotator cuff tear...]
both G & J1[generals...] were here early...
I kept telling them I was OK with yesterday's "non" work day...
["stuff" happens...and for me..."ALWAYS for a reason..."]

so after they had laid out the carpentry & wall closure details...
G & J1 left R, who was soon joined by J2...
R was waiting on "sand" for the cement...and soon...
a guy showed-up with a load, fresh from HD...



here's the bath at the beginning of the day...



R laid down and cut his layer of plastic for the shower pan...



they took off the door, as they would be working on the wall behind it...



then they disconnected the toilet...
moving it into the LR...
which now had a grand total of 2 toilets...



R put up tar paper over the purple board...
then stapled chicken wire on the shower walls & bench...



J2 was insulating the toilet wall...



then closed the wall with purple board...



the bracing in the basin wall were secured...

and then the sand arrived...
so since all the wire was up in the shower...



they went outside to mix cement...



which came inside in big buckets...



to be poured on a board before being spread on the wall...



as it went up, I noticed that R didn't seem too pleased...



here you see the first coat, shortly after application...



here it is after "setting"...

notice the definite sagging above the end of the bench...
it shouldn't do that...



meanwhile J2 was closing the side wall...



taping and mudding the seams of the purple board...

R, on the other hand...
was NOT happy with the texture of the cement...
he kept working with it...
but finally gave up & told me...
that they had brought him the wrong texture of sand...

that he told the guy who delivered it that it was wrong...
but that guy was in a hurry & just left it...
since R didn't have a truck...
he couldn't go get more...
and the other guy wouldn't take it back...

later today, J1 went to HD & discovered...
that they didn't know there was a difference...
in the texture of sand between the sand used for cement...
and the sand used for plaster/stucco[which is much finer]...

needless to say, J1 got the correct, coarser sand for us for tomorrow...

but back here, R tried to "make do"...
working it over and over, hoping it would finally set up...
but no matter what he did...it just didn't work...



here you see it bulging...
it's so fine it doesn't absorb water...
so it doesn't "set up"...
and slides down the wall in places...



here you see how R scraped the top of all of it off...
tomorrow, he'll skim over it with the right stuff...



meanwhile, the tar paper went down on the floor...
as soon as all the boards were secured...
and the old lino scraped off...



they put the hardibacker on the toilet wall[over the purple board...]
and also covered the sink wall...
as well as half the floor...
[tile goes on the hardibacker over thin set...]



here's the upper sink wall with the med.cab. cutout left...



the old toilet & door got put back...



the walkway seems strangely empty...
with all of the purple board "up"...
as well as most of the hardibacker that had been stored there...
and, of course, the 2 toilets...



they left their tools behind...



usually they leave around 4...
today, what with the sand problem...
they stayed until 6 getting things buttoned up...

the "sand" problem wasn't R's fault...
he saw it right away, but tried to make it work...
[cement can be an "iffy" concoction...it might have worked...]

to his credit, when he saw that it was NOT working...
he threw in the towel, so it could be done properly...

this is reminding me of that Gilda Radner character...
on the old SNL show, Roseanne Rosanna Danna...
whose signature phrase was, "it's always something..."

stay tuned...