It was, we’re pretty sure, the grab bar.
The minute I used the shower this morning—there went the leak.
We rip out several more feet of tile, and spent our day looking for something we hadn’t planned to deal with for another year: the Bathroom Color Scheme. We love our swimming pool blue wall paint with white trim. And I hate unmitigated white tile.
We went to Home Depot, which has a better selection of tile than Lowe’s, and brought back several samples of Porcelain Tile That Can Be Ordered, plus some samples of some glass tiles. We found one of the orderable tiles that is a possibility; and then some (shudder) plain white that lets you do an inset of the fashionable glass tiles—and they have a blue-green in our color that will neatly inset into a tile foursome, plus a bluegreen glass bead-border that would be something else. These blaze with brilliant sea-glass-green with an iridescent finish. And I like them. The white tiles are cheap—which means we could do this jewel-inset number often enough to be impressive; and we found a nice older guy among the staff who echoes what you guys have been telling us and is actually capable of selling us things that go together: he used to do this for a living.
So…we’re not 100% sure, but we are happy with either choice. The regular tile is easier to handle, and will not tend to sag slowly down the mastic (he gave us the neat trick of nailing a board across the substrate to prevent this and using a crossed chalkline (which I did know) to get it on the square)–so—we are closer to a fix than we were.
We just did not want to do this this month!
Better safe than……etc. etc. etc. ๐
WHAT IS GOING ON? While showering this morning I started poking at the area where the shower wall meets the base…..*major disintegration*. I’m just going to put some tiles around the base…seal it until we do bathroom renovation next year. Is there a Bad Water Genie loose in the world? ๐
oOOOOOO noooOOOOOez!
smartcat, bite your tongue!
On the Good side, I just got my new water-efficient LG washer/dryer combo installed, and am testing it out with a load of whites. So far, so good, but I still want to run the drain hose out the window and put a catchment under it. Since the new washer uses low-residue soap, what’s left should be fine for watering. On the Not-so-good side, I saw dampness around the wall where the water lines emerge; I’m hoping it’s only leftovers from removing the drippy hoses.
I have read several articles recently about soap and laundry, with the basic gist being “people use way too much, and for lightly soiled clothes, you may not need any”. Apparently just the agitation is sufficient for many loads. Just something to think about, especially if you are going to recycle the water.
I’ve been using 1/4 cup or less for a full load of laundry in my old machine; the new machine will need even less, maybe a couple of tablespoons. Nothing gets sudsed to death at my house; I’m too cheap ๐
I use a dye/perfume free detergent. I started using a lot less for each load than I used to when I switched to a super concentrate and read the label! ๐
During the summer the water goes into a barrel outside the window. The ‘soap’ is diluted by rinse water, but all it seems to do is kill the little bugs that chomp on my plants. I use an oxygen bleach when I need it, don’t know how a chlorine bleach would be but if it can sit a few days most of it should dissipate. ๐
This year we should not have a water problem but I still like to recycle water when I can. It’s better for my well and septic system. ๐