Day 2 and the bathroom guy is having trouble with the floor. It slopes a lot evidently and it’s obviously causing more problems that he’d originally envisaged. I’m beginning to wonder how the original estimate will actually shape up vs. the eventual bill!

Im also slightly worried, being abroad currently, about the above photo showing work thus far. Slightly concerned there’s nothing holding up the right hand side of the floor and the lathe and plaster wall. Will have to call the Bathroom guy tomorrow methinks..

T-Day. We’ve finally agreed on the silver travertine as the safest option. Shower and floor tiles to order. Back to the grey sandstone shop and a quick double check of their display before ordering. No. nonononono. We’ve gone off them. After weeks of deliberation, we’ve gone for the victorian effect in a split second decision. At least that’s one decision made!

The bathroom fitter is due on Monday and having broken down the quote into every conceivable stage, there’s an opportunity to save some money by taking the old suite and tiles out ourselves. How hard can it be?!

..very as it transpires. Especially in this crazy heat. Bath pannel off, disappointing to find that nobody had thought to fit shutoff valves to the bath taps. A job for later.

The sink came out without too much drama, but then it was onto the toilet. Cistern, relatively straight-forward, but the pan!?!? oh my!! I’d swear someone had superglued the screws in place. Drenched in sweat and after some choice words, I’d managed to get 3 of the 4 screws securing the pan in place out. 1 to go, but CRACK!! The pan was suddenly free. In 2 pieces. Oh well, there go my plans to ebay it, but at least it’s out!

Flowers now in the garden where they most definitely belong.

Removing the tiles with a hammer and bolster proved much more challenging than I’d envisaged. With tiny shards of razor sharp tile fragments flying all around and clumps of horse hair plaster coming off, I finally admitted defeat. Not an impossible task, but just one that was going to take much longer than I’d envisaged and not one that was really practical to complete in the heat. Looks like we’ll be paying the bathroom guy to clear the rest out afterall.

Whilst the tile debate rages, I had a sudden worry about how the shower area should be tiled. I seem to recall the guy who fitted our bathroom in the last house advised that tiles inside the shower should overlap the shower screen. But how would this work with our bevelled border tile we’d chosen?

Shower Tiles Beyond Shower Screen

As we had the world last remaining stocks of our wall and border tile an alternative option would be to continue them through the shower and just put a different tile above the border. But concerns about the border tile crept into my mind again as I wondered how the shower frame might work across the bevel.

A quick diagram was called for.. One to email to the tiler for some input I think. Surely other folk in the world must have had a bevelled tile and a shower screen?!

Whats the right way to solve this tiling conundrum?

Wow.. I’ve just realised how long it’s been since I updated the blog. To be fair, not a great deal of interest has been happening. But..

We’ve finally reached the end of our tether with the bathroom. Having spent an hour with bleach and a toothbrush trying to clean around the shower, I’ve admitted defeat. No matter what we do, we just can’t make the tired and badly fitted bathroom look clean. Replacing the bathroom was always on our list of things to do, but it’s time to reprioritise.

Choosing a white suite proved not to be too controversial, but why is choosing tiles such a nightmare. Or is it just me?

A whole weekend suddenly evaporated having wandered from tile shop to tile shop trying to find something we agreed on. “Too old fashioned”, “Too Modern”, “Too Spanish Hotel Bathroom”..

Perusing through bathroom catalogues, we’d found a ‘wood panel’ effect tile we both really liked.

Imperial Bathrooms Edwardian Wall Tile

Well, everything about it apart from the price. Fortunately, B&Q had something similar enough in our eyes, but less fortunately it was being discontinued and the local store didn’t quite have enough in. Beckton we were told had a good quantity in, so off we headed. Someone wasn’t smiling on us, as after we’d parked the car and began walking towards the store entrance, we passed another customer loading a full trolly load of the exact tiles we’d come for into their van. To cut a long story short, after visiting what felt like every B&Q in the south east, we finally had enough wall tiles to go around the room.

But that was only a small part of the problem solved. With the wall tiles sorted, we still needed someting for the floor and for the shower. Our local tile superstore had a natural sandstone brick tile in which was ideal for the walls, so we ordered those and thought it was just the floor to solve. As we were leaving the carpark, the store assistance came running over to tell us that sadly those tiles too had been discontinued and they couldn’t get enough in from local stock for us. Would we like a grey sandstone instead? It wasn’t our first choice, so we agreed to sleep on it whilst we thought further about the floor options.

Next door was a local branch of Topps who happened to have in a “Silver Travertine” that looked like it would ideally match the grey sandstone for the shower. Just as the decision should have been made, we noticed a traditional victorian effect tile which caught our eye. Having not been able to agree in the shop, we brought home a sample of each to argue over in the privacy of our own home.

So here we have the 2 options..

Bathroom Floor Tile Options

..the safe option (grey travertine) or the outside contender. Struggling to decide, we opened the debate up to the folk over at the period property forum.