Porch Ceilings and Bathroom Floors

We wanted to get the tile down in all the bathrooms, laundry room and master bedroom closet before the temperatures started getting too cold for the adhesive.  Here we are spreading the adhesive for the Congolium Dura Ceramic Tile.  This adhesive goes on light blue and turns clear when it's ready for the tile.  The product we chose can be installed with or without grout.  We chose no grout so the 15" tiles will install without a space between them.  This is a very durable tile product and is extremely easy to install.

Before the adhesive is put down all the tile sections are laid down and pre-fit to the area being covered.  Then they are picked up and the adhesive is put down from the back of the room to the front.  When it's ready (in about an hour) you lay the tile from the front of the room to the rear.  Then it is rolled with a 100 lb. roller which can be rented from your home care center or almost any tool supply.

Here is the same room with almost all the tile in place.  Because this is a ceramic product it is not all that flexible so the floor needs to be pretty smooth and flat for a good quality installation.  We liked this product because it's a little over 1/8" thick and is very hard so it won't chip or crack easily.

Here is the half bath floor completely done.  Later this winter we will add base board and all the trim work to complete this room.

Because of the configuration of the master bath it's difficult to get an all encompassing picture.  Here you are looking from the bedroom through the small hallway into the bathroom.

This is the dual sink area of the master bath.  Neither of us are big "bathroom" people so we didn't see the need for an overly large master bath.  What we have is more than adequate for our needs.

This is the business end of the second floor bathroom.  The same tile was used in all bathrooms and even in the pantry.

With the tile work complete it was time to get back to work outside.  One of the last jobs before winter is to complete the front and back porch ceilings.  This is done with tongue and groove and is a daunting job.  We have a thousand square feet of porches and installing that much T&G above your head can be a real pain, both figuratively and realistically.

One of the first things we needed to do was install diagonals in each corner so we would have nailers for the T&G.  To add a little extra work it seems that our light scheme worked out so that there was an overhead light in pretty much the center of each corner.  We had some extra "blue" 2x6's laying around so we used them here so they could be easily seen for demonstration purposes.

With one section of the T&G installed you can easily see why the diagonal was necessary.

All of our electrical systems have already been inspected so we didn't have to call for an inspection before covering up all the outside light wiring.  Here you see one of our recessed lights.  These have a relatively small trim ring so we had to be careful when trimming the T&G around each light. The bulb is only temporary as spot light bulbs will be eventually installed.

This shot illustrates how we trimmed around each light.

Light with trim ring installed.  We have four of these on the back porch and 8 on the front.  This supplies plenty of light for outdoor entertaining.  The front porch lights will be tied in with driveway marker lights once we get to landscaping.

Here is the front porch with all the T&G installed.  We still have to install some trim pieces to cover the H-25 metal straps that are required by code in this area, but that work will only take about a half day.  We also have to complete the soffit venting on the front porch.  The back porch soffit vents are already finished.  Again this will be done by the end of next week.

This shot shows the master bedroom porch and the octagon window in the master bath.  The cut outs for this window were all done at the factory and it fit with less than an eighth of an inch to spare.

The "boss" took her turn with the nail gun while I did the cutting.  Most of the time it took both of us to install and nail the T&G mainly because we tried to use the longest boards possible so we would have fewer joints.

Here is the completed porch ceiling as viewed from the kitchen door.

This is another look at the front section.  This shot gives a better impression of the amount of work that was involved in this installation.  In our installation we had one (45/45) 90 degree corner and two (40/50) 90 degree corners.  This was caused by the difference in porch width.  The section across the front of the house is nearly 8 feet wide and the sections by the kitchen and master bedroom are only 6 feet wide.  These differences created the differences in the 90 degree corners adding to the complexity of the job.

Here is a picture of the back porch at night.  These are 40 watt spots and provide enough light for almost any entertaining.  Eventually there will be a hot tub at the far end of this porch.

And finally, this shot shows the front porch at night from the master bedroom side.

That's it for this month.  We are firmly in the "lots of work but not so much progress" mode now.  Next week we'll finish the soffit vents on the front porch, add the trim to hide the H-25 brackets and finish up a little log siding work around the rim joists under the master bathroom.  We will then be done outside till spring.  The next big project is to get the garage organized so we can get some work done out there.  We will be completing the electrical work in the garage and will be moving a lot of finish materials to better organize that area.  Then it's back inside for finish work.

Check back Soon