Seal, Seal, Grout, then Seal Again...

Stone tile is known to last forever, look beautiful, and be low maintenance. That, however, does not include the INSTALL of said tile. This is especially true with a porous and fragile limestone like the travertine we installed. Thus, after we got all the tile in, including the piece that had to be re-done after it cracked, it was time to start the sealing process.

Okay, truth be told, we sealed the floor right away as we needed to be walking on it and the chances of it getting stained or otherwise blemished seemed high. The good thing about sealing is that it is fairly easy and quick. Then you let it dry for a day. Then you seal it again. I think we did two coats on all verticle surfaces and maybe three on any of the horizontal ones. And then it was time to grout.

Grouting, unlike sealing, is slow, tedious work. Dave did a lot of it in the evenings this past week (after doing the sealings) and finished up this weekend. The niches, being small with lots of crevices were especially time-consuming.

But now everything is grouted! And it looks pretty darn good:


So you'd think we're done now, wouldn't you? I mean, surely once the grout cures we could install the shower heads, etc., right? Well, no. The grout needs to be sealed, too!! And, heck, another coat (or two) on the limestone can't hurt, either! The grout takes a couple days to completely cure. Then we'll use a pH-balanced cleaner to clean everything and then let it all dry out for about a week. Finally, the sealer can be applied. By then, it outta be about Christmas.

So, what did I do while all this grouting was going on, you ask? Well, you wouldn't believe it, but there's more Ipe wood in our bathroom! So I was busy sanding and varnishing that. The floor of the shower will be the ipe planks. Here they are drying from the first coat of varnish. Naturally, several more sanding and staining cycles need to be done.


But everything is coming along. We also did some patching to the drywall and door frame and areas around the glass. When that is ready, we can paint it.

Things still needing to be done:

1. Hook up the drain to the tub! This is a big one because in my opinion, once the drain is in the tub, it is technically usable!
2. Heat. Heat would be nice. It's been cold. And now it's raining. We need to cut the holes in the bedroom and closet floor to install the heating vents (which we don't have yet) and hook everything up to the furnace. This will involve that fun "under the house" type work. Can you say HVAC?
3. Toilet. Once the floor and drywall is ready, we can start on the toilet install. Should be fun.
4. Sink. Yep, need one of those, too. I'm hoping the sink will be easy. This is because I know the vanity we are planning to build will not be easy. It'd be nice if one of the steps we do is easy. I can dream.
   
5. Towel bars - don't have any. I know it's shocking. We've had the medicine cabinets for half a year and the lighting fixtures for even longer. I have some in our current bathroom that I really, really like, but I cannot find any more like them. So... still need to figure that one, out.
   
6. Speakers and amplifier for the bedroom. This is necessary so we can try out the speakers in the shower, too!
   
7. Bed. We'll need to go shopping for a new mattress.
   
8. Closet. We have some leads on closet systems, but nothing picked out yet.
   

Okay, I'm sure there is more but those are the major items. Should be done by 2020 at this rate.