Last night I sprayed the grout one last time with water.  Late in the evening I tried a small line back in a corner to make sure the sealer does not do anything weird.  Tonight when I get home from work I plan to change and then head down to clean all of the tile one last time.  I also have two or three areas I have to clean a little extra grout off of a corner and some woodwork.  After that I will vacum those areas and then wipe down everything a final time.

I will put the sealer into the aplicator bottle and then go over every grout line in the bathroom.  After I apply the sealer it will be just about the 10 minutes I have to let it sit.  I will then go back over to wipe any extra off the grout.  Later tonight I will go back down to spray the sealer over everything.  That will have to be done in sections since I have to be able to wipe any extra off of the grout and tile after 10 minutes.  Then on to the next section and I that will take an hour at least I would think.

It will be nice to have all of the grout sealed and ready to use.  Wed. I plan to put down the shoe molding and put up all of the accessories in the bathroom.  I can start to take measurements also so I can start making the cabinet for the back corner.  I do not know how fast I will get on that project.  I would think maybe this year or the latest of next year.

I have sprayed the floor 3 times with water.  The grout lines are looking pretty good.  I plan to spray water on it a few more times today and again in the morning tomorrow.  Hopefully that will be enough.  I will wait another day or so before I seal the grout.  I would think by wednesday evening I should be able to put the shoe molding down.  I still have to figure out how I am going to center the light above the sink in the bathroom but that is about it in the bathroom.

A few small items in the bathroom and it will be done.  A few small things to touch up in the main room and office.  Move a few items out of the main room.  That should do it.  We will be ready for carpet on the 13th no problem.

Got everything together last night and moved a few things around.  This morning about 9am I started mixing about 3/4’s of the 25 pound bag of grout.  Let it sit for a bit and then started grouting the tile in the bathroom.  It actually went pretty fast.  Messy and it takes longer to clean the tile up and it does to mix wait for the grout to setup and then apply the grout.  I have gone over the tile 3 times now with a sponge.  Tiles are looking pretty clean.  I will go over the tile one more time today and hopefully that will get the tile and grout lines close to perfect.  I will then over the next 2 or 3 days go over the tile once a day with the spong just to make sure all residue is gone.  Each day I plan to also spray the grout with water.  The directions say to do that for the first 48 to 72 hours.  After that I will seal the grout and the seal the tile and grout at the same time.  By the end of next week I will be able to put the shoe molding down and the floor in the bathroom will be finished.

Carpet is on the schedule to be made at the carpet mill by march 1st. Delievery should be march 6th. I have scheduled the installer for march 13th. That gives me plenty of time to grout the bathroom, seal the grout and get the mirror and toilet in.

I can think of a few things I need to get done before the carpet is installed. I want to have each room ready one by one. Hallway and stairs are ready. The night before i have to put the carpet and padding out of those areas. I do not want to do that before hand because taylor can get hurt on the tack strips.

I plan to touch up the last of the paint in the office this weekend and get the projector out of there. That room will be ready for carpet after that.

The main room I still have to move a few things out of and finish touching up the woodwork.

If time permits I plan to scrub the floors with water and then use the shop vac to get all the moisture up. If I do not get that completed no big deal.

I have not done much on the basement at all this week. Just been cleaning up and planning things. Trying to hold of on purchasing anything else until the carpet is in and we have that paid off. Hope to take a big chunk off of that next week and then pay the rest just before the credit card balance is due.

Tomorrow morning I plan to go down and clean up the tile one more time. Then mix up the grout and have at it. I hope it goes pretty fast. Will take my time at first just to make sure I get grout in all areas and it is supporting any corners that may need support due to thinset not supporting the total corner. Then after it is all in I will plan on baby siting it and making sure the grout turns out good. Try to clean up any extra grout on the tile or woodwork and then keep the grout lines looking good. Probably will have to go over the whole area at least 2 if not 4 times to get all grout off the tiles. Will let it sit for another week or so and then I will plan on sealing the grout and puting the shoe molding in.

After that is all finished odds are the carpet will be in and I just need to put the mirror up and toilet in.

Things are coming together nicely. I plan to look into selling my projector this weekend and empty the rest of the basement out and touch up the paint.

After that I just need to start hanging pictures and speakers and then I will wait till the carpet is in. I want to be able to move the tv and other electronics down soon after the carpet is in. Projector will probably be another month before that is in stalled and running.

Yesterday I took back the tile saw, some extra tiles, the grout and caulk I had picked out.  It is always better to have to much than not enough.  I had picked up an extra box of tiles just in case we needed it.  Didn’t need them at all.  I actually had two left from another box.  Good to have those just in case I need to replace a broken tile in the future.  After seeing the tile down jen and I decided that the darker grout looked better.  I took the light great grout and caulk back and got darker grout.  They did not have color matched caulk for this darker grey so I will probably end up using clear or white caulk for around the shower.

I walked on the tiles this morning and the are looking really good.  I will probably clean up the tiles and get everything ready for grout later tonight.  I probably will not grout until later this week or maybe even saturday.

Found the 48″ x 36″ mirror we want and the toilet we want.  Will probably pick that up after the carpet is in.  No reason to worry about that stuff right now.  I want to move the light and get the grout and shoe molding down first.  I have a few things to finish before the carpet goes in so I will try to get that finished in the next week to two weeks.  The carpet will be installed sometime after the 9th of march.

Time to get bids for the projector and get everything in order so I can get furniture into the room and the projector up and ready to use soon after the carpet is installed.

We started laying things out about 10:30 yesterday.  Started cutting tile about 11:30 and decided that my tile cutter was not working very good.  Decided to go pic up some pizza and go rent a tile saw.  Just got back from picking up a few things from home depot and returning the tile saw.  Cost a bit more than I was planning on spending.  Still much cheaper than having it done (like 230 dollars cheaper) and it made the job go much faster.  I had shawn over to help.  He was a master at the tile saw.  He has worked with that type of saw before.  He measured and cut and I mixed the thinset and layed tile.  Once we got moving it went very fast.  We finished the job about 4 or so and cleaned up.  Clean up took a bit.  We sat down to eat about 6pm.  My back was so sore.  After dinner we finally got around to what shawn really came over for.  Cutting a sheet of plywood I had at my house for about 2 years.  So a very long day but man the floor looks good.  I took back a lighter grey today and got a darker grey grout.  I will probably grout one night this week.  I would think I can do at least half of the bathroom one evening and the the other half the next day.  Or maybe I will just wait to do it next saturday.  After the grout is down I will put the shoe molding down and the bathroom floor will be ready for grout sealer.  I need to purchase the mirror and toilet and install and then move the light and that room will be ready to use.

Still need to find out when the carpet will be delivered so I can schedule the installer.  I will plan to clean the rooms out so the are all ready for the installer.  The night before he comes I will clear out the stairs.  That will mean taking the carpet up and pading and cleaning everything really good.

So close to being finished.

Last night I was finally able to finish up on the hallway/stairs. Everything has been touched up and painted a final coat. After the paint sets up for a day or so I will put up the hand railing for the stairs. All I have to do is remove the dog cage, carpet and padding before the installer comes out. Otherwise that area is all set for carpet and then it will be finished.

The main room I still have to touch up the white trim that I should have taped off before I painted the walls. As soon as I toucht that up I will have the main room finished. I just need to get everything out of that room so it is empty and ready for the installer. Depending on time this weekend I hope to start hanging pictures on the walls in the office and main room.

The office is pretty much finished. I want to touch up two areas that the tape took paint of the walls but that will take me 5 minutes to setup paint and then clean up.

I plan to layout and start tiling the bathroom tomorrow. I want to tile tomorrow and hopefully grout sunday night. Then the last few things I have to do in that room will be to purchase and hang a mirror over the sink, make a plate so I can move the light to center it over the since and purchase a toilet and install it. Just a few small items after the tile has been finished.

I sure hope this tiling goes smooth. I know it won’t be fast but I just want it to look good.

Today I started in the morning. Taped the trim off in the office and started to touch that edge up. Started to take the tape off and it was peeling the paint off the walls. I decided to wait on doing the rest of the areas. I did not paint the stairs and hallway either. I decided to relax this afternoon. I did clear a bunch of stuff out of the main room and put it in the utility room. Man the utility room is going to be very full after I put everything in there. I put all of the spearker jacks, outlet covers, data jack covers and light covers back up. I mounted the projector screen and started to clean the floors. That was about it. I will wait to paint another day or so.

I wanted to let some of the paint smell get out of the house before I put more paint on the walls. I still have a bit to go this week before I will feel good about having the main room and back room finished. At that point I will feel good about starting the bathroom.

It will all get done in good time. I will order the carpet tomorrow and that will set the pace as far as how fast I will have to work.