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Deuce Cities Henhouse

Basement Bathroom : Week 11


Welp, here we are, week 11. I’ve worked a few hours nearly every day trying to get to a point where I could call the tile installation officially complete. I cut the last tile yesterday afternoon and I immediately downed a bottle of champagne upon completion (I wish).

I am so happy to have made it to this point.

Tiling the floor has had it’s challenges. Thankfully the floor tile is rather large so it probably went much faster than if I had used a smaller sized tile. The whole process takes quite a bit of work. To install the cement tiles the manufacturer (clé tile) recommends adding thinset to the surface to be tiled, as well as back buttering the tile, but before back buttering you need to dip the tile in clean water for a few seconds and then wait a minute for the water to absorb into the tile as to not dilute the thinset. Lots of rules, huh? I would say it takes me somewhere around three or four minutes to install each tile, and double that for tiles that involve cuts. Now you can understand why in a weeks time I have only gotten this far. I tiled the floor in five separate segments, and if I had to do it all over again I would’ve tried to do only two or three. I usually only have a few hours here or there between dropping kids off at school and doing that other mom stuff that I am responsible for doing. Because I was tiling in small chunks, I began to notice that every time I came back to tiling, there would be something from the previous session that I wish I could’ve changed. Unfortch for me these suckers were not moving. A little tug here, and a little nudge there would’ve made all the difference, and would have left me with evenly spaced tiles that any obsessive compulsive type would appreesh. This isn’t an absolutely perfect tile job, there are a few larger than normal gaps between some of the tile, luckily I am pretty sure only me and the rest of the internet will know this little secret.

Anyways, you guys will have to forgive the visible dust and grime in the photos. I still need to clean up all the subway tile grout lines as well as all the loose thinset crumbles (that’s a thing), but I have no patience for that sort of busy work r n. I figured you’d appreciate a blog post sometime this century, and would do me a solid and look past the mess.


I wanted to share a pic of how this floor tile looks in natural light. Our basement bathroom is tucked under the staircase and there are no windows or day light in the space. It’s been tricky to photograph the true color of the floors in regular old tungsten-ish light. These tiles are a dark blue, and they look as matte and velvety in real life as they do in these pics. I am obsessed. Can you see it?


Cutting around that drain took me forever (not really, it took 2 hours though)! I finally realized that I could drop the saw into the tile to make the perfect cut, if only someone would’ve clued me in on that earlier.

So, not sure if there will be another weekly update or if I’ll have to hold out for the final reveal. Either way this is what my to-do list is looking like.

TO-DO
Grout the remaining subway tile
Clean up subway tile grout
Grout the floor
Caulk every nook and cranny
Paint the walls & ceiling white
Paint Door black
Install Baseboard
Install floating shelving in the “linen closet”
Paint Baseboard
Move toilet plumbing
Install Toilet
Install Hooks
Install Shower Curtain Track
Install marble shower curb
Make it look cool
20 comments
in Around the House, Basement, Bathroom
20 comments… add one
  • Mary January 26, 2017

    You have “install toilet” on your list twice. So you can remove one of them. And you can remove “make it look cool” because you already did!!! It looks amazing!
    There…now your list is smaller. Feel better?

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Ha! Oops, I guess I’m very excited to have the second bathroom (and the toilet) up and running again.

  • Emily May January 26, 2017

    This is seriously impressive—wow, wow, wow. There has to be a tremendous sense of accomplishment doing this all yourself! It’s looking awesome and I appreciate the to-do list, being a list lover myself. You got this!

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Thanks, Emily! It has been very very satisfying and it’s been a good opportunity to build on up my skill set – I can take on basic plumbing jobs now! To-Do Lists are life.

  • Deb January 26, 2017

    I’m loving all the materials you have chosen for the bathroom and your design….totally coveting it. One thought…what if you painted the inside door a bright shining color…glossy blue, deep purple, or canary yellow….I do love Black though!

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Hey Deb! I like the idea of painting the door an unexpected color, but I think that is what I was trying to do with the Blue floors. I know it is so hard to tell from the lighting in these pics, but they are BLUE! :)

  • Arli January 26, 2017

    Whoa! That is some serious tile work. It looks incredible!

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Thanks, Arli! It was a much bigger project than I anticipated, but so worth it!

  • Lauralou January 26, 2017

    It looks awesome!!! I love those dark floor tiles.

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Thanks Lauralou! I love the floors too! They are tonally so dark and rich, and I love the natural matte finish of the cement.

  • Oksana | FOXYOXIE.com January 27, 2017

    OH. MY. WORD.

    This looks incredible!!! I’m obsessing over every detail – and still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that you did this all by yourself. You go girl!

    I wanted to use the exact same tile in both of our bathroom renos but the husband was like…”Black? That’s weird.” So sad I listened to him – now I have white tile with white grout to keep clean, and let me tell you, it’s a full-time job.

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Thanks lady! I am feeling pretty good about how things are coming together and very proud that I’ve been able to pull it all off on my own. The tile is actually dark blue, but I love the look of large black hex too! I need to work on the editing these pics so that the tile reads as blue. Since there is not natural light in the bathroom it’s really hard to describe the floor in these images.

      Sorry to hear about your white grout, I just couldn’t with boys! ;)-

  • Anne January 28, 2017

    Holy smokes. I am loving this so much!! You’ve done an amazing job!

    • Scoops February 1, 2017

      Thanks Anne! I am very stoked to share the final product with you guys. Been working like mad on that list!

  • caitlin February 1, 2017

    i LOVE those floor tiles! and it’s so satisfying to sit here all lazy and watch your progress! (especially since I’m about a million years from having my own bathroom to work on…)
    what about finding an old door with glass in the future to let some of that nice light in?

  • Lindsay February 4, 2017

    Happy to see that you did the same cement tiles on the floor throughout the bathroom! I am planning to do the same (square cement tiles instead of hex) with my bathroom renovation but I’m a little worried about how the shower curb will look. I would love to see a picture when you get it done!

  • Katie @ Red House West February 16, 2017

    Hi! Just read your reveal post and it’s amaaaaaazing! You’ve got some serious DIY chops. Not sure if you mentioned it somewhere else, but I’m curious about what color grout you used for the blue floor tiles. Did you use a blue? A charcoal? A black? It looks seamless, and I’d love to know how you got that look!

    • Scoops February 16, 2017

      Hey Katie! I give This Old House all the credit for my chops ;) Sorry I forgot to mention the grout, it is non-sanded Charcoal by Polyblend. It’s the same color I used for the subway tile. It does look pretty seamless in photographs but IRL it reads as a dark gray – either way it works well with the blue hex!

  • Liz May 13, 2017

    It looks so great! Where did you buy your pendant lights?

  • Alaina October 28, 2018

    This is amazing! My goodness! Please tell me where you got this sink from? My husband is in love with it!

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