or something like that.......

anyway, for those who don't know me in 2006 we bought a 15 year old mobile home, with a ghastly master bath including the dreaded carpet sided octagon 'garden tub' and the ever popular vinyl wallpaper



so we hired some (I know now) idiots to remodel and install a stem wall and walk in shower, looked ok to start, but never drained correctly and with a mobile home in 70MPH winds you tend to get a bit of movement and tile grout pops out like crazy.



The tile floor that started out looking like this



after 4 years of seepage, grout falling out and trailer torque, we had something that looked like this



so we knew we had trouble, it was just a matter of "how bad?" we had hoped to knock down the stem wall and patch the wall, leaving the white tile in place and fully expecting to have to replace the floor, including the sub floor.

we had found a 'steam cabinet' online that was freestanding (allowing it to ride out the torque and had made a deal with the company to keep the steam generator (we didn't have a 220 circuit to spare anyway) but still function as a really cool shower, we ordered that and got it on it's way.

we started ripping out the stem wall and found trouble, so we kept going til we found this







Oh! Joy!

we were feeling a bit over our heads, but called on an old geezer with decades of experience to come take a look (he reminded us he couldn't do any work anymore but was glad to give us his expertise)

he talked it over with Mr. Ketchup and so we cleaned the mold, the wood was still sound although one floor joist needed a couple 2x4s on each side to bring it level again, we sealed the yuck with a couple heavy coats of varnish, relaid the subfloor with a vapor barrier and then new insulation and greenboard etc etc







Mr. K had to climb under the house, move both the drain and the water supply to have it ready to hook into the cabinet as well

then we laid the stone looking porcelain tile on both the floor (it was a 9x7 area) and decided to tile the old white formica counter on the vanity as well









then the counter looked so nice, I had to paint the nasty pressboard cabinet and I used the enamel i knew it needed for the heavy bathroom use.

whew! that was fun, now we have to build a 5 foot shower whose fit and finish left a bit to be desired, and of course one of the glass doors shattered in shipping and we had to wait for a replacement although we did hang a shower curtain for 3 weeks so at least we could move back into our shower (after just one catastrophic plumbing failure LOL)

I chose a warm, medium toned gray for the walls (to compliment the dark 'denim' in the master bedroom) and viola!! 6 weeks and about $5000 (including paying a galpal $700 to help us out) we have a new leak free master bath










anyway, so that's what I've been up to, how are you guys doing??