Soon after my last blog post I got a call from my friend Lindsay. (You know, the one with the great insights on Home Depot.) She started by congratulating us on getting our tiling down. She's been trying to motivate her husband to finish their bathroom too and has encountered a few obstacles along the way. Their most recent one was that they weren't able to start until they sourced a shower rod so that they could tile around its location.
Upon the words 'shower rod', everything seemed to go in slow motion. Not only had we not sourced a shower rod, we had totally forgotten to even plan for it as we completed the tiling. sh@$#&t!
While I would like to say that this was our first and only mistake, it is not. Luckily, after some searching around on the Internet, it looks like the problem can be easily solved with a tension-based rod.
That said, it seems as though making mistakes and figuring out how to fix - or at least hide - is part of the process. First off, I'll admit it. I make more mistakes then Brendon does. I'm the hare and Brendon is the tortoise. I get more done but then I spend the time trying to hide or fix my mistakes. Brendon takes WAY longer to do something but then he usually does it right.
The mistakes we've made so far are small but great pieces of learning. Sometimes fixing them involves doing it all again - like we did with the painting when we had to redo the entire room because we drywalled the window casing. (Note to self: don't paint before you figure out the door and window framing!)
Other times it nurtures our artistic skills. My art classes have come back to me full force. I have pulled out all my tiny detail brushes and have spent hours painting wood filler to look like the rest of the sills. I might have avoided this if only I had cut the sills just to size.
But my all time favourite solution to mistakes is construction glue. In fact this new tool has surpassed duct tape in the MacGyver hall of fame. Specifically PL 400 and Alex Plus. PL 400 is a serious glue that bonds everything from wood to metal to concrete. In our case it was our solution to keep our stairs from creaking and the main way we secured our sills. Alex Plus is perfect for filling in seems between two pieces of wood. In our case I used it to fill the join on our pony wall cap. It's paintable, water soluble and sandable too.
While more mistakes (at least for me) are in our future, sometimes it is as much fun to figure out how to fix the problem as doing it in the first place.
your shower rod issues are not a problem at all!!!!
ReplyDeleteall you need to do is this:
1) get a curved shower rod from your local big box store (gives you way more room in the shower and takes up no more space because it's above your head!
2) hold up your shower rod with your husband and find a height that works best for you (make sure to have at lease a shower liner chosen first when choosing a height to match or you will be really sorry)
3) make sure it's level!! and mark the holes with a grease pencil or a fine tip felt marker
4) get a drill bit designed for cutting tile.... at your local big box store they can point you in the right direction some drill bits are multi-use
5) slowly drill through your tile into the wall and then put your plastic wall anchors in and then as you are tightening the screws into the anchors leave a 1/4 gap. Get some clear kitchen and bath silicone and squeeze a dollop behind the mounting plate then tighten it all the way, then use your silicone again to seal the edges, you dont want moisture getting behind the mount in the hole and in your drywall.
6) let that set for 4 hours and you'll be golden!! no pump rods needed!!
hope this helps
Thank you so much for the advice!
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