house-bound

[gfrancie]

Today I canned blueberry spice jam. I think I am done canning jam for a few months. The current collection includes: strawberry, chocolate raspberry, raspberry and now the blueberry spice jam. Plus valencia orange marmalade and blood orange marmalade. I should think about canning more tomatoes and then in the Autumn I will make apple sauce or something.

Continuing on the house theme from the earlier post I have questions for people who might know something about the subject of potentially tiling a bathroom. Here is the situation. We noticed in the bathroom off of our bedroom that the caulking around the tub is beginning to crack/mildew beyond our control. Mr. Jenner was just going to remove the caulk. (let's giggle about the word caulk for a second since we are twelve.) Then he was going to re-caulk the area and call it good. But when he had a closer look we noticed that part of the dry-wall in one spot near the tub is crumbling away. The sheet-rock is fine so that isn't too much of a worry. But we have this fitted plastic siding around the tub and that is beginning to crack/warp and really that should be replaced. What started out as something simple is turning into something more vast. We are thinking that ripping out this bullshit siding and putting in tile might be the way to go. Is this a good idea? Is tile superior to bastard fitted siding? And if we did that we'd hire someone to do that. As a question for local folks, is there someone anyone would suggest to do this job? Any personal recs? I am going to peruse the list that my local neighborhood mom listserv as well.
The upside is that we can update the bathroom and make it pretty. Of course we still have to address the main bathroom at some point. As anyone who has ever been to our house can attest, that is one ooogly bathroom. I will be in there and sometimes I want to say out loud, "Somewhere a hotel room in 1977 Reno is missing its bathroom." My own private time-warp while examining my pores.

Comments

[genesisdiem.livejournal.com]

hubby says tile is more maintenance but siding will last longer left alone.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Hrm.
Decisions decisions.

[lisah.livejournal.com]

I consulted with Mr. Dusapin since he has done many a thing like this in the past. (sort of) He said that usually the plastic crap is glued to the drywall, so you may have to re-drywall the entire tub, then tile over it. The only thing with tile is that you have to make sure that it is well caulked at all times so the drywall behind it doesn't rot if water leaks in.
Does this even make sense? I'm tired and don't know whether I'm even putting together coherant sentences anymore.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

That makes some sense.
We figured that would be a reality.
We were also discussing if having it tiled was a better option when we go to sell the house later on.

[lisah.livejournal.com]

That is true, definitely something to think about. In my experience people do tend to like tile in the bathrooms more than the plastic bath surrounds, they just look nicer in general. You could always do the larger tiles, and mix it up with some smaller tiles in between, etc. There are just so many options with tile. I'd say just make sure you get someone that really knows what they are doing, and then just keep up on the maintenance of it!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I thought as much.
The house is very.... late 70s. I figure that the exterior isn't super sexy, someday the interior will be pretty swank and when we go to sell people will pee their pants and say, "I wanna live here."

[lisah.livejournal.com]

sorry for the second comment to your comment. You can also do something like marble, corian, or swanstone. Not plastic, but not as high maintenance as tile as there is less grout/caulking. Just a thought!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Is the marble/corian/swanstone option super 'spensive?

[lisah.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure actually. I know that corian isn't that expensive, and you can get the kind that looks like marble, so that may be an option. I'd price that out in addition to the tile and see what the difference is. It may end up that it is a wash since you will probably have to pay a bit more to have someone do the tile work. But when it comes down to it, you do what you think looks good! I know you will have one swank pad soon, no doubt in my mind!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I just did a bit of research, the downside to marble/natural stone is that it is porous and so there is the bother of getting the soap-scum out.
I am leaning toward the tile. It will cost more but if we find someone who is really kick-ass in terms of quality work, it should be worth it in the end. Of course it might mean stripping things back to the studs in the bathroom.

[lisah.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, but then you will have a brand new bathroom with no worry of mold/mildew! Plus it will look fantastic when you are done. You may not even want to leave your bathroom! Ok, so that's taking it a bit far isn't it? Good luck, I can't wait to hear what you decide to do!

[kitchenwitch.livejournal.com]

Did I ever ask you for your marmalade recipe? I have some oranges that I need to use up. Is your marmalade the sweet kind or is it more bitter? (I like it sweet.) Could you share your recipe?

lisah is right about the gluing. Assuming it was done correctly, it was glued to the wall. (In my previous house, it was not done correctly; it was glued to the studs, and was hollow and floppy and the caulk kept pulling away and I had to redo it multiple times. UGH.) Tile is beautiful and durable, but it's very expensive to have done due to the labor involved. The price difference between a tile surround and a solid one (ask for a fiberglass, not a plastic one, if you go that route - they're much sturdier) is at least a thousand dollars.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Mine is pretty sweet. The only bitterness would be the bit of peel but I dig that.

So it is a case of finding someone to do quality work if we go the tile route.

CAULK

[sahara-harp.livejournal.com]

I do not recall such a horrible guest bathroom. What I do recall is fancy fancy shampoo.

Re: CAULK

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I have a weakness for fancy fancy shampoo.
And CAULK!