Bathroom remodel shoot, day 2

Right after I had jumped out of the shower and had just started getting dressed around 7:10 this morning, the door bell rang. Shit, they were early! Or more accurately Eoin was early. That dude must roll out of bed at the crack of dawn daily because he was quite early last week, as well. I yelled "Just a minute!" at the door and quickly threw on the first clean pair of underwear. I'll just have to get my ass in gear a little earlier on Tuesday, the final day of shooting, and presumably when the bathroom will be what we at my workplace call "fully complete" (as opposed to partially complete, better known as incomplete).

I couldn't help have a little fun with the crew given the idea that popped into my head over the weekend after countless exasperating trips ALL THE WAY DOWNSTAIRS to go to the bathroom (I know, right?). What if I just decided I was sick of it and started shitting down the open toilet hole. I figured it might involve a funnel and you can see how much fun you can have with some chocolate whipped yogurt. I think one of the guys momentarily thought maybe one of the sheetrock guys had shit all over, and I just hadn't checked in to realize it (I don't know why he would have assumed it wasn't ME who shit all over, but then again, we only met a week ago).

The first thing we shot was Matt and I talking about the progress so far in the bathroom, including the sheetrock work the happened over the weekend. We then moved to the garage where the new whirlpool tub and fancy surround that came with it were laid out, and talked about how whirlpooly and fancy they are (but seriously, they're pretty friggin' sweet). And what comes after talking about the new tub and surround? Why, installing them of course. Fortunately the new tub is made of a composite material and was a hell of a lot easier to carry in than it was to carry out the old cast iron tub. Or at least it should have been. As Matt and I carried in the tub, he made a momentary pivoting decision that resulted in the front, right corner of the tub skirt breaking right the hell off. Oops! I wasn't too concerned, even though there was no way we'd get the sponsor to donate another tub, not to mention not plowing forward would completely screw up the shoot schedule. I was confident someone would come up with a solution (and could totally see doing something like that myself, given my track record). And Matt redeemed himself with a pretty kick ass workaround, one which I will make you wait to see until the show has aired, unless you want come over to take a look when it's all done.

The bathtub incident made for great TV, at least for this show. They never make everything look completely easy and perfect, often work around mistakes and unexpected issues on camera, and usually end up having some fun with it. The tub was no exception. I used it as fodder for giving Matt on-camera shit for the rest of the day, and he gave back in kind using my injury from day one, constantly reminding me not to bleed all over whatever we were working on, cut myself anew, and so forth.

The rest of the day actually seemed to go by pretty quickly. We installed the surround for the tub, built a cabinet (no, really -- WE actually built a cabinet, and it looks pretty damn good), installed some very interesting tile on the wall, and started tiling the floor.

The floor tile also involves a pretty unique design, this one being composed of solid metal tiles. Thankfully they were donated by a sponsor because those fuckers are $66 per square foot! Holy whipped yogurt shit! I was pissed when Home Depot raised the price of the floor tile I wanted to use in my kitchen from $0.99 per square foot to $1.19. But trust me, when you finally see them, you'll understand why, because they are $66 per square foot worth of wicked.

Over tomorrow through Monday, Jim and some of his subcontractors will be returning to do the final coat of mud on the sheetrock and sand everything down, finish the floor tile, and do some other finishing details to prep for the last shoot day of Tuesday. That's when we'll install the vanity, sinks, faucets, the cabinet, and all of the final finishing touches. Unmerciful crap, this is going to kick ass!!