Tiling and Fitout - Part One

The tiling was done over a couple of days - and not by me! We got several quotes from tilers - strangely enough most of whom were extremely busy doing reno work for other people also in lock-down during the pandemic.

We wanted to use Gary - the tiler who did the tiling for our upstairs reno - unfortunately, he had just fallen down some stairs and injured his back. Strike one! Our next option was Danny - our neighbour from the house behind us, who came highly recommended as a tiler who did quality work. His quote was great and well within our budget but...he couldn't do the job for about 10 weeks! Strike two.

Not wishing for a third strike, we settled on a tiler who did work for the store where we bought the tiles. His work was OK, especially since we didn't have to do it! He worked with an apprentice and probably did the work in about one tenth the time it would have taken us.
The feature wall tiles in the shower enclosure (after we'd installed
the shower itself, the mixer, shelf and soap holder)

Once the tiling was done, we worked with the plumber to install the vanity. Of course, being a total perfectionist, I wasn't satisfied with the end result (out of level) and after he'd gone, I reinstalled the vanity, the glass top and the pop-up waste according to the manufacturer's specifications - as opposed to an old plumber's method of just using lashings of silicon to solve any problem!

Also had to modify the top drawer of the vanity as it was catching on the basin waste and not closing properly. All good now!

The glass topped vanity unit and floor tiles



Next came the toilet - unfortunately, the day before the plumber was supposed to install the toilet, he fell off a ladder and badly injured his ankle. He is sort of a mate so in order to get the toilet installed before family visited for the school holidays, he agreed to "talk me through" the installation of a back-to-wall toilet suite.

I had to pick him up from his house and bring him to our place but at least he was able to sort of do the job (while leaning on a walking stick). In reality, I did the lifting, cutting and fitting, and he did the adjustment of the cistern levels - something I'm not au fait with. At least it's in now, it works and it looks fantastic compared to the old 40-odd year old one.

The toilet suite in place - a bit different to the old one!

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