Bath tub surround & toilet

The weekend wasn't AS productive as I was planning it to be. Mark worked on the tub and toilet a bit on Saturday (#1 from my last post); #2 and #3 didn't happen. At all. But, Mark has not had to work a lot this week, so he's been able to devote some time to our home projects.

Mark's been busy for about 2 days working on the master bath surround and we are now done...with the tiling...of the surround...only. So, yeah. We have more work to do, obviously. But this is a big step! We also installed our new toilet! (I see "we", but really, it's been all Mark.)

Mark brought me home this beauty on our anniversary (the Cliff was not included). No, this wasn't my present, but I was sure excited about it! It's a dual-flush toilet which uses much less water than traditional toilets and it was super reasonable because he got it from the distributor he uses for work.

{He fits perfectly inside it...and didn't want to leave.}

It's installed and is our only working toilet now!  It's great!  I would definitely recommend a dual-flush toilet to anyone looking to save water and save money.

Now for the tub surround...

It started out looking like this...

With just a little work, it became this...

Mark got the top tiled, the tub set in, plumbing all hooked up and our new faucet installed.  Looks pretty good, eh?! Especially with the very classy flannel sheet hanging in the window. Now that's what I call fancy!

Then, today when I got home from work, I discovered this...

{The black things poking out are screws...I think Mark is using them as spacers.}

{And here's a super close up.}

Mark has to let this set for a few days and then we'll grout it.  

About grouting...we went round and round trying to decide - sanded grout or non-sanded grout. Usually with smaller than 1/8" grout lines you use non-sanded grout, and with lines bigger than 1/8" you use sanded...but we've got a combination of grout line sizes. The grout lines aren't exactly equal because these tiles come on a 12"x12" mesh sheet. Mark decided to go with sanded grout.  We'll let you know how it turns out!

Tomorrow, we plan to take that flannel sheet window hanging down (sad, I know) and install our window frosting! Speaking of frosting your windows for privacy, check out these awesome options shown on decor8 - beautiful! Ours are just plain. Too bad, but it'll do the job.