Master Bathroom Update & How to Tile a Bathtub Backsplash Part I

Hello friends!!  Let me just address the obvious first.....yep....that's right....I'm still alive....LOL!!  Ok....so I've only been off the grid for a couple of days.....but....seriously.....it seems like a lot longer!! 

I SO miss chatting with you guys when life get's crazy and I can't post for a couple of days.....

I think I mentioned last week that my baby girl was sick....and boy was she ever....she ran 102+ fever for 5 days....it was awful!!  SO.....I basically didn't do anything for those 5 days but take care of her.....and although I hated that she was sick....I LOVED the snuggle time! 

Then this past weekend....my folks were in town....and they agreed to watch Kali, so that we could make some progress on our Master Bathroom makeover.....and we made some major progress!!  Yahoo!!

SO.....speaking of the Master Bath.....it is really coming along......one of the things that is now complete is the makeover of the bathtub backsplash.....and it looks awesome!!

I have to give the Hubs all the credit!!  Neither of us had ever tackled a tiling project before.....but he figured it all out and did an amazing job!!

SO....here is what the bathtub and backsplash looked like before we started.....

And here's a couple up close pics....

It was OK....but not great....and I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the backsplash is a creme color and the bathtub is white....it just looked weird.....and sort of boring....

SO.....we decided to jump off into the deep end and do a little demo and then some tile....oh boy.....here we go.....

So first the demo....

Yep....no turning back now :)  Even our bulldog, Drako, had to come and take a look.....

And soon we had this.....



As you can see....the wall was pretty torn up after we removed the panels.....but we expected that....and it didn't matter anyway, because the drywall needed to be replaced with a concrete (water resistant) board before the tiling could start.....

SO.....next we had to cut out the bad drywall....

And soon we had this.....



Pretty ugly....huh.....no worries....I promise.....this turns out well in the end.....  :)

Next we had to install the concrete (water resistant) board.....but first the Hubs decided to buiild in a little extra protection, so he stapled up some plastic sheets.....we weren't sure if this was necessary, but it couldn't hurt.....right?

And then the concrete board.....

So.....a couple notes on the concrete board.....

It is a bit difficult to work with....you can't really cut it like you do drywall....you actually have to score it and then break it....so it can be a bit difficult to get exactly the size that you need....

And you need to leave a small gap at the bottom....between the board and the bathtub.....which will later be filled in with caulk.....

The gap looked like this.....



And then you've got to apply a patch to cover the seam between the new concrete board and the existing drywall above.....and it looked like this.....

And here's another up close look......

And here's a big picture look......

Whew......ok....now to move on the the pretty stuff!!  YAY!!

BUT.....to keep this post from becoming like War and Peace.....I think I'll stop here for now.....but I promise.....a post with the pretty stuff is coming......probably tomorrow :)

Until next time.....

XOXO-
Kristal