Construction on the basement bathroom has resumed. The channel for the plumbing has finally been extended, excavated and covered (for now) and we have moved on to building the frame surrounding the bathtub. The advantage to doing this ourselves is that we are free to create anything we want without having to pay an extra bazillion dollars for a custom design. The disadvantage is that I have to figure out all the math myself.

And you know me; the idea I came up with requires a LOT of math. I wasn’t about to let the opportunity for a one-of-a-kind bathroom just pass on by. A simple, three surface tub surround just would not do, even if I covered it in a hand-tiled mosaic of Venus on the Half Shell. Oh no. I wanted shelves and I wanted them to be sexy. Also, I love math and wasn’t scared of a little algebra. For the record, sexy shelving in the tub area requires twenty-four surfaces. Twenty-four surfaces that will be covered with four inch stone tile, some of which will be turned on the point. Is your head spinning yet? This is the kind of number crunching where you have so many things to keep track of that you have to add them up four times from every direction before they all finally agree and still you end up second guessing yourself. Usually about 30 minutes after anchoring a critical point in the frame. It’s turning out to be a lot more math than I had thought. It’s still enjoyable, but definitely a challenge. I am unaccustomed to having to pay such close attention to each piece the whole way through and it’s critical to do so or something gets left out once and the whole thing gets out of whack.

I did some more measuring after we stopped for the day and discovered that the frame at the head of the tub is a quarter of an inch off. Worse, fixing it looks like more work than cutting tiles to fit it the way it is, which means my sexy shelves will no longer be perfectly even. Worst of all was the discovery that the entire entry wall to the bathroom shifted so far during the months of downtime that the door will no longer close.

Captain Bitterpants will not sleep well tonight. I need a distraction.