Basement bathroom, part one - WHY DOES TILING TAKE SO MUCH WORK?

So, the basement bathroom.  This was another of the moving day "easy" projects.  Here is the rundown of what we were going to do in there:

-remove carpet (yup, there was carpet in. the. bathroom)

This isn't the bathroom (obviously), 
but that's what the carpet looked like

-remove wallpaper (you didn't think there was a room that didn't have any did you? see above for the visual)
-install tile floor
-maybe get some new tile for the backsplash to update it
-maybe paint the cabinets some fun color, just because
-paint the room

We knew that we wanted to keep the vanity, sink, faucet, toilet and shower tile.  They were neutral enough that we could work around them and save some serious money.

Here are few moving day shots:

BEFORE:  The boys love the sink, so we kept it.
We weren't sure about the mexican tiles.

BEFORE:  Did we move into a hospital room?

There was a nice long break from school over the holidays, so there would be plenty of time to get this project and a few others in the basement done.  I think the naive optimism of 2 1/2 weeks off got the best of us.  Regardless, we dove right in.

I had removed the wallpaper right before Thanksgiving, thinking that I could put a quick coat of paint on the walls before we had guests for the holiday (being naive, it's a theme here).  Yeah.. that didn't get done.

So, Christmas Break!! we were ready to dive right in.  But here is how Christmas break goes around here.  

Days before Christmas:  John needs to finish shopping

Christmas:  Christmas!

The day after Christmas:  Sam's birthday

So we are left with starting most things on the 27th, no big deal right? - John doesn't go back to work until January 6th.  Well, this year Sam had a party on the 30th - in the basement - so we couldn't really tear up a floor and remove a toilet until after then, right?  

But between the 27th & the 31st (and bowl week) we could rip out the backsplash tile and the tile around the toilet.  So we did.  You may notice that those items weren't originally on the to do list for the room, but since we had time and couldn't tear up the floor we did them anyway.  Also, we had already bought some tile to replace the mexican tiles on the backsplash because they were very cool and we liked them.  

Tile removal, day one:

The wall tile around the toilet popped right off with minimal elbow grease and John worked on patching the walls to get ready for paint.  We determined that the floor tiles were going to take some serious work and possibly renting a rotary hammer (?) so we left that for the next day.  During this time I checked in and asked if there was something I could do to help.

Then, naively, he said this: "You did great popping the wall tiles off behind the toilet, do you mind taking a minute to get the ones off the backsplash?"

Did you know that 30 years ago, contractors in Nebraska took every available precaution when installing heavier, authentic mexican tiles on walls? As in EVERY bit of reinforcement that they thought was needed, they did.  

Proof:

It was a bit chippy...

Glue, mortar, wire mesh, oh my!!

That bit in the picture above was the part of the wall that we just cut out with a utility knife.  The tile underneath the mirror (which needed to be saved) and above the countertop tile (also, needed to be saved) was much more tricky.  2 hours into the backsplash removal, John left to go and buy some tool that he thought would work.  It did, we had to cut all of that wall out as well, but in the end the tile was gone and the walls patched and ready for the new! improved! wall tiles :)  

Part two (and possibly three, four, and five) to come.  Stay tuned.