See the complete planned work schedule .

Aug. 9, 2005 -- Shower doors installed.

Aug. 6, 2005 -- Brian comes on the second Saturday in a row, and installs our handles and most of the rest of the accessories, including mount for the hand-held shower spray and toilet paper holders. The shower looks pretty cool now (and will be even better when the doors are installed). Orders for our faucets were delayed, but should be in within a few days.

Aug. 1, 2005 -- Tile grouted in half-bath, dumpster and port-a-potty removed from the front of our house. See week 10 photos. We're still waiting for sink faucets, bathtub faucet, shower doors and installation of half-bath toilet.

July 30, 2005 -- Brian comes by on a Saturday to install some accessories, such as glass shelves, towel rack and hooks.

July 29, 2005 -- Towel warmer moved to the right place. Tile work continues in the half bath, including the floor.

July 28, 2005 -- Tile work begins in the half bath.

July 27, 2005 -- Towel warmer installed, but in the wrong place. Oops. It'll be moved. More electric work done, including light fixtures in main bathroom and a light in the master closet. The control panel for the lights in the main bath is pretty cool. See week 9 photos.

July 26, 2005 -- Main bath floor is grouted, light is installed over the bathtub.

July 25, 2005 -- Tile floor installed in the main bathroom, vent light and fan installed in the half-bath.

July 22, 2005 -- A working shower at last! The shower head, hand-held shower spray and body jets were hooked up Friday afternoon. After eight weeks, we've got a shower in the house again. See photo.

July 21, 2005 -- Ceramic shelves installed and tile grouted in shower. See photos.

July 20, 2005 -- Corian counters and sinks are installed in both bathrooms; Cam finishes tiling the bathtub area and starts on another main bath wall.

July 18, 2005 -- Cam the tile installer arrives - with his cute and lovable dog Chili. Progress begins on tiling the tub area. I never know when looking at one square in the store how it will look on the wall, but we really like the way the tile looks. Hopefully a working shower is just a few days away! See Week 8 photos.

July 15, 2005 -- Light! The electrician comes and gets lights hooked up in both bathroom (although not the final fixtures), including lots of new switches and outlets. The switches are now inside the bathrooms, instead of on the outside walls. And the vent fans will have automatic timers.

July 12, 2005 -- The plastic dust screen and internal screen door by the dining room, separating the house in two, is gone. We've got new plastic on top of the carpet, and the house seems more livable. Although it would be even better with a shower....Brian said maybe the end of next week but no promises. This is the week not much is happening, because we had decided we'd wait for Cam the tile installer to be available.

July 11, 2005 -- We meet with Brian at our house after work to finalize design for the counter in the main bathroom. It's a tight space and I want maximum space between the toilet and counter top, so we keep the "cutout" the way it is on the plan instead of making the cutout swoopier. We also point out a few small problems we've noticed -- as is inevitable in a major project -- and are satisfied how Brian plans to take care of them.

As I said during our major kitchen project, we never expected a bit renovation to be problem-free. What's important is how the problems are dealt with and fixed. We were quite satisfied with problem-solving for the kitchen - which is a big reason we chose to use the Kitchen Center of Framingham again for our bathroom renovations.

Brian also says he'll send someone to the house to put down new plastic, get rid of the last dust protector barrier (in the dining room) and vacuum the place.

July 9, 2005 -- We pick out shelving and a soap dish for the bath/shower.

July 8, 2005 -- Lots more carpentry work was done today. The trimwork around doors, windows and some rooms was installed, and the medicine cabinets were put it. It's really starting to look nice! See photos.

July 7, 2005 -- The cabinets arrived! They'd just been delivered when I returned home from my walk before work, and workmen were still in the house doing installation at 6 pm. We now have a vanity and storage cabinet in the main bathroom, and smaller vanity in our half bath. See photos of the new cabinets at the bottom of the Week 6 photo page.

July 5, 2005 -- The plasterer returned, and finished up the walls and ceiling. The bathrooms are looking like rooms again. One drawback: Damp plaster on a steamy summer day is kind of interesting....Anyway, week 6 photos are now online.

July 1, 2005 -- Walls! We have the beginning of walls! Wallboard has been installed in both bathrooms. We now have some privacy when using the toilet. It also came back to me just how small the half-bath is in our bedroom -- it seemed a lot more spacious without the walls.... See week 5 photos.

Also today, we met with Brian at the Kitchen Center offices and picked out towel racks, toilet paper holders, etc. from a company called Gatco -- from their Tiara collection.

June 30, 2005 -- We decide to delay the project a week after Brian tells us that Cam, the tile man who did our kitchen, won't be available until the week of July 18. We could have used someone else - and we trusted that the alternate would have done good work - but Cam's a true craftsman who does outstanding work. He's worth the wait. ... and another week without a shower. Sigh.

June 28, 2005 -- Insulation! Exterior walls are now insulated (see photos), which helps keep the nearby bedrooms at a more moderate temperature. This week we've seen the hottest temperatures since 2002 -- which, incidentally, was the last year we did a major home renovation, the kitchen, and experienced the joys of living in a not fully insulated structure.

June 24, 2005 -- A lot of detailed plumbing work was done for the shower body jet spray system, which you can see here.

June 22, 2005 -- The bathtub is in the bathroom! It's not even installed, let alone working, but it's in there, giving us hope for the future....And there's been more plumbing work. See photos.

June 14, 2005 -- Big day: A working toilet is installed. Words cannot describe how happy we are not to have to use the outdoor port-a-potty anymore.

May 31, 2005 -- Demolition begins! Happily, we're out of the country at the time, but our friends Bev & Brian came by to take some photos for us.

April 9, 2005 -- We meet with interior designer Marlene at Tiles Plus in Framingham. We decide on floor and wall tile. We also stop at the Kitchen Center and pick door handles.

March 23, 2005 -- We meet with Brian to review project and sign that five-figure contract.

March 16, 2005 -- Meeting with Brian at the Kitchen Center office to see preliminary CAD drawings and schematic, to go over project details and estimate, and select cabinetry, shower system, toilets, bathtub and faucet.

December 29, 2004 -- We meet with Brian Forrestal from the Kitchen Center of Framingham at our house. We discuss the overall project goals and procedures; he takes measurements of the main bathroom and half-bath off the master bedroom. Brian was the project manager for our kitchen renovation in 2002. Since we were so happy with the way the kitchen turned out, we decided to use them again for the bathrooms.

Goals:

• March -- Make major selections, sign contract, schedule work, get preliminary design. We're also going to redo our bedroom closet and replace all the bedroom doors as part of this project.
• Late May or early June -- Work begins; we're without a shower and bathroom sink (although we'll have a lone toilet) for around seven weeks. Yikes!
• Late July -- Project is finished and we love our new bathrooms!