I had hoped to have absolutely everything completed in readiness for tile laying the next week.

As it happened, it didn't turn out exactly as I expected.

The first job was to screed the last remaining quarter - this was uneventful and took me about three hours.

The next job was to work out the position of the hob for the shower screens. In theory I could have used the template I set up the other week - however - this was exactly square and it turns out that the bathroom is not.

The safest bet was to erect the shower, make all the sides parallel to the walls and then trace out the edges.

To avoid running the risk of losing the pencil marks I ran along them with a masonary angle grinder to leave some small grooves in the cement.

I temporarily placed tiles at ground level to allow for the displacement that will occur when the walls are tiled.

The first disappointment was that I forgot to bring the bag of mortar that I purchased during the week - so the hob will need to be laid next week.

I packed away the shower screen for the moment and then went on to the next job.

Due to lack of experience, I was assuming that after I laid the hob I would then add a sloping screed inside this to create the shower floor.

Rusty, at the local hardware store, pointed out that this would mean that I had a screed layer tapering from 20 mm down to 0 mm.

He said that this layer would most likely come off meaning the shower tiles would come up.

Turns out, what I should have done, is set up a local grade in the shower area when I first screeded the bathroom.

This was not a major problem as the screed is very soft.

I used a large angle grinder and a masonary disk to grind a local grade in to this area.

It turns out that this activity very quickly fills the room with clouds of inpenetrable white dust.

I had to pause about 5 times for 10 minutes to allow the dust to dissipate.

Fortunately I was wearing a good quality face mask to keep all that dust out of my lungs.

The major disappointment of the day is that I broke the toilet bowl that we bought last week.

Talking to Ian, I realised that in order to safely secure the toilet to the floor, I needed to remove the existing cement so that it could be fitted in the usual manner (almost a suction effect between a cement filled cavity under the bowl and the floor).

I was very gingerly working away at the existing cement under the bowl using a diamond blade on an angle grinder.

It looked like it was going well - easily slicing off the cement without a chip in sight. Suddenly the bowl cracked making it useless. I was very upset about this.

The next job I attempted was to install a 50 to 80 mm adaptor so that a removable chromed grate could be installed in the shower floor.

This would make cleaning a blocked waste pipe easier in the future.

When we bought this at Reeces they mentioned a drill attachment that allowed you to insert a cutter down a pipe and cleanly cut a pipe where you have no room to swing a hacksaw blade.

Once confronted with this job, I realised that I needed this tool - so here is another task on hold until I bring the right gear.I'll have to try to source one of these during the week and use it first thing next week, then insert a little bit of cement to finalise the shower grate before paving.