Busy busy busy

Some more busy days, things are moving ahead quickly now. While I am off doing my commute to NYC, Jake has been busy busy busy. Here is his latest commentary...

Monday Dec 28th
The morning starts with hours of searching online for a laptop motherboard. How is a motherboard related to bathroom construction? It isn't. but for Christmas Eve, Jake's computer gave him a melted video card. That thing is not easy to find online.

With a good bit more work the ceiling is finally furred and level. The 1 1/4" drywall screws that we bought wont even touch the joists with all the shimming. Another trip to Home Depot to get longer screws. These 2 1/2" screws are going to be tough to screw in. It's 5pm and we can finally begin to put up the sheetrock ceiling.

Our drywall cutting technique hasn't been put to use for a couple of years, but there are vague recollections of it being a pain. It's 3 degrees F outside, so we're cutting this sheetrock inside in the entryway. It was actually not too bad, and we get a straight cut to go above the tub. We build a makeshift "T" out of spare lumber to assist in lifting the board, and put a cleat on the wall over the tub to hold it up while we put in the screws. Getting the sheetrock into the tub alcove and up to the ceiling (and over the window that is in the way) took a lot of strength. These screws are really hard to get in. Once the screws are mostly in, we call it a night. We'll tighten and counter-sink them tomorrow. We are tired.

Tuesday Dec 29
The carpenters are ready to put insulation in the garage in the morning, and they notice that the existing telephone line is going to get crushed when the sheetrock goes up.

I am able to disconnect the phone line in a 2nd floor bedroom and drop it into the garage where it can be run through holes in the joists. Another leg has to be cut, run through the joists and spliced back together in the wall. I wonder if anybody will ever use them. Does anyone have a land line from the telco?

I spend a couple of hours trying to get those sheetrock screws really tight. What a pain. Uh oh, the edge of the sheetrock is just short of reaching a joist; this looks wrong. I ask the carpenters who are working in the garage to give the issue a look. Yup, that's wrong. I appreciate their suggestion to cut the unsupported sheetrock at the joist and put up a 2x4 nailer to attach another sheet. It takes a little while to cut the board using a sheetrock keyhole saw, but it has to be done.

The contractor that's doing our garage stopped by and mentioned that his crew could sheetrock if we wanted them to (so we can make our timeline for tiling over the New Year's long weekend).

The quote for the sheetrock job was pretty attractive given that this work is tiring and we are running out of time before the weekend. We hire the crew to finish up the sheetrock and cement board in the alcove. The carpenters notice a couple of rookie mistakes that we would have made if we hadn't brought them in. A few missing nailer boards would have made sheetrocking the closet an issue. Oh well, sometimes you just have to call in some help.

I finish the bathroom insulation in preparation for the crew tomorrow and we get all the measurements for the underlayment so we can cut out the jigsaw puzzle pieces tomorrow. Another long day.

Wednesday Dec 30
The carpenters continue putting up sheetrock in the garage, as I prepare for the carpenters to sheetrock the bathroom. The underlayment floor needs to be cut which is a little tricky but fits nicely, and the water service fittings for the vanity faucet and the toilet need to be screwed in since they poke through the sheetrock. They wiggle quite a bit, so some blocking goes in to stiffen them up. A few pieces of blocking remain to be nailed in to support the shower mounting and some towel bars.

By about 2pm the carpenters take over in the bathroom. Sue heads off shortly thereafter to rent the tile saw with the help of our friend Mike while I stay back and "supervise." By 4:30pm the saw is here, and we call it a night.

It's nice to have an 8 hour day. Stay tuned, we should have some great pictures by end of tomorrow...

A Pain in the Butt in Any Language

Sunday Dec 27:
How do you vent a bathroom fan? Just put in a dryer vent kit. A Pain in the Butt in Any Language.

Outside vent cover, check. Pest guard, check. Flexible duct, check. Now to put the thing together.

The first step involves bending a piece of sheet metal into a tube and slipping it into the vent cover. The issue is that it has to be a PERFECT circular tube or it won't fit. 45 minutes later, and we've got it. Now somebody's going to have to go cut a circular hole in the roof soffit that's 20 feet up. We get to use our nifty ladder to scale up the side of the house.

OK, ladders are hard. Jake goes up first to drill a hole in the soffit. Carrying a drill while trying to jockey up a springy metal ladder with one free hand is unsettling to say the least. A few butterflies in the stomach later, the pilot hole is drilled and Jake is back down to get the reciprocating saw. Jake goes up again, slightly faster this time.

This stupid reciprocating saw has a "safety" feature that you have to use both hands to push a button while pulling the trigger to use it. The ladder was scary enough holding on with one free hand. Look ma, no hands. Now the butterflies in the stomach are freaking out. Jake has to lean out to the side of the ladder, look up, and hold the saw in about every possible configuration to cut a circle-- right hand, left hand, thumb on the trigger, pinky on the trigger; you name it. The hole is finally done.

Let's be smart and attach the vent duct to the vent cover before we put it up through the soffit. Then, we can just pull the duct into the bathroom from inside. The duct seems to actually be smaller than the perfect round tube we made earlier. With a lot of elbow grease we finally get the duct attached and clamped on.

This time Sue goes up the ladder to screw the vent to the soffit. The "secret" is not to look down. Four dropped screws later, Sue is back on the ground, and we are both getting grumpy. Sue goes back up again with a whole box of screws, and finally the stupid thing is in place.

From inside, pulling the duct through the space in the roof is like pulling teeth. The tube is slightly smaller than the space it needs to pass through, and it is pretty rigid, which makes pulling 5 feet of little round steel wire ribs a real chore.

Fortunately, the fan unit is more forgiving, and attaching the duct to the fan goes pretty smoothly. Done. Now, we can finish up the ceiling insulation and move on to furring the ceiling to level it.

There is nothing pleasant (well actually the wall niche in the shower makes a pleasant step for straddling the tub) about leveling a ceiling. Our ceiling happens to be a good inch out of level and not even close to in-plane. Furring basically involves a lot of shimming, measuring for level, and repeating.

Hours later, part of the ceiling is prepped up, and it's getting late. Jake's legs are shaky from straddling the tub and he can't lift his arms anymore. A rough workday is over.

I Do Not Like The Attic.

December 26:

After enjoying a day of playing with toys and eating Chex Party Mix, we are back to work. We are now on to the task of insulating the ceiling and attic.

This seems harmless enough, just throw some fuzzy stuff up there and call it a day. But that is what the formerly naive Sue thought. Now I am the old cranky crick-in-the-back-and-bruised-butt-and-knees Sue who knows better.

I suit up into my bunny suit and climb into the attic. The attic above the bathroom and bedrooms is substantially smaller than the one over the living room. I have about 3 feet of clearance at the highest point and all sorts of A/C vents to get in the way.

The first issue is that we don't get to just throw the stuff up there. We first need to put in baffles to ensure we get proper airflow or something like that. Another addition to my vocabulary. The baffles are just little Styrofoam ridged sheets that I am supposed to tack into the roof beams before I put in the insulation. Seems straightforward except they are thin Styrofoam so every time I try to attach them to the wall, the staples are going right through them. If I bump it, the staples go right through them. If I sneeze, the staples go right through them. There were quite a few inappropriate exclamations audible in the Collins home as I fought with these buggers.

Here is what it looks like after I was half done:
So, we proceed to get the full ceiling insulated with R30. The house is getting warmer by the second, I can just feel it. Jake feeds it up to me and I stuff it in place like a puzzle. If you never have dealt with insulation before, it looks all cushy and fluffy but in reality it is itchy nasty miserable stuff.

As we are wrapping up the 2nd bedroom part of the attic I notice signs that we probably had a little woodland critter living in the attic at one point in time. They relocated a bunch of the insulation into the back corner. So now I am freaking out waiting for some rabid ferocious monster to attack. But, alas, I think our visitor has moved out already. So, I throw the insulation on top of their fluffy bed and get the heck out of there (notice the bed in the back corner of this picture?)

That should be all I needed to do, right... wrong. We have extra insulation and we know that the attic space over the living room only has a thin layer of insulation on it currently. So, up I crawl to the other side and throw in a bunch more itchy nasty miserable stuff.

Attic Insulation - DONE. May I never have to go back up there again.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We took a few days off for the holiday and are keeping warm and playing with the puppies. We had a good chuckle after I put on some festive socks and then played catch with Pogo and Wiley with their new holiday toys. My socks are a perfect match!!!

Hope Everyone Had A Safe and Wonderful Day.

Ho Ho Ho,
Jake and Sue

Yo-Ho Yo-Ho, A Plumber's Life for Me

Time keeps on flying and we are way behind on our updates. Jake has been the champ with the tasks happening lately so here is his rundown of the recent up until Christmas:

Thursday Dec. 17
Sue stayed home today to help out. Although we could also begin furring the bathroom, plumbing the copper supply supply lines is the main job for today.

I used to do a good bit of sweat soldering in grad school, but it has been about 15 years, and I don't have fond memories of the efficacy of my technique. Also, the architect suggested using soft copper on a roll to avoid having to cut and solder small pieces of tubes to fit between the joints--that sounds really smart. Also, our friend Mike likes Sharkbite connectors over soldering; they are connectors that push-fit on to the tubes and make crimp-like connections--that sounds really smart, too.

I begin the day by going to the local plumbing supply, suitably named Nutley Supply. Imagine the bar from Cheers, and you get a pretty good idea of the peanut gallery seated at the shop counter--kind of like a bar, but no booze. I don't know why there are seats at the counter, but there are. I ask if they have the rolled copper tubing. Nope. The gallery says "use PEX" (PEX is a plastic tube that is flexible).

I return home to search the interwebs for PEX procedures. It turns out that the Sharkbite connectors work with both PEX and Copper tubes. I call the plumber buddies who are doing our drain, waste, vent work (DWV) and inquire about using both PEX and Copper with Sharkbite fittings. Apparently, that would pass inspection but good old copper is the "preferred method." I return to Nutley Supply and buy PEX. Then realized run to Home Depot to get Sharkbite connectors. Unfortunately, their stock was, lets say, depleted. I rent a right-angle drill for the joists and head home. Sue heads to Lowes to see if they have these Sharkbite connectors there.

By about 3pm, we are ready to begin, and we have Copper along with a plan to use PEX and Sharkbite for whatever contingency we may run into. I ponder the concept of Analysis Paralysis.

Sue is still at Lowes. They don't have enough connectors at this location but they have some in stock in Patterson. Sue heads to Patterson.

I drill holes in the joists for the copper tubes. While I begin soldering, Sue is roaming the lovely streets of Patterson (no, wait it is not lovely at all, it is very very un-lovely) as she gets totally lost and is driving around some industrial slum. She finally finds her way back to the highway and gets home with sharkbites/gatorbites/whatever.

We have dinner and then back to work. We realize though that we have the wrong elbow joints. Sue returns the drill to Home Depot and then goes on a quest back to Lowes for more correct elbows (that makes a total of 3 Lowes visits, 2 Home Depot stops, and 3 Nutley Supply Visits in one day, phew).

By the end of the day, we have a bunch of short lengths of cut copper tubes in the garage and enough random plumbing parts to open a plumbing supply shop.



Friday Dec 18
Copper pipes again. Just a lot of cutting and soldering. It isn't as bad as I feared; simply cutting and dry-fitting is arguably more work than the actual soldering.


Saturday Dec 19
More copper tube work. Sue nails in some 2x4s to fix up the framing, and discovers the virtues of the palm nailer. It's a small gadget that's powered by the air compressor we recently bought, and it drives nails kind of like a woodpecker drills holes. Once you buy a compressor, pneumatic tools seem to multiply.

Sue is unsure about doing the furring by herself, but wants to be productive. "What can I do?" she says. "Go whip me up some beef stew" is my facetious response. Sue gives me a look that I will not soon forget and stomps off to the kitchen.

By the end of the day we have a few pieces of the sink supply assembled and a very tasty beef stew.

Sunday Dec 20
A new task gets added to the calendar by way of a lovely snow storm and Sue heads out to shovel snow. More copper tube work.

Monday Dec 21
More copper tubes. On paper, this job looked like a cinch. In reality, I'm now a full-time newbie plumber.

Tuesday Dec 22
Rough-in inspection is scheduled for tomorrow, so today is "get ducks in a row day." The end of the copper tubes work is in sight--ten joints to go. I run out of solder with two copper elbows to go. Fortunately, the plumbers stop by to a give a pre-inspection check and spot me a couple of feet of solder. Copper is done.

Now to turn the water on, and see if my sweat soldering is sweet or fail. Fingers crossed... no leaks! Copper done!!!! (Now what am I going to do with all this unused PEX and Sharkbite connectors?)

The last remaining task is to frame a door for the closet. This shouldn't take too long. There is some contention about how deep into the closet to frame the door. So, I cut the framing for the door so we can play with it after Sue returns.

Wednesday Dec 23
6:50 am Ow, I am sore, tired and cold. We decided where we want that closet door, so I put it in there, and we're roughed-in.

9:00 am Plumbing and electric rough inspection passed. Yay!

Time to write blog. I'm pondering how it took me five days to get the copper supply tubes in... Maybe that's why the plumbers wanted mega bucks to do that part...

We can call it a BATHroom again!!!!

Monday, Dec 14
Jake blocked in the supports for the electrical boxes in the morning (and then tore them out and did it correctly in the afternoon). Our electrician is well under way finishing the rough-in work.

Tuesday Dec 15
Today Jake is framing the tub alcove wall. (notice in image, there is a wall there now) Our bathroom is so tight that fitting that 32" tub in there requires nit-picking over fractions of an inch. He figured out the best dimensions for the alcove wall, envisioning the detail trim that will fit at the front of the tub at the end. We don't want the finishing trim details to look crappy after all this work. It's amazing how many of these first steps have big ramifications later if we screw them up.

Those carpenters are busy guys. They fit us in by the end of the day and fixed up the remaining subfloor issues. They temporarily screwed the alcove wall to the existing wall. Now, the plumbers can finish up the waste lines and vents tomorrow.

Wednesday Dec 16
The plumbers are here bright and early. There's a lot of work to do putting drains through all those sistered joints. I'm glad that somebody else is doing it. The tub is in place (Horray!!!), and that temporarily screwed-in wall needed to move a little. I'm glad we left nailing it in until later.



The electrical inspector must be psychic. He is here before we even called him. Rough electric inspection passed! Yay! Woot!!

The fire inspector is here bright and early, too. He must be psychic, also, because we didn't know we had to involve him. Fortunately, under "rehab" building codes we don't have to install wired smoke detectors in every room in our house--our battery ones are OK, though he gave me a pretty strong look when he seriously recommended doing so. We would consider it, except the electrician gave a pretty strong look when he said "That is going to cost you."

What's this: mail from the code enforcement office. How sweet that they would send us a holiday card. It's yellow and looks like another permit card for electrical modifications. Should I be worried?

Plumbing drains are almost all the way roughed-in. We can start drilling holes in those 6" thick joists and running copper supply tubes ourselves. Jake likes working outside when you can no longer refer to H2O as "water."

Could we possibly dare to hope we can rough in copper plumbing for inspections Friday? Only time will tell.

You Gotta Love The 'Depot

Another Weekend has passed and the room still doesn't resemble a bathroom as far as I can tell. I feel a bit like Cortez burning his ships after reaching the new world... there's no goin' back now.

Here is the weekend recap:

Saturday, Dec. 12:
Friday afternoon was hard work--lots of crawling around on the subfloor driving screws. We own knee pads, it was unwise to decide not to use them. A slight complication is uncovered that one corner of the new subfloor doesn't meet up flush with the existing floor. We sure can't tile over that! So, we'll have to get the carpenters to fix that on Monday.

Today we are getting off to a slow start. We go get the remaining tile products from the distributor and, after we return, we split up, and Jake researches exactly what type and number of nails we need to properly block in the tub alcove (ESR 1539 is a fascinating read, if you LOVE nails), and Sue heads to consult the "Tool Oracle" at the Home Depot tool rental.

What we are looking for is to rent a pneumatic framing nailer that fires common round head nails. Home Depot doesn't have the right nails. Well they do have the "right" nails but the quantities will supposedly cost us "hundreds of dollars." saith The Tool Oracle. He advises hammering all the nails by hand with a look that says "What, are you a wimp?". Two hammers and some boxes of ten penny common nails later, Sue is on the way back home, and we're ready to go.

It's 5pm, and we start blocking. We each drive a nail into the side of our first block. Five minutes later we have two nails in. Forget this! We're cranky, Sue's hand hurts and we are done for the day.

We consult our carpentry catalog McFeely's and here we read: 1600 nails of the correct type cost $50. It looks like we got hood-winked by the "Tool Oracle" and we probably could have just gotten the nails and nailer after all. Hey, we are new at this, but fool me once....


Sunday Dec 13: Geesh, are we ever going to get a day off!?!?

Getting off to a slow start again, we design the final dimensions of our tub niche (where the soap and shampoo go). Ironically, this "icing on the cake" is the first construction task that we need to do; it may have been divine providence that we had some time to think a little before getting started. The first task is to slice a stud in half.

Amazingly it took three different saws to get through that stupid stud. In the end, we cut the stud "perfectly" to the dimensions of the niche cut out. Now, to put in the header... Whoops.

...Turns out, you need to cut the studs not to the size of the niche opening but bigger so there is room for the frame that goes around the niche. Our niche will only fit tiny little hotel shampoo bottles at this rate. Here is a candid shot of us cutting the darn stud a second time. We cut the stud perfectly again to the dimensions of the niche cut-out plus the header and the bottom shelf. That's better.

Now to block in the area where the tub gets mounted, but first these hammers and nails are going back to the Depot; we're going to have to make do with what Home Depot can rent to us. Or not... fooled me again.

We are back at the rent-a-tool and there is my buddy the "Oracle" with a look of disappointment, his eyes saying "yep, you are a wimp". It turns out that the nail gun he was going to rent to us wasn't even going to be the right one after all so I guess it is karma or something that we didn't go down the rental road.

But we are still without a nailer and, as the "Oracle's" eyes indicated, we are wimps. So, we suck it up and buy a new framing nailer (we already have a compressor) and the one box of round head nails that actually work with the gun and that they have in stock (of a quantity less than 5000) . Cost of Nailer: $200, cost in nails: $15, Home Depot: priceless... Its noon, and we start blocking. Eight hours later we have the niche and most of the blocking to mount the tub in place. We are not pros, but darn it we're going to save a buck if it kills us. We are frustrated with our slow pace, but this bathroom is our Great White Whale...

Plodding Along

Another week has passed. This whole joist debacle gave us a good hit to the schedule but we are back on track now and making progress. Since nothing too exciting happened last week, we are just going to give you guys a quick summary. I am sure more fun will come now that things are moving forward again.

Sunday: We left off our last posting with us cutting out the old nasty subfloor. By the time we got it done, we were pretty tuckered out and left the actual removal to Sunday. It's time to rip the darn stuff out. I was so exciting to start banging out the old floor. But then, as I balance over two joists with hammer in hand I make the dreaded mistake and look down (see image looking down the floor). Beneath me in the garage is a pile of old rotted wood, sharp rusty nails and as I imagine looming tetanus or death. Turns out that is enough for me to freak out and leave the tough stuff to Jake. He's my hero.




So, we now have the floor out and have cut the new subfloor to a perfect fit. We cant actually attach it to the joists yet since we need to do all the joist work first, but we have done what we can.







Monday: Our favorite Irishman stops by in the morning and takes the tetanus tower of trash away so we can keep working, Jake gets the plans approved by the code enforcement office so we are good to go.

Tuesday: The plumbers and electrician show up and take out the plumbing that runs through the joists and we get a couple carpenters to stop by to look at the work. We are waiting for their bids.

Wednesday: By 10AM we get our estimates and with some back and forth, we have picked the winner. With a moment of sanity, we enlisted them to just take care of the entire garage piece of the project. That will save us from having to hang double layers of drywall on the ceiling and single layer on all the walls as well replace the steel door. I think this decision just might also save our sanity.

The electrician comes by and starts doing all the wiring in the garage. While we are at it, we add a couple sconces to our exterior which will be nice since we have such a puny little light by our door an that's it. I am very excited about that.

The carpenters show up and bang bang bang, boom, crash, bang bang (with a background of bark-bark, bark bark bark bark, bark-bark-bark). We get our joists fixed up nicely. Just a little more work to do tomorrow and we are ready to attach the subfloor and keep things rolling. We are very excited. Here's what the joists look like now., much improved.


Thursday: Wake up with a chipper mood, things are moving forward. Just need the carpenters to finish things up and we are rolling. I go and buy some doughnuts and coffee for the workers, ready to roll... uh... not so fast... do dee do... do dee do.

Turns out the carpenters arent quite available to wrap things up today. Very frustrating but they promise to be here first thing in the morning.

Meanwhile, the electrician Lenny wrapped things up in the garage and will do the bath electrical next week.



Friday: As promised, the crew returns in the AM and the joists are now done. Phew. It's time for Jake to glue and screw in the subfloor. I should mention that today it is approximately 25 degrees outside (feels like 11) and Jake is not very fond of the cold weather. But, he is a trooper and gets the job done.

Coming up this weekend, blocking in the tub.

We don't need no stinking floor!

Today's commentary brought to you by Jake:

Thursday Dec 3rd Addendum - Wobbly Bobbly Potty
It should be noted that, on top of all our primary bathroom remodelling, the 1/2 bath toilet that is keeping us "relieved" has popped a nut off its mounting screws... that's bad. It is now more of a tilt-a whirl than a toilet. After another Home Depot run and an hour and a half cleaning out the bolt grooves in the closet flange that is under the toilet caked with plumbers putty that was installed when Eisenhower invented the Interstate Highway System. Problem solved, though it makes for a sour end of the day.

Saturday Dec 5: See Ya Later Mr. Floor.
Our architect saved the day by dropping off a set of drawings that should bring our joists and framing up to code (for the technical folks, we are seeking to stiffen the floor up to a deflection of L/720 so our floor tile won't crack). It looks like we're in for a trip to the Code Enforcement Office on Monday.

Although the framing issues have definitely set us back on our schedule, it means a more leisurely pace for us... instead of roughing in copper water lines this weekend, we are ripping out and replacing the subfloor. We'll be gluing and screwing like crazy tomorrow. That, of course, is not a euphemism...

Oh, on a side note, the reciprocating saw is a powerhouse. Using the saw for the first time, I knocked out the demo of our bathroom closet in a little under an hour. I don't know if we could have removed our subfloor without it. The saw kicks like a mule and is kind of scary, but it eats through wood like a champ. The saw is priceless.

Also priceless is accidentally sawing one's way through the recirculating water system that our baseboard heaters use. Fortunately, we turned the heat way down after we pulled all the insulation out during the demo. I'd rather be given a cold shower than eat a face full of boiling water.




** SUE INTERJECTS HER COMMENTARY HERE **
So we are sawing away at the subfloor and hit the radiator pipe. Thankfully I am wearing two layers of clothes today. As the water is spraying to our ceiling, I pull off my sweatshirt to stifle the spray and run outside to try and catch the water in a bucket as it dumps into the garage.

I don't believe that it dawned on me until the water was turned off that I might have run outside topless if I hadn't been wearing something under the sweatshirt. Boy oh boy, that would've been a show.

Also worth noting, we got our Christmas decor up outside, our little Army of Snowmen (not sure if the picture does it justice, will have to post another picture when they are lit).

Oh, and did we mention that we got snow today? Looks like about an inch or two.

** END OF SUE'S COMMENTARY **

Jake Commentary Continued: We've got the hole cut for the first piece of new subfloor, and we're calling it a day.

As another noteworthy event, our tape measure must have eaten some reindeer hay and flown away and that means another Home Depot run. Was it reindeer hay or magic corn? I don't recall, but something has caused our measuring tape to take flight from the house and we can't find it anywhere. Hey, it could happen.

Have you ever enlisted an architect? Ya have now...

It has been a full week since the demo and, although things move slower than we would prefer, they are moving along.

It's a bummer because I have to go into the city every day when I would rather be banging hammers and operating power tools. I'm looking forward to pitching in over the weekend.

Here's what's been happening:

Monday: The week starts out with another early rise on Monday to get to the Home Depot by 6AM to pick up the stuff we couldn't carry home on Sunday. Plumbers come and start to repair the waste lines with the dogs barking the whole time (like the good guard-dogs that they are). Things are progressing nicely.

Tuesday: We now have our trial-period gym membership so we can stay smelling pretty. I did my first visit to the gym at 6AM. I figure I should actually exercise since I am at a gym but I am not much of a morning person. Just imagine me having to exercise before getting any coffee in me... not pretty.

I might not have mentioned earlier but, after the demo we had found some pretty interesting water damage and tom-foolery with the joists. The picture to the left is one joist that has been hacked at with an axe (or so it seems) and used to have the tub waste link jammed into it. Pretty ridiculous.

So, we want to review our plans with the building inspector and make sure we are doing things correctly.

The inspector comes and drops the bomb on us that he thinks the damage to the joists is extensive enough that they need to be completely replaced. How the heck do I replace joists?!! And to make it even better, the joists run further into the house than what we have demo'd which means we will have to pull down the ceiling in the mudroom hallway.

The Bombardier (aka inspector) recommends we talk to an architect. He leaves us with a name of someone to contact. The new architect stops by and, thankfully, disagrees with the inspectors assessment. The plan as of end-of-day is for the architect (my new best friend) to talk to the Bombardier and convince him that sistering the joists is sufficient.

Wednesday: Good news from the architect. He got the okay to go with the sistering plan but the Bombardier wants to see the plans first. Those should be ready for review on Friday. Meanwhile, Jake has fun with the Sawz-all and takes out the closet frame and we are about ready to put in the new subfloor.

Thursday: More plumbing work going on, We can't quite proceed with everything full throttle yet because we don't have the joist issue straightened out. Taking care of other stuff, busy busy busy.





Friday: Electrician Lenny comes by to get that rolling. We are getting ourselves ready for a busy weekend of sub-floor, framing, furring. I didn't even know what furring meant until this week:

fur·ring

1. the act of lining, trimming, or clothing with fur: Furring this coat will take several weeks.
2. the fur used: What kind of furring would you like?
3. the formation of a coating of matter on something, as on the tongue: A heavy furring could mean a high fever.
4. Building Trades - the attaching of strips of wood or the like (furring strips) to a wall or other surface, as to provide an even support for lath or to provide an air space between the wall and plasterwork or the material used for this purpose.

I am learning new stuff every day.

More to come with weekend adventures...

Sheetrock isn't heavy, is it?

Sunday - Shopping day:

Now that we can see what we are dealing with, Sunday entails making our final shopping list and hitting "the Depot".

I should first point out that we are sleeping on an air mattress in the living room right now since the upstairs has a gaping hole in the floor and no insulation. We kind of have a big bunker with a plastic wall protecting us from the arctic horrors that lurk upstairs.

So, we wake up, a bit chilled but ready to roll. We start making our shopping list, hoping to head to the store by noon. But, the more we measure and figure out stuff we need, the more we realize we need. We don't actually make it to the store until 2:30 but no worries, we got a list, this should be fast, right?...

Wrong. What are you guessing? 2 hours, 3 hours? Nopers, we weren't hitting the checkout until 7:00. Phew, we are done, except now we have to get all this stuff home and our little Altima and Grand-Am aren't quite equipped for transporting sheetrock.

Here is the step by step of how one gets large supplies of construction materials home.

Step 1: Rent Truck.

Step 2: Home Depot Guy uses a forklift to put 27 sheets of garage sheetrock, 8 sheets bath drywall, 6 cement boards and 4 plywood sheets onto truck.

Step 3: Home Depot guy, Jake and Sue load up 1 2x6, 21 2x4's, 7 2x2's onto the truck.

Step 4: Jake starts truck.

Step 5: The truck makes a constant ear-splitting honking noise that is best described as the Jim Carrey "most annoying noise ever" which is telling us we are over the 3000 lb load limit.

Step 6: Home Depot Guy says as-a-matter-of-factly "Yeah, I knew this would be too heavy."

Step 7: Sue says to herself "Really? Didn't think to mention that gem, huh?" Jake says to himself "Hmmm, that means that, while shopping, we just moved over 3000 lbs of sheetrock by hand onto our cart. Perhaps we should have asked for the forklift to begin with... now we have to take it off..."

Step 8: Sue and Jake remove 1 2x6, 21 2x4's, 7 2x2's off of the truck. Annoying noise stops. Phew. We will come back for the rest. Employees go back inside.

Step 9: Jake sits in truck, ready to leave. HOOOONNNNNNKKKKKKK!!!!! Crud. Still haven't taken enough off yet.

Step 10: Take off 6 cement boards, 6 bathroom drywall. Test the weight, I think we are okay. But now it is time for "the Depot" to close. Sue and Jake get really grumpy.

Step 11: Decide we will leave behind remaining parts to pick up in the morning. Head home with current load.

Step 12: Remove 27 sheets garage sheetrock, 2 sheets bath drywall, 4 sheets plywood and put in garage.

Step 13: Collapse on Air Mattress. Time: 10:00 PM.

Lesson learned: We just bought about 2 tons of crap. Houses must be really heavy.

Here is a picture of our cargo (doesn't look like 3000 lbs):

This House is Clean

Saturday - The day has arrived:

Started the day very early getting everything set for the demo. Demo guys showed up with a giant stuffed Gonzo on his truck (see pic). That's gotta be a good omen, right?


Demo started at 8:30 and two truck-fulls later, the blue bath is gone and will never come back!!!

Here are some of the mid-process pictures:

As expected, found some interesting things.A lovely giant hole in the sub-floor (what you see in that square is the garage floor) and some good rotted wood.










And seeing the sink drain line was quite impressive (it was paper thin and snapped without hardly any pressure, I cant believe it wasn't flooding out bath when we used the sink)
















The demo took until 3:30 and here is what it looks like now (bath and garage):

So - its the end of Saturday and, to quote that little psychic lady from Poltergeist (and the wedding organ player from Sixteen Candles)... "This house is clean".

In the beginning there was an ugly blue bathroom...

So, we are 1 day away from demolishing the oh-so-fabulous 1955 blue tile bathroom. Tomorrow morning, 8:30 AM, the Junkin' Irishman (awesome name for a junk removal company, no?) and his band of merry heavy-lifters will be arriving to take it all away. What they will unveil is still a mystery but I am expecting the unexpected and hopefully will be pleasantly surprised.

But, before we dig in, I am going to post some of the highlights of our fabulous bathroom so we can all reflect back when this is done and see how far we have come.

I Know, I Know, Bad Paint Color

Yes, the orange was a bad choice, but it did help hide the fact that the ceiling is about to fall down on our heads from steam damage (note, no vent). I promise we will have a nicer paint color when this job is done.

The Possessed Sink

Yes, that's right, I said possessed. How else do you explain the fact that it will turn on all by itself sometimes after someone flushes the toilet. It is possessed by some "being" that wants to make sure we wash our hands.



The Hidden Hole
Imagine our surprise when we took down the old mirror and found this lovely hole in the wall...








Drip Drip












And What's Below??? Yes, this is what the ceiling of our garage looks like beneath the bathroom. Kinda makes me worry that we might fall through.
So, this is our starting point.

Today's to-do's include:
- Pick up the tile and color samples for paint
- Clear out bathroom
- Put down cardboard on floors and seal things up to keep out the dust.

Wish us luck!