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!