Under Foot

It's been a while since the last bathroom update so a lot has happened. Let me catch you up.

We removed the tile floor, toilet and tub and discovered that the subfloor had water damage. Then we discovered that the floor wasn't even properly supported for tile to begin with. So out the entire floor went:

The pipe in the wall is the plumbing vent. The towel is covering the toilet drain. The exposed wood beams are the joists above our newly remodeled kitchen. See how thin the plywood subfloor is?

This is where the sink vanity was.

This chaos is our bedroom.

The old bath tub standing up in our bedroom.

View into the master bathroom. It. Is. A. Work. In. Progress. Ugh.

New drain pipes for the toilet so that we can reposition the toilet away from the tub. One of them is backwards though. Whoops.

Another surprise was a joist in the way of moving the toilet over. We don't mess with structural beams so we were extremely lucky that we were able to move it over under the joist.

This is what we used to join pieces of the A.B.S. drain pipe that we cut to size. I like to refer to it as "Weld-On Abs". Wouldn't it be great if such a thing exists?

Welding action shot.

New position for the toilet. Moved over about a foot to allow room for the new (and wider) bath tub.

What has not been shown are the countless trips to the hardware store, because of all the times we messed up welding the pipes (third try was a charm though!). Certain pieces are hard to find and eventually were found at a large plumbing specialty store nearby.

Also not shown in the photos is how difficult/scary/frustrating working in a bathroom with no floor is.

Game Plan: Master Bathroom Update

We made some small changes to the game plan:

Going with a fancy tub spout

Adding a slide bar to the shower

Instead of the Delta Lahara or Addison faucet, we got the Kingston Brass Concord

A hose for the slide bar and shower head

Adding a niche to the tub surround

Adding a handshower to the slide bar

• 2 volume control valves
• Cable drain which you might remember from here (well this one is not a change or addition, we'd have to get it anyway)

Bathroom plumbing is way more complicated (and expensive) than we thought.

Standing Aside

The current master bathroom project has spilled into the master bedroom:

That is our old bath tub standing on it's side in our bedroom. I've lost count on how many times I've stubbed my toes on this. Or how many months it's been sitting there.

Smooth as Glass - part 3

(continued from here and here)

Here is the finished product, with windows screw into place, vinyl trim on the inside installed, and aluminum coil wrap on the outside.

Some caulking they used.

Expanding foam they used.

And the empty bottles of caulk they went through.

There you have it. In depth documentation of our window installation. Is it as interesting to you as it is to me living with them?

Smooth as Glass - part 2

(Continued from here)

More windows screwed into place.

The second crew arrives in the black truck, consisting of 4 guys.

They fill in the gaps between the new windows and the opening (what is this called?) with spray expanding foam.

Here is what they used to cover up the foam around the windows. It's called "coil wrap" which had us totally confused when we signed up for this. I thought coil meant twirled metal like a spring or a slinky. And felt too silly to ask such a naive question. Anyway, I get it now, it's just a big sheet of aluminum that comes in a giant coil.

The older crew guy (that dad I believe) took the measurements for the coil wrap.

Behold! Our old windows. Sayonara suckers.

Trimming the coil wrap. Some cool contraption attached to the side of the truck. I learned that this is not sold to the public, only to contractors. So glad we did NOT DIY this!

Installing coil wrap. This is by far, the most time consuming aspect of the entire installtion.

Stay tuned for part 3!

Smooth as Glass - part 1

On black Friday, we stayed home. Gladly. Because I hate shopping. So could you imagine a better day to stay in? Especially when said gifts are new windows for your entire house?

The first crew were a father/son duo. Here they are prepping the old windows for removal.

One window gone. See ya!

The window openings look huge when there are no windows in them! Especially ugly old aluminum ones.

Another empty window hole. This alone is a big improvement.

New windows set by their final destinations.

Screwing the windows into place.

Stay tuned for more!

Wrapped Up

Ok so if I post about Christmas dinner on January 20th, I guess it only makes sense that I post about Christmas gifts on January 24th.

At least I am consistent, right?

Jesse got bathroom parts. You can see how overwhelmed by excitement he is while unwrapping a cable drain.

I got a steam mop.

Rylie got a rubber chicken.

As did Karma.

Eat Away

Now onto what the humans ate for Christmas dinner:

Pineapple and tofu stir fry

Crab rangoons

And walnut shrimp

We made Chinese food this year, and it was big time yummy. Since it was just us 2, we went elaborate and made these time consuming dishes for the first time. Anyone else have a non-traditional holiday meal?