Here goes:
Highlight Numero Uno: The sub-floor is in! As mentioned in a previous post, the floors under the tile were pretty bad. Both ply-wood pieces needed to come out and the main floorboards needed some massive support from down below to stop them from bouncing up and down when you walked on them. So one Saturday a few weeks ago with the help of my grandpa and dad, a plan was in place and a fresh new, flat piece of plywood was put in. We started by measuring the bathroom in basically every single possible way we could measure. North to South, East to West, Corners to Corners, Short Walls to Tub and so on and so on. We drew a model to scale on a little piece of paper and that was then transferred onto a large, actual scale piece of paper that we had laid out on the kitchen floor. This large, actual size, piece of paper was going to be our template for tracing and cutting the plywood.
Once we got the little drawing transferred onto the big paper, we cut it out and took it for a test run in the bathroom. There was no way we were going to cut the plywood without making sure this baby fit like a glove.
It fit pretty well, but needed some fine tuning along the tub and a couple corners. Other than that, it was pretty darn close. Once it was fine tuned and we were confident it would work, it was out to the garage with the paper floor. We taped it to the piece of plywood and started tracing away. By tracing, I really mean sawing. We didn't trace an outline on the board, we went straight for the cut.
And yes, I even got to use the saw...a big event for me! :)
After it was cut, we brought it in for a test and it fit great! No extra sawing needed. So about 400 screws later (that's an exaggeration, but there were quite a few screws), she was safe, secure and in her permanent home. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Much prettier than those broken icky floor boards and sticky, glue infested sub floors.
Highlight Numero Dos: Plumbing is in and doesn't leak!
One would think that installing plumping pipes together and making water run though them would be a walk in the park. Well, unless you are plumber by trade, it's not that simple. Four people working on it and about 16 hours of work later, it's complete. We did a rough math number after day 1 of working and figured it would have cost me about $800+ dollars to have a professional plumber come in and do this job. Granted, it wouldn't have taken him/her as long because they do it daily, but still....it makes you appreciate being able to do things yourself, even if it takes a little longer. Plus, you get the added bonus of learning some things along the way. :)
As also stated in a previous post, I have never had a shower head in that bathtub. I have had a sprayer, but it's always been hooked to the tub faucet and there was never a spot to hook it from the top, so I have one-handed showered for over two years. So since there was never a shower to begin with, that pipe had to be added. I also wanted to convert the two separate hot & cold handles to a single handle-style controller. So, with those two things being said, we kind of had to start from scratch.
We started by removing all the old do-dads and were just left with these two pipes sticking up from the basement:
Instead of adding the new piping straight onto those pipes, we first installed two valves (one on hot and one on cold) so we could have the main water supply to the house turned on while we worked, and have just the tub/shower water turned off. That was probably the smartest thing we've done to date seeing all of the taking apart and adjusting that was needed down the road. So the valves were installed and we were good to go. Every other water supply in the house was a-ok.
After the first full day of working on this, which included 3 trips to Menards, sawing pipe and tightening pipes so tight we swore they were going to to through the other end, it was almost time for testing. Oh but you know nothing can go that smoothly, right? The entire plumbing/piping apparatus (for lack of a better word) was in and all snug but it was sitting a little crooked, so a little adjusting was needed. Well, adjusting turned to breaking. The main piece of equipment that houses all of the pipes running in and out (the main piece that came in the box of shower head & dial. i.e. expensive and probably not easily replaceable in this situation) snapped in one spot while the adjusting was happening. I think we all went into shock for a couple minutes while we digesting what had just happened. In my eyes it was 8 hours of work completely wasted...(quite possibly an exaggeration, but I was totally bummed). After the shock wore off, my Grandpa had a solution. He took the apparatus home and within a couple hours was back and it was good as new.
Over the next couple days, some tweaks needed to be done and finally on Friday the 30th, it was water testing day. It was just my Grandpa and I here and to make a long blog post somewhat shorter, we worked for 3 hours testing these pipes. We would test, find leaks, take apart pieces, tighten pieces, test again, etc. We did this I think we counted six times. Those on/off valves sure came in handy! We finally found all of the problem areas and so far, we're home free. I am sure more testing will be done later this week before the drywall goes up, but so far, so good!
Here's what she looks like as of now (minus the tub spout--that's off for the time being) and the shower head and dial aren't up either. Those will go on once the drywall and tile is completed. Another beautiful site in the Great Bathroom Renovation.
In case you're interested, this is the shower head and dial combo I picked out. They do sell the shower head/dial and tub faucet in packs as well, but I couldn't find a combo I liked, so I bought the faucet for the tub separate.
Next on the list: Finalizing the fan, insulating the outside wall and moving the light switch over a few inches. Followed by drywall.
Stay tuned....
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