Bathroom: Tub Installation

With the plumbing complete and inspection approved, we laid down two sheets of new plywood and screwed them into place. Next was the tub installation, which we planned to do ourselves. We purchased an American Standard porcelain-enameled steel tub. The neat thing about this tub is that it's lighter than cast iron (by a LOT), but more rigid than a fiberglass tub. The enameled finish provides a similar look and feel to a cast iron tub.

After: installed tub.

To install the tub, a 2 x 4 is screwed into the studs of the wall horizontally. This ledger board is what the back of the tub rests upon once installed. It took us two hours of fiddling to get the ledger board installed just right. With a bit of research, we determined that we should lay a bed of mortar, which would prevent the tub from flexing and give a more solid feel. This approach reduces the slightly hollow feel/sound you experience when getting in and out of the tub. Seemed easy enough. The last video we watched before gathering our courage stressed that we should not get the mortar too wet. It was after 9pm when we setup the wheelbarrow and mixed the mortar in the garage. Nick mixed the mortar and then filled 5 gallon buckets that we hauled upstairs and dumped on the plywood sub-floor. The quick set mortar gets hot as it dries and again we found ourselves dripping with sweat. Nick quickly squeezed a thick bead of silicone on top of the ledger board and we worked together to lift the tub and bring it straight down on the mortar. This is a one shot deal. You can't move the tub around too much or you'll create air space and ruin the perfect bed underneath. As soon as we set the tub on the mortar it was apparent that we had made a grave mistake. The mortar was too dry!

We lifted the tub back off the mortar and Nick walked away. I could almost see visible steam coming out of his ears. "What do we do?!" I panicked. Nick was too upset to even respond. The quick set mortar was QUICKLY setting. It's very heavy and I knew that if we didn't get the mortar up quickly it would be impossibly stuck to the floor and very difficult to rectify. I ran to the basement and grabbed the flat bottom shovel. I chipped away at the side of the mound and got the shovel underneath. I pried at the sides and broke off manageable chunks. They were almost too hot to handle, so I propped the big pieces against the wall. We scraped the drying silicone off the lip of the tub and off the ledger board. For all that work, I could have sat on the floor and cried. We showered and went to bed. The next evening we tried again using good ol' slow setting mortar and a wetter mix. Everything went as planned.

Bathroom: Plumbing

We can do demolition and we can install the fixtures. We'll pay someone to do everything else. What's that? Seven thousand dollars for plumbing? Yeah....we can do the plumbing.

We've found that when we do things ourselves, especially when it's the first time, some money is lost on mistakes. It also takes a lot longer, but in the end, we still come out ahead on the pocketbook. The plumbing was HARD. Not because plumbing itself is hard, but because it's difficult to read and interpret the plumbing code and to even know the names of all the pieces to buy. Nick figured all of this out! We have a friend who is an engineer and designs waste water systems and he looked over our plans, but we still had a couple hard knocks along the way. The demolition was okay--we rented a clay pipe cutter to cut the heavy cast iron waste stack and removed it in 18" sections. There was only one bad incident where a husband got hit in the face by the crank arm of the tool. It's hard to say who was at fault.

Old waste stack.	Sink drain. Gross!

Once we had the new pipes in, Nick plugged all the openings in the system (connections to sink/tub, and the drains) in preparation for the cover inspection. He then climbed atop the roof and stuck the garden hose into the vent pipe to fill the entire system with water. This practice is how the inspector determines whether there are any leaks. We felt reasonably confident in our work. However, when the inspector arrived, he pointed out that we had the wrong sized pipe on the tub drain (a detail that is buried in a FOOTNOTE in the code), and the cast iron venting in the attic that we had not removed was leaking at the joints.The inspector said it was up to us whether we wanted to replace the cast iron in the attic. It wasn't bad enough that he had great concern, but we don't take the easy way out.

New waste stack.

At 6pm on a week night, we headed to the hardware station to rent a clay pipe cutter again. Our goal was to fix the tub drain and replace the waste stack venting in the attic so that the inspector could return the following day so that the other hired work would remain on schedule. Replacing the tub drain pipe was no easy matter. The pipes are glued together and a change requires cutting the connector out and putting new pieces in. It takes quite a bit of thought to figure out how to reconfigure the arrangement with new pieces to make up for the part that had to be cut out.

It was probably 9:30pm before we even started on the cast iron in the attic. I go to bed between 10pm and 11pm and stop functioning at midnight. It seemed like such an easy task, but the hours ticked away unfairly. I knew that if I stopped helping, Nick would justify going to bed with a plan to get up early to finish the job, undoubtedly miscalculating how much time it would take. My eyes crossed and I felt nauseated. It was 90 degrees in the attic and we dripped with sweat. "If I can make it to bed by 11, I'll be fine," I reasoned. Eleven came and went. "If I get to bed by 1, I can get the Golden Five and I'll be fine." At 2am, nothing mattered anymore. I could respond to instruction but was useless with independent thought. We finished our work before 3 and I passed out in bed, setting my alarm clock later than usual.

Bathroom: Holes in the Floor

With the tile off the floor, it was clear to us that we'd need to replace the sub floor. There had been water damage in the past and the floor was warped, uneven and had significant holes under the tub and toilet.

Nick determined where he'd need to cut along the interior walls and how to create new supports so that the structural integrity of the room was not compromised. He gave careful consideration to where he planned to route the new plumbing in the basement and where the new sub floor would need to be secured to the beams. And, since we were saving money doing this work ourselves, we decided that Nick should have a new top of the line drill. We actually got a Milwaukee set of two--a big one and a small one with a hammer drill feature. The right tools make a job so much easier! We lament waiting so long to have upgraded.

Bathroom: Demolition OR Aggression Therapy

Everyone thinks demolition sounds like fun. "Ooh...hitting things with a sledge hammer. Yay!" It is a little bit fun, but more so for the instant gratification. We don't use sledge hammers, though. For lathe and plaster you can do quite well with a regular hammer and a small crow bar. If you do it just right, you can remove nice big sections of plaster and then pop off the lathe. It's a dusty, dirty mess and is most comfortable if you cover nearly every bit of skin, but then you get sweaty and that's also disgusting. We wore respirators, ear plugs and protective glasses, but the glasses get foggy, sweaty, and clouded with dust and are a constant hassle. We did our best to contain the dust in the bathroom by taping up a sheet of plastic. Given the many steps up to our front door and the narrow hallway, we opted to carry the refuse out to the dump truck by the five gallon bucketful. Quite a workout!

We had considered keeping the cast iron tub. Several of the contractors we spoke with thought we should, but in retrospect, we concluded that they just didn't want to deal with its removal. Cast iron is a quality material, but the tub was pitted and not in the very best shape. It just seemed like if we were going to have a new bathroom, we deserved to have an ALL new bathroom.

Dilemma: how to remove the tub? Our neighbor said that he and a buddy carried his cast iron tub out in one whole piece. "No problem for two guys," he said. He even offered to help. I had read a blogger's account of torch-cutting their tub into two pieces in order to remove it. She said it took 3 hours to cut! Ugh! I then turned to YouTube where I learned that you can whack a cast iron tub repeatedly with a sledge hammer (there you go!) until it forms a weak spot and begins to shatter into pieces. We borrowed our neighbor's maul axe and I was the first to have a go at it. Nick didn't seem optimistic and left me to wear myself out with this foolish attempt. After maybe five minutes of whacking, I broke through with a nice hole in the side. Nick seemed impressed. I couldn't get the break to expand over the top, so he took over and completed the task. Let me tell you, even broken in two, this tub was HEAVY! We are grateful that it doesn't cost anything to dump metal at the transfer station, because they charge by the pound.

It was no easy feat to get the old floor up, but with a masonry chisel and a lot of determination, we did it. We stood in the empty room and I commented that I already liked it better than before. "I can't imagine standing right here and actually enjoying being in this room."

Bathroom: The Before

The most complex and difficult project thus far was the bathroom remodel. Nick and I agreed that we'd pay someone for this project, but even still, there were a lot of things we knew we could do ourselves to save a buck. To set the stage, it's important to appreciate how disgusting the bathroom was. It was so gross that we actually never used it. It was most often a repository for tools and dust. The bathroom was bright orange and someone had installed Travertine tile in the shower. What you cannot see is the mildew on the ceiling of the shower cove and the exposed-element heat lamp/fan. Perhaps with a modest amount of effort we could have made this bathroom temporarily usable, but since the bathroom remodel was going to be "the first thing we do", there seemed no point. So, for several years while we worked on everything else (note the irony), we used the marginally better basement bathroom where we rigged up the small claw footed tub with a shower riser and curtain.

Upstairs bathroom - before.	Basement bathroom - interim setup.

A lot of people thought the original floor was neat, and for a quick minute Nick even considered reviving the original toilet. We flip flopped on whether to keep the arch, part of the house's original charm, but once I saw a photo of a very similar bathroom with the arch removed, its fate was sealed. You'll note that it's a VERY small bathroom. A tall person could practically wash his feet in the tub while sitting on the toilet. Removing the arch would open up the room and make it seem bigger.

Scary selfie - demolition girl!

With those details confirmed, I donned my demolition garb and we got to work!

Living Room & Dining Room: Color Me Finished!

Ummmm....we had some trouble picking out just the right color for the living and dining rooms.

Choices

 Since we had such great luck having Home Depot match to our desired color swatches in other rooms, we thought we'd have no trouble. But, the Curse of the Beige hit us in full force. Since beige is a mixture of other colors, it has a tendency to change in the light. I painted the entire dining room in our original selection only to decide it wasn't right at all. How could that be? We liked it when we painted the sample on the wall. Well, apparently a gallon mixes up differently than the tiny 8oz samples that they give you at Home Depot. To this I shout, "WHAT'S THE POINT, THEN??"

I'll let the photo speak for itself. Sixteen samples later, we decided upon a lovely color from Benjamin Moore. Even as I painted, Nick had doubts. "This is the ONE," I insisted. "It will look different once all the walls are painted. Indeed, that's exactly how it works. We are pleased with the outcome.

Finished! Still looking for the perfect sconces.

 
Let me add a plug here, although you pay much, much more for the Aura paint at Benjamin Moore, it is a phenomenal product. It covers very well and I probably used half  as much paint as I would have used in Behr. So, with that consideration, the extra cost isn't as much as it seems.