Monday, October 12, 2009

Bathroom before and after!

I finally have something to show you that actually is finished!!!!  This is the bathroom we were going to do all along.  The original shower was too hard to clean.  I could never get that fresh clean comet scent after cleaning.  Oh, maybe it is because of the rotten wood located underneath the surface of the shower.  I am so sad that I don't have the real before shot.  You would see such a difference. 



Anyway, while I am busy searching for another stand up shower at Lowe's my dad had it in his head to move the toilette over and put in a tub at the back of the room.  Beautiful!  Instead of just making do with where things were located, we made it just right. 



After riping out all of the old we discovered that who ever put in the shower cut through two of the floor joists for the plumbing.  That explains the very slanted floor, compared to the house's slightly slanted floors.  So dad taught me about sister joists.  It is when you put a piece of wood next to the old wood to strengthen, stabilize, and level.  Of course dad put in all new plumbing.  I was introduced to a product called "Pex".  It is the coolest stuff that makes changing out plumbing actually pretty fun. 




KSL supplied the great marble flooring.  I got such a great deal on it, I was able to put in the pebble strip by the tub and at the threshold.  My dad was a bit indifferent about the pebble tile.... which is to be expected.  When it was all installed, though, he did make a comment like, "You need a water feature that flows along these rocks."  Yes, just the mood I was going for. 



I could go on and on and on, but I will spare you.  I do feel great every time I walk past this room.  It is the one room that feels like it belongs in a home.  Everything else, well, it's just a work site. 

 

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cement anyone?


A few weeks ago we agreed to stop demolishing.  Well, that was then and this is now.  We decided to tear out the other tub in the ONLY room we vowed to do nothing with.  We were trying to eliminate the smell.  Sorry for that detail. 

Well, it didn't take care of the problem, so we rented a cement saw and had at it.  Dad did all of the work, I just poured water on the blade.  So now we have a ditch through the bathroom and one of the bedrooms.  Just so you know, we were aiming at taking out the heat duct under there.  We did get that out and will now, hopefully, put a new one in and seal the thing up.  The guy at the rental place said it would get a bit dusty.  I have never experienced anything like it.  It is like at Timp caves when they turn out the lights and you can't see your hand in front of your face.  No, really, it IS just like that. 



On a lighter note, the kids had a great time helping "Baca" hook up the toilette.  I have seen Slade that excited only a couple of times.  They would flush it and then run down stairs to hear the water going through the pipes.  These kids don't need Disney land, just a good toilette flushing. 




The last project we decided on is taking up all of the sub-floor in the family, dining, and kitchen and leveling all of the floor joists.  Don't ask me why we didn't do it before.  Oh, it is because I am silly and thought the bamboo flooring would somehow be okay over a crazy crooked floor.   

Once I came to terms with what we had to do, I got happy. 
I am always a sucker for a painstakingly long project.