Saturday, January 25, 2020

did someone mention old corroded cast iron and galvanized plumbing?


Oh. My. God.

Let me add 'nasty'.

no picture of the new PVC under the house as they did that and replaced the subfloor while I was gone yesterday

Every bit of plumbing in that bathroom has now been replaced...the toilet, the vent pipe, the sink, the bathtub/shower. All of it. Well, not quite all. The copper pipes in the wall for the shower remain. The bad news? It added almost $1400 to the cost of this remodel. The good news? We should never have plumbing problems in that bathroom ever again.

I did go to Lowe's after the watercolor class on Wednesday and looked at tile and molded bathtub surrounds and light fixtures and faucets, took a lot of pictures and decided on nothing. I did order the vanity and already I'm worried the 'tobacco' stain on the wood will be too red and wondering if that can be toned down (yes.

Thursday was estate sale day and this one was no great shakes. Looked like the house had been decorated by Hobby Lobby. Pam and I passed two manufactured home businesses on our way and so on the way back we stopped and looked at what they had to offer but this is a story for another day.

Yesterday I drove the 40 minutes to the nearest Floor and Decor and spent a couple of hours there. As soon as I walked in a woman asked me if I needed help to which I answered 'yes'. After I explained the situation she showed me what they had to offer, what was new, what the industry had moved toward (larger and larger sizes of tile) and what they had left behind (square tile). I picked two possibilities for the bath/shower walls and one for the flooring (vinyl floating plank), then I wandered around on my own and picked some accent pieces and one possibility of tile for the vanity wall. Some of the stuff I picked I know I won't use because of the price but I brought home the samples anyway.


Today I decided to take out the two cabinets above the tub which I don't and never will use because of the steam and moisture that rises up into them and if I leave them I'll have to tile underneath them, so they're going (Rocky's working a half day today so now they're gone).


Later today I'm going to Bay City to look at vinyl roll flooring and then spend tomorrow pushing numbers around and considering combinations and hopefully make some decisions.




25 comments:

  1. Isn't this always the way? What you think will be a simple (or at least not crazy impossible) project becomes completely overwhelming with more contingencies than you had ever dreamed?
    But just think how happy you'll be when it's all over and you won't have to worry about it ever again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I should have expected as much...old house, old bathroom. and while the interior has been redone probably more than once by what we found under the formica, the underneath had not.

      Delete
  2. You sure know how to have fun! I am sure your bathroom appreciates the face lift

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh yeah, a laugh riot. the bathroom may not appreciate it but we will whenever we got on the other side.

      Delete
  3. Diagonal sheathing on the outside walls and plywood over the inside walls--at least the one in the bathroom. These things suggest a house well-built.

    Along with steel drain pipes, it looks like you still have steel water pipes, which leads me to ask how old your house is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. built in the early 60s I think, maybe late 50s. bathroom now has all PVC and PEX to the sink, left the copper from the water lines to the shower handles and shower head. maybe steel water lines from the meter. don't know.

      Delete
    2. I would bet heavily on the lines from the street being galvanized. My house was built in 1955, and most everything is as it is in your house.

      Delete
  4. Smart to get rid of those cabinets above the tub. The tile samples are pretty, but not much more pretty than that nice, new PVC etc. that won't need replacing, either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. this place had/has so much storage. one wall of the bedroom was floor to ceiling cabinets (we took the doors off all but the bottom row and now it's just shelves), pantry, built-in floor to ceiling cabinet in the small bedroom for dresser I guess because with that there is no room for a dresser, the cabinets over the tub (right? what would even put in there?), lots of kitchen cabinets most of which I need a step stool in order to reach, the back bedroom had one short wall of floor to ceiling shelves (which I took out when we did that room after the flood)...none of which was original to the house.

      Delete
  5. My bathroom in the old house had to be gutted like that. The good news was, the plumber fellows could just go down the basement, not crawl under the house. What we learn when we own a house.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the city house was even older and we never did redo the plumbing in it, just stop gap measures.

      Delete
  6. We had the same problem when we did our bathroom. We now have PEX and PVC under the house. David and I decided on single sheet Acrylic that looks like marble siding in our shower. We didn't want to worry about cleaning grout all the time. The Acrylic siding looks like the real (marble) thing and then we had the vinyl floor taken up and reinforced the subfloor and put down marble. It looks so nice and it's easy to keep clean and it matched the Acrylic shower walls. You should look into this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the porcelain tile I'm considering uses 1/16" spacers and the tiles are 12" x 24" so I'm hoping grout is minimal. I looked at the acrylic you suggested but I think I'll stick with the tile. not enough choices on the acrylic and I need a beige to go with the vanity top.

      Delete
  7. I know that feeling of "this will not have to be done again". It's good, considering what an upheaval it is. You'll be so happy when it's done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. everytime something new horrible comes up...now it's re-venting the dryer which was venting under the house via the clothes hamper/water heater closet. seemed like a fire hazard to us. but yeah, will be happy when it's done. after working in the architectural business doing art glass I swore I would never remodel my house. the first time was forced on me by the flood but this time it was voluntary. sort of.

      Delete
  8. So much work and expense. Hang in there. It will be over and you will be relieved. Who puts cabinets above a shower?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. right? what a dumb idea. I wonder what the previous owners who I think did that stored up there.

      Delete
  9. But now the choices, the choices! How to decide with so much to choose from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm trying to keep my choices to a minimum. I think I'm managing pretty well so far.

      Delete
  10. I am so impressed by you ability to forge ahead with these home improvement projects. I am mired in inertia or more like concrete when it comes to the like.May it all turn out exactly as you imagine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it would surely help if I had an image to imagine! but I think I'm getting there.

      Delete
  11. Why is it that every home improvement project opens Pandora's box? I do like that aqua subway tile. I have to put tile in my never-ending (due to chronic procrastination) guest bathroom project. I have vowed to finish it this spring. I've been looking at that vinyl floating plank flooring for the master bathroom. I'm interested to know how you like it, if you decide to go that route.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yeah, it's good that you replaced all those pipes. As you said, it should eliminate problems in the future. (How did I get so behind on your blog?!)

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.