The art of "dropping in" a bathtub

I know the way I casually stated in our last blog that we were just going to "drop in" the bathtub made it seem like you just saunter over to the hole and plop that puppy into place. Four hours later, the tub is "dropped" - but that reinforced steel son-of-a gun is LEVEL!

PS: First frustration/profanity tonight...we had to let it know we meant business. :) Gnight all!

Battle with the pipes

Demo is complete! We finished up the demolition yesterday then spent 3 hours and a small sum of money at the Home Depot. Rented a truck to lug all of our wall board, tub, and instulation home and made it back in the 75 min required to only have to pay $20 for the truck :) Sweeeeet

Next lesson...things will take about 2x as long as you originally expect. Yep, we discussed it and are 2 days in and about 1 day behind where we thought we would be. We are staying relatively calm and after tonight should be pros at "showering" in the kitchen sink. B-Flick has officially soldered 20 or so joints today including 4 very difficult brass to copper joints. We like to start in the most difficult place when we begin a new trade...for example, re-building the plumbing to the shower. Most people would probably start by moving one pipe, maybe just practicing on some scrap stuff...nope, go big or go home.

We are heading to bed tonight ready to finish up our vapor barrier in the shower area tomorrow then drop in the tub. B has an HOA meeting on Tuesday night so we'll see where to go from there...we are enjoying the tag-team effort with everything! Can't wait for that shower at work in the morning :)

Mich

So I guess we're really doing this, huh?

So sharing walls with your neighbors has the distinct advantage (or disadvantage) of only being able to chisel up tile during hours in which most of the general population is awake...that is if you are a good neighbor. I like to think we are good neighbors.

Day 1 - lessons learned:

1.) Taking tile up off of a concrete slab is a major pain in the parts. Thank goodness our bathroom is the size of a twin bed otherwise we would be here for DAYS...

2.) Always wear long sleeves and long pants no matter what you are doing during demolition. Even if you are in a non-vented, middle of the house bathroom that is kind of humid and smells a little funky, just do it. Tile just bounces off of walls like shrapnel and gets ya. Mom and Dad, we are wearing masks and eye protection.

3.) You should probably clear out your medicine cabinet (or medicine collection as ours would turn out to be - I thought we were healthy people!) occasionally. Although we traditionally move every year, apparently we are really good at sweeping all our medications into a bag and just transporting them from closet to closet. I think the oldest vial expired in 2006 - that is not a joke. Don't be nervous for us, I got rid of all the offenders and we now have a streamlined medicine cabinet of Ibuprofen, Omeprazole, Tums, and eye drops.

So tomorrow we finish chipping up the floor and then buy some special grinder/saw that Flick has always wanted in order to get the residual thinset off the concrete. Then we bust up a tub, rip down some walls (I am so afraid of what is behind there...I am not convinced that we are without flora and fauna), and try and get a new tub in. That is the plan at least...I'll let you know how it goes :)

Mich

Testing 1, 2, 3...

Is this thing on?

In an effort to keep you all up to speed on the progress of our long awaited bathroom remodel, and to avoid leaving out any hilarious details, we are firing up our first ever Blog...Bathroom Stories...no, not those kind.

Brief overview:

Start Date: Friday April 23rd, 2010 (demolition begins)

Latest possible end date (please let it be sooner): June 17th, 2010 (the Parent parent's arrive)

The goal is to gut the bathroom down to the studs and build her back up. One tile, tub, sink, hot water heater, and piece of cement board at a time!

Things to note:

1.) We have only one bathroom

2.) Flick is having dental surgery Thursday - demo starts on Friday

3.) Neither of us have ever done anything like this before

4.) Did I mention we only have one bathroom?

We have already received plenty of good advice from a number of different parties who all look at us with the same concerned look on their faces..."you are doing what?". So you can be sure we will remember to turn off the power to the bathroom before we start the demo, will cover absolutely everything in flux, and will leave the toilet operational for as many hours as possible.

So check in as often or as little as you like. We will do our best to keep the information flowing so you can keep tabs on our progress and maybe pick up a few tips along the way...hahahha, we'll see.

Mich