Happy Halloween - Blessed Samhain

Tonight is Halloween and tomorrow The Day of the Dead.
It's a time to remember the dearly departed and think upon the turning of the year, what is past and what is to come. It is also a time to make merry and play tricks on one another and the haunted souls roaming the earth this one night of the year.

Our Jack-O-Laterns are carved and waiting to light the night and welcome the trick-or-treaters to our door. Liam is excited about the night to come, excited about wandering the streets with his friend Zach in search of treats and possibly a few tricks. He proudly wore his knight costume to Preschool today and gallantly gave up his sword at the door (that took a long discussion on the laws of hospitality to convince him). All Zoe knows is that all the shows on Treehouse are scary today. She has a purple fairy costume and a purple dress but I've only managed to get her into the dress. The fairy stuff is of no interest today but she has decided that the fancy dress requires a pair of MY high heels and refuses all other shoe options. Was I this stubborn and opinionated this early?

My usual decorations at the door are lacking this year since the house is still in chaos, and there hasn't been time to plan for an elaborate scheme. Maybe one day I'll make the paper, but not this year. After the tricking and treating dies down, Steve and I will be back upstairs to start on the second wall of subway tiles. I think it's a good way to usher in the turning of the year - building something new together. And laying the tiles is SO satisfying.

The room is really starting to come together and we are beginning to get a sense of the finished space. It's very exciting. When we look back at all the work we've done it is truly amazing. I know a lot of people think we are crazy for doing it all ourselves. We certainly couldn't do the kind of indepth reno that we have if it weren't for the fact that Steve has a knack for this kind of thing, and the perfectionist streak to make it look really good. My job is to reign him in whenever he gets too picky or obsessed - that and being 'the beautiful assistent.' Still, what I do to help is very important for the overall project (research, shopping, organizing, general backup, cleaning, finding lost tools...) but Steve has put in the hours and done the heavy labour to make this all possible. Four weeks - his entire vacation allotment - has gone to this renovation, and we're still working on it. We all deserve a real vacation when this is over!

P.S. We're off to the upstairs with the pop and bang of fireworks in the background. The children are all tucked in the bed after a night of terrorizing the neighbourhood with Liam's buddy Zach. Zoe was timid at first - hiding her face behind both hands or tucking her face into her daddy's shoulder - but by the end she was charging up stairs and growling her Halloween chants with the big boys.

Week Five in Review

It's been an 'interesting' week - the kind of 'interesting' one uses to curse one's enemies.

Steve was back at work this week. This meant an adjustment period and a whole new schedule for pretty much every aspect of our lives. And then there has been the never ending saga of the baseboard tiles. A saga which was supposed to end last night but continues nonetheless due to various complications in the process itself as well as unforseen events outside of the renovation.

First of all we thought we were going to have it done on, um, Monday was it? But then, at 10:30 at night, we realized we didn't have the faintest clue how to work with the capping strip; how to cut it, how to install it, what mortar to use, how big a grout line and where. So we focused on prep work for the door frame and cleaning things up for future tiling instead. On Tuesday I made yet another trip to Tile Town for more advice (they also know Zoe and I by name and want photos of this bathroom when we finally finish it). This should have meant that we began the process Tuesday night but the disruptive influence of unwelcome and unsolicited phone calls to Steve at work, by a certain female we have cut out of our lives, made tiling less of a priority than it would otherwise have been. Wednesday night, after a day without further intrusions on our lives, we began the process of installing the capping strip, only to have the plastic innards of our staple gun disintigrate about twenty staples in. Once again, as this occurred at about 10pm at night, there was nothing to be done until the next night. Thursday brought us a new, heavy duty staple gun from Sears, but also more intrusions in the form of emails and more implied invitations for Steve to meet with the aforementioned person. For this reason - just to stave off any rumours that this confrontation was unprovoked - we BOTH met with her and told her to leave us alone for now and forever. Maybe this time she got the message. Whatever the outcome of that event, we did get the capping strip installed Thursday night. And Last night should have seen the last of the base board tile saga. But alas, we ran out of mortar with only 6 tiles left to install. So today we go to see just how small an amount of mortar one can buy. Perhaps we'll take a yogurt container to a job site and scoop a bit in - that's how little we need. It's so frustrating!!

To top it all off I finally got some answers as to the fate of our supply tubes, shut offs and shower curtain rod from 'TransAtlantic' - ordered three weeks ago with a $20 expedite fee to get them here in three days. Apparently the tubes and shut-offs DON'T actually work together. So instead of trying to contact Splashes, the supplier put the order on hold indefinately until somebody called with the right questions. And there are no other options through that supplier - their only suggestion was definately NOT workable given our plumbing. So Thank The Goddess for the internet! Two hours later I had supply tubes, shut-offs, and escutchions ordered and today I had confirmation that they should be arriving next week by fed-ex to our door!!! We're not exactly sure what use Splashes has been to us in this whole process actually.

Hopefully this weekend will see a goodly amount of subway tile installed because after that there is very little standing in the way of plumbing in the fixtures and getting a functioning bathroom back. Stay tuned for the next update - who knows what will happen between now and then. Anything is possible!!

The Galvanizing Power of Adversity

Try turning all aspects of your life completely upside down for a few weeks and just see how well you know your partner, and find out just how compatible you are.

We have essentially cut our house in half and, even though we move more freely between the upstairs work area and the downstairs living areas, we are still living in a small space. But it's not so bad. As much as we dream of having a larger house - or even making this one larger one day - we could live quite easily in this small space. Of course if we were to do it long term, instead of 'temporarily,' I would have to make a few changes to the layout and composition of furniture. Oh, and a bath or shower would be a nice addition.

After an eventful day that had nothing to do with the renovation, Steve and I have decided to take the evening off from the constant reno-schedule and just reflect on all the things we've been through in the last few weeks - or is it months now? My mom asked me today 'And you and Steve are still speaking? I couldn't put up with all the chaos - I'd go crazy' (paraphrasing here mom). When I think about it I guess it would be understandable if the air was tense around here and tempers were short. But for the most part this whole thing has been a bonding experience for all of us. Committed as we are to an open and honest relationship, Steve and I have grown closer than ever, and learned more about each other - our needs, wants and desires - than we have in years. And we are more receptive and responsive to the needs of our children, who always seem to let us know when we've gotten a little too self-absorbed in life's other realities. When it comes right down to it, as nice as it will be to have a fabulous new bathroom, what really matters in life are the people you love. And when you GET that - when it resonates with the very core of you - then a little inconvenience like a house turned upside down is just another experience you can learn and grow from. Best of all you can have a little fun - and maybe get a little dirty - while you're there.

Day Twenty Nine: Tub Day Revisited

The thing about 'Tub Day' is that even though it is a Big Deal, the actual moving of the tub takes very little time and the rest of the day feels like a bonus. At least it does until you find yourself trying to drive the kids to sleep at 10pm at night and you realize that there has been very little progress despite the fact that there is a big beautiful footed tub sitting in the middle of the hall and blocking pretty much every doorway in the upstairs hallway...

We want to start tiling. We really do. Nevertheless, with the tub having been delivered and moved upstairs, but NOT into a bathroom ready to receive it, there really isn't any reason to rush the rest of the finishing work. And so we may be sleeping in our living room for weeks to come. Not that we haven't started moving back upstairs mind you. The entrance way is sans sheets now and functioning once again as a repository for coats and shoes. And the duffle bags full of clothes are upstairs, soon to be unpacked. But the thing is, we get SO MUCH more work done when the kids are asleep - as long as they are asleep DOWNSTAIRS. And so, until all cast iron and porcelain fixtures are installed and functioning, we will be taking advantage of the witching hours to complete our bathroom - and sleeping in the living room. It's not that bad really. It is our bed afterall, the exact one we sleep on upstairs, just downstairs on the floor.

I suppose we could rush things and try to get it all done this week. But we have taken so long making all the hidden aspects of the bathroom just right - it would be a bit backward to start rushing things and cutting corners now. After all that we've gone through, and the amount of time this whole renovation has consumed, it would be a shame if it just came out looking like a shoddy home job and not the professional transformation we have envisioned and are striving for. So instead of rushing into tiling today we decided that we needed to know where the door trim would be for the tile termination and that meant we might as well reframe the door since we had to rip it out to remove the tub.
I know, I know, the tub isn't in there yet so why are we doing this NOW? Well, when we removed the tub it was just me and Steve and putting that baby up on end was NOT an option. Now we know that on-end really is the best way to move it - and it will fit through the door, framed and all. We just need to line up some stronger help than l'il ol' me. So anyways, the door frame has proven to be a bit trickier than expected. Firstly the old one was a bit chewed up so Steve had to fabricate a new one, and secondly 'plumb' and 'square' are concepts that rarely manifest in this house without a great deal of blood, sweat and tears - and praying to the 'bubble god' that things are going to come out level.

People keep asking if we're going to have a party at the end of all this... We'd like to but I keep asking myself, 'What kind of party does one throw for the unveiling of a bathroom?' Should make for some interesting photos!

Day Twenty Eight: So Close We Can Almost Taste It!

These posts seem to be getting farther and farther apart, don't they? There is a LOT of good news, just not THE good news that the bathroom will be finished any time soon.

Lack of blogging this week has been due to the fact that most nights I have been able to get the kids to bed at home around 8:30pm and then we have been heading back upstairs to work on the more quiet tasks till about midnight or so. This means NO SHOWERS and NO BLOGGING for days. As you can imagine, by yesterday you really wanted to stay up-wind of us. So, for the sake of both ourselves and others, we took an enforced shower trip last night. We were still back upstairs to finish the floor tiling and do some clean up when we got back.

Yes I said "finish the floor tiling." At one point on Thursday we thought we'd get it done after the kids went to bed but all we managed was laying out the tiles and cutting as many as we could on our own - laying out tiles on a perfectly level and flat surface is so much nicer than most situations! Friday I took a few trips to Tile town for the the rest of them and the floor is now TILED and setting. This is good news. The not-so-good-news is that we still need to finish and install the built-in, frame the window and door, and install the medicine cabinet, and seal the drywall, BEFORE we can do the wall tiles. And the wall tiles have to be laid and the grout for both floor and wall completed, PLUS all the painting, BEFORE we can install the tub. And we have to install the tub BEFORE we can install the sink or toilet because having large porcelain objects in the path of a very large and awkward three-hundred-plus-pound item is a recipe for disaster. We have definately reached the portion of the renovation where TIIMING is EVERYTHING and the littlest things can take so much time.

Given all that still needs to be done, today has been fairly productive. There is something about a fresh coat of paint that serves to lighten the spirit and make everything seem just a little bit better than it did before. Besides, I was feeling a bit daunted by the idea of having to do all the painting AFTER the tiles were in. As it turned out, with all the construction Steve still needed to complete, it was fairly easy for me fit in a coat of drywall sealer here and there, and then the actual wall colour. An extension pole is just the thing to make painting fly! I don't know how we ever painted without one! By bedtime, the window frame was nearly complete (just some finishing that will wait till after tiling), the built-in has been installed (also a little bit more finishing left), as well as the fan cover, light cover, medicine cabinet (sort of).
More good news in that now that the bathroom is a 'clean room' we should be able to start moving back upstairs tomorrow later in the day. The upstairs plastic barriers have been removed and the hall has even been swept and tidied awaiting the arrival of the footed tub.

Oh yes, the tub. How could I forget the tub? It was delivered by the very talkative Bathtub Doctor earlier in the day (and looks AMAZING!) and then camoflaged under a pile of blankets and rubble at the side of our house. We will be moving it upstairs in the morning - but only into the hallway. The bathroom is still probably days away from completion now that we won't have full days any more. Although we have completed or nearly completed a large number of jobs we still have the daunting task of all those subway tiles. There are a lot of subway tiles! At least a lot of the little things are almost completely out of the way. So close we can almost taste it!

Day Twenty Four: What is 'Normal' Anyway?

I wasn't even sure if I was going to write today. Not that it's been a bad day or anything. I guess it is just that with us having been at this so long it just felt like another day - a good one - but another day.

I'm not sure what 'normal' is around here anymore. These days it is normal that there is a king size bed on the floor of our living room - a great place for sword fights, or wrestling matches, or lounging and watching TV. It is normal that under our front window are duffle bags full of clothes and a couple of plastic containers with pj's and underwear. It is normal that there is a large bin of laundry in the middle of the kitchen that we roll out of our way here and there. It is normal that the back door has pushed in front of it a laundry basket full of work clothes, another full of coats, and a pile of shoes behind those. It is normal that you get into these parts of the house by passing through a large plastic hanging barrier where the hall table has been pushed across the hall to ensure the bathroom is contained in the 'clean' area. It is normal for me to put on the TV for the kids and head upstairs whenever I can to help Steve with whatever his latest task is. It is normal to pile the kids into the car at the end of the day and drive over to Auntie Heidi's for a shower and a bedtime story and then pile back into the car for a drive until the kids are asleep.
It will be strange when we move back upstairs and can do our laundry whenever we want, and stranger still when we have our own bathroom again. And what a bathroom it will be!

We have drywall now - at long last. Looking back over this record it seems I was already thinking wistfully of drywall by day ten - a mere two weeks later it is a reality. Steve also picked up a whole bunch of tiles today so we're ready for that when the time comes. Tomorrow we need to track down the cement board for the floor and finish the drywall. And we had good news when I called Splashes - I believe only one final item is outstanding on our order. Given all this, I'd like to say that we are past our last stumbling block but we do have this built-in shelf at the end of the tub - a replacement for the one that was there before - that has proven to be elusive in its' design. Tomorrow we have to start building it so Steve is currently trying to get something workable down on paper so that he can make a list of material for tomorrow's shopping excursions.

A good day, a 'normal' day, in an otherwise strange existence.

Day... Ahh... Whatever

Like I said before, there isn't much point or desire to write when things aren't moving forward or at any great pace. This last weekend was a low point on the forward momentum and over all luck scale so we just abandoned the whole blogging effort till there was something worthwhile and uplifting to write about.

Strangely enough I think one of the major things that has been holding up this whole process and keeping us from moving ahead with the drywalling has been the Damn Ceiling Fan. Over the last week we have spent endless hours of procrastination, brain power, fiddling and a few bucks here and there trying to make our old fan with it's 3" vent hole connect to the 6" roof vent. Previous to vaulting the ceiling the two orifaces were about 3-4 feet apart and there was plenty of room to make the transition with various ducting do-das and thingy-ma-jigs. Now we have about 12 inches and a 90 degree turn with the 3" hole being flush to the ceiling drywall. It may be hard to imagine but trust me, THE GEOMETRY DOES NOT WORK!! So late last night we drove the kids up to Home Depot for a half hour of torturing anyone withing 50 feet of us with the shrieks of miserable children, and decided that we could either spend more money and brain power on the problem by buying a medium priced fan with a 4" vent and yet more ducting whoozits, or we could just bite the bullet and buy the most expensive deluxe super quiet damn bathroom ceiling fan Home Depot sells - the ONLY one with a 6" vent - and install the thing before bed and forget about it. So we did.

No drywall by the weekend - again - but today Steve has been shoving insulation into all the nooks and crannies and the vapour barrier is going up (yes, vapour barrier - a concept foreign to the 1912 construction or 1950's renovation mind set). WE HAVE A REAL ROOM AGAIN. It is truly all downhill from here. Drywall will go up tomorrow and once the sanding is complete the barriers in the rest of the house come down and we move back upstairs!! Then tiles and.... well, perhaps the rest of the fixtures - if they ever show up. Most of them are coming from, ahem, the Southern US. Y'know, that area wracked by endless tropical storms? Sigh.

Day Eighteen: Ok, Let's Screw!

I have to admit, we are a tad behind schedule these days. Drywalling by the weekend? Oh, you thought we meant LAST weekend...No, no. This weekend. For sure. Honest.

We knew that it was likely we would fall behind schedule, and we prepared for that in our time budgeting, but it is still a bit demoralizing when you realize that time is getting away from you. It's hard to get inspired to write about a day where you haven't achieved any concrete goals or, like yesterday, where you do but you are so exhausted that you can't find a spark of inspiration or energy to write about it all. We - well Steve - did successfully finish the feed lines for the plumbing yesterday. It's just that the whole plumbing process took two long days and in the end it was a real crunch at the end of the day just so we could get the water back on in time for dinner. As it turned out we skipped swimming lessons and I relied on foods that didn't require any washing or water added to them (we had drank all our excess during the day), so the water was on in time for us to EAT dinner anyways. Tempers were certainly short around here last night.

They say 'It's always darkest before the dawn.' And so I believe today saw a turning point in this whole renovation process/experience. With the copper lines completed and capped, waiting for fixtures, we could turn our attentions to the problem of the toilet drain (and more trips to the DO-IT Centre - they know me and Zoe by name now I think) which ultimately meant that it was time to start installing the FLOOR! I never thought I'd be turned on by the sight of plywood cut to fit and laid over meticulously levelled joists (that floor is going NOWHERE), but I can't deny that my excitement was beyond the norm for that sort of thing. The actual installation of the first slab of plywood took place after dinner with the kids plugged into a DORA DVD. Steve just looked at me and said, "ok, let's screw" and so we did!
Actually, when the shows ended Liam was asleep and Zoe found us upstairs, so she helped me with placing the screws for Steve to screw in with the power drill. With Liam asleep and Zoe charged up from a late afternoon nap, Steve is taking the opportunity to work late tonight and maybe even FINISH the floor. Or perhaps he's working on blocking in the walls where fixtures will be, well, fixed. Either way it feels pretty good to be firmly established in the reconstruction phase of the renovation and anything he does tonight will be a bonus for tomorrow. The last thing to be 'deconstructed' will be the window, and we need a floor to do that. From then on the focus is building our new bathroom. Now if the toilet would just get here. And the supply lines and drain unit for the tub, and the shroud for the sink...

Day Sixteen: A Hot Flushing Toilet . . . . Why Not?

Yesterday was a well deserved rest - and turkey dinner! - but today we were up bright and early so that we could make it into town for a full days work before the kids arrived at 5pm-ish. We weren't up nearly as early as the poor sots at Home Depot who had to open the store for 6am. Who shops at Home Depot at 6am on Thanksgiving Monday?? I mean 8:45am is early enough! So yes, we were back at Home Depot. Steve was right, plumbing jobs (by amateurs anyways) always result in multiple trips to the store - three to DO-IT and one to Home Depot on Saturday, one each today.

Plumbing isn't exactly hard but it's VERY important and you can't afford to fuck it up. And I do mean 'fuck' and not 'mess' because water is the most relentless and destructive force on the earth and having a leak in your wall would result in plenty of obscenities in the long run that could be avoided by sticking to the simple guideline 'don't fuck it up.' Unfortunately, trying not to fuck it up means taking a long time to figure out the plan and get efficient at prepping the pipe and then there is soldering, plus trying not to burn down the house while you're at it. Oh yah, and then HOPEFULLY nothing leaks. So by the end of today we were pretty sure we were finally good enough to get it all done in the four or five hours we originally had today... As it is we are about halfway done; the pipes in Heik's Hole have been cut and replaced with rigid copper, the cold line is almost complete - minus the tub feed - and the hot line has been started. And we seem to have restored Heik's shoddy craftsmanship (ie. the kitchen cupboards) to it's previous "glory".

I have to say, shiny new rigid copper pipes custom fit to your needs are a sight to behold. There is something truly satisfying about creating a brand new line. As we sat there on the sliver filled planks laid out across the floor joists and prepped our pipes we felt a bit more like craftsmen than construction workers. The quiet camaraderie of sitting and working together while music played in the background was a nice change from the banging of hammers and the whirr of power tools. You can take a certain amount of pride in filing the ends smooth and in creating a perfect tidy solder joint - not to mention your finished sculpture. Just make sure you know which line is hot and which is cold because if you 'fuck' that up you'll have to tear apart your masterpiece or make do with switched hot/cold taps and a Hot flushing toilet. We didn't make that mistake. OK, it was close.

Day Fifteen: Onward . . . . to an Unsuspecting Kitchen!

When we first decided to undertake renovating the bathroom, well it wasn't actually the bathroom at all. You see, back in the early days of spring after a long winter of looking at the walls, it turned out we had a hankering to gut the kitchen!
Now, to those who first walk into our spacious kitchen and say "wow", we usually say "LOOK CLOSER". The glued-down laminate floor has voids in the glue (which squeak), the cabinets are cheap and falling apart, the walls wobble due to being nothing more than poorly wallpapered wood panelling that has been (barely) tacked over the uninsulated studs, and the layout . . . well . . . blows.
Ah, yes. Another classic Heik room.
But it was not meant to be! When we took a step back, we realized that while we were tuned in to every SINGLE flaw of the kitchen, we were seriously overlooking the fact that our bathroom was disgusting. And so here we are.
Or are we?
As you might recall (or see while reading the back issues of this here blog), the plumbing supply lines for the bathroom were a "dog's breakfast". (In laymans' terms, that means shite.) Actually, the ORIGINAL supply lines were some pretty fantastic (and tidy) 3/4" galvanized steel which for some reason were abandoned in favour of cheap bum loser FLEXIBLE copper tubing. What makes this stuff bad is that it doesn't mesh well with rigid copper because out of 360 possible angles it might splay out at, chances are it won't be one you can work with.
OK, but it's FLEXIBLE right? Maybe not after fifty years. To make a long story short, the first attempt to "straighten it out" had more of a kinking effect. And the only way out of that particular jam was to cut in below the kink, which led us downstairs . . . . . to the KITCHEN!!
So there we were, emptying and pulling down our lovely MDF cabinets over the stove. It turned out to be quite an easy task, as Heik (the idiot) used very little of what people call FASTENERS. In fact, one fine piece was held on by nothing more than edges of wallpaper. Seriously. It didn't take long to spot the copper pipes, though, as he had so cleverly run the range hood's galvanized venting through the wall directly against the copper. Have I said "copper" and "galvanized" enough? That's because putting copper and pretty much any other metal together is a No-No (see "leaks"). Not to mention the fact that the venting was poorly done, and explains the draft we've always had in that corner of the kitchen.
But maybe this rant is just a way to 'vent' because we now see that renovating the kitchen would have been much easier, at least in the destruction, and salvaging of cabinetry (such as they are). We had Heik's shitty handiwork down in minutes. The hard part will be putting it back . . . . without giving into the temptation to rip it ALL down and do it right!
So that's the feature moment from today. Between yesterday's cataclysms and today's Heikysms, we've earned our day off and turkey dinner.

Day Fourteen: Just When You Thought Nothing Else Could Go Wrong, Shannon Spills the Rootbeer

Ever have one of those days where absolutely nothing seems to go right? Or . . . . . more like all the obvious things that could go wrong, don't - for example, the plumbing seems to be on track, the floor joists are level, it was a lovely sunny day, and so on -but, somehow, all those little unexpected things go disastrously wrong.

For instance, this is the second attempt at todays Blog entry because MY COMPUTER CRASHED this evening and it looks like the hard drive is F-U-C-K-E-D! (so no photos today) That was only the second last major bad event of the day mind you. The first was probably when Steve realized he had forgotten to pick up screws from his trip to Home Depot and decided to stop off at Lumberworld. Seemingly innocent enough - they had the screws afterall, and we had a special account price on them - until he tried to back out of the parking stall and was smashed into by a really BIG FORD TRUCK who was also backing up. Of course the parking lot was devoid of potential witnesses - not that it mattered anyways. So, I got to spend a couple of hours on the phone with our private insurance company and ICBC and Steve had to keep interrupting work to give the details so we could get various claim numbers. We're REALLY glad we have private insurance through ING mind you - they treat you like real people!

The thing that really pushed Steve over the edge was when I spilled his Biggie Root Beer all over his feet and turned the driver's side floor into a small sugary puddle - just as we were about to begin the drive out to Otter Point. It's a wonder we made it here in one piece, especially since we can't signal left turns at the moment.

It's past midnight now. Hopefully we're in the clear.

Day Thirteen: Six Inches Forward, Five Inches Back?

Another day, another dump run, and another pile of garbage.

We finally destroyed the bathroom floor. We now officially have a completely denuded room bare to studs, joists and rafters. Therefore, we can no longer put off redoing the plumbing. Not if we are going to rebuild the floor and be drywalling by the weekend. Plumbing. The one thing we are both just a little bit nervous about. I guess tonight, when the kids are asleep, we'll be reading our plumbing and bathroom books, cramming for the big exam. And of course we have a footed tub - the one thing you don't find covered in the books or online. Most sources say 'hire a licensed plumber' and leave it at that. I have found a few obscure tips pages online but nothing exhaustive. So we can only hope that we've made the correct measurements and get all the lines and drains in the right place. There is NO WAY we're going to cover up the plumbing with a surround again!!

The thing about removing a 90-odd year old floor is that you never know what you are going to find underneath. Like the fact that the south wall is not supported by a joist - that was a real 'Holmes on Homes' moment. Hopefully our makeshift sistering support does the trick. And of course it's always a pleasure to discover EVEN MORE LIVE KNOB-AND-TUBE going to our kitchen fan. We're just going to pretend like we didn't see that. And then there is the old plumbing... We knew our old toilet was at least 3 inches too far out from the wall so we plan to move the new one back to the proper 12" rough in. Unfortunately, this will possibly bring it too close the the side wall since the drain pipe comes in at an angle. And the P-trap for the tub is pretty much toast. We now know why our kitchen has a lower ceiling than other parts of the house. Someone, at some point, decided to rip out parts of the old plaster ceiling to get at the plumbing, and then opted to do nothing. Maybe it was Heik, deciding not to do anything about the bathroom afterall, or maybe it was from before when the newer copper plumbing was ultimately routed ABOVE the floor and then boxed in. It's a dog's breakfast in there anyways.

Of course the whole reason why we could rip up the floor today is the fact that Nana and Panda took Zoe for the afternoon while Liam was at preschool. And then they bought us Chinese Food for dinner! Yum!
Thanks a bunch - we really appreciate all the help with the kids. It makes this whole process possible!

Day Twelve: Dump Load Number One

We decided to take yesterday off - from blogging anyways. We are currently immersed in all the nit-picky details of prepping the framing and electrical so we can drywall by the weekend. This translates into a lot of talking about what should go where and then what needs to be done to achieve that, and then deciding what should be done first, and then actually doing it. It also means that there has been very little visible progress in the last couple of days and not much to write about. I mean how many more photos of the framing can we post do you think?

We slept in today - which was pure luxury! With the TV at the foot of the bed it means that the kids can easily be engaged without our having to wake up more than to grab blindly for the remote. After a leisurely breakfast, Steve loaded up the Jeep with Dump Load Number One and he and Liam set off for Hartland Landfill. Liam was in charge of the camera...

This afternoon saw a couple of firsts! Steve tackled his first plumbing task; capping the lines and ripping out the old plumbing - both cast iron and more recent flexible copper lines (more fun with the reciprocating saw!). This also meant he got his first burn of the reno from a hot pipe. Let's see... he's got a fair number of cuts on his head from nails, a big scratch up his back from the table saw (not the blade, the corner of the table), a big blood blister from gripping various tools, asbestos/dust inhalation... Not bad considering his track record at work. Maybe we need our own WCB report book. After capping the lines Steve decided to stick to electrical and do a bit more reading on plumbing before we tackle that task, so the bathroom is basically wired with all required recepticles - light switches, GFI outlet, pot light, etc - and THAT means we are officially out of the attic! Or so we hope.

Tomorrow we rip out the floor!!

Day Ten: Last Day in the Attic??

The whole family is back in the house for the week so we're back to a half man-power schedule for the next few days. Thankfully Steve has a one-man system worked out for framing the ceiling and only needs my help once in a while - like helping to feed the 16 foot rafters through the window and into the attic. The TV does make an ok babysitter, for short jobs, despite the fact that once long ago I swore I'd never do that.

As we get more into construction, and begin thinking about removing the floor and redoing the plumbing, we need to map out things like where the supply lines for the tub will come out of the floor and so on. So I set out to research supply line installation on the web and discovered that the supply lines we have are the wrong ones! Thankfully this oversight is not our fault as the sales lady picked them out for us, but we also ordered the wrong size shower curtain ring and have been waiting for a return call from Splashes for a week now. So another failed attempt at a phone-call (sales people were all too busy) meant that a visit to the store was in order and NOW! The tub is due back in a week! Unfortunately, Zoe was in full-on teething misery and I couldn't quite envision how I would communicate with the sales people at Splashes with her clinging and screeching, so I convinced Steve to come downstairs, clean up, and off we went.

An hour and a half later Steve and Zoe had explored the entire two floors of the Splashes show room and I had managed to get the right shower ring, supply lines and shut off valves ordered with a promise that SOMEONE would get back to us about returning the wrong items. We also had our sink basin in tow, which means we can determine where and how high we are installing it, finish bracing the wall, and start on the plumbing. Phew! Now we just have to avoid the plague that seems to be making it's way about the city - staff at the DO-IT Centre, Splashes, and our friend Heidi, were all sick today. And Liam and I are feeling a bit yucky too...

At least we now have a framed vaulted ceiling complete with extended wall framing above the door. Now we just need to install and wire the pot light and fan and then DRYWALL! Or do we redo the plumbing and floor first? Or frame in the medicine cabinet and shelves? Or maybe we should...

Day Nine: Weekend Warriors

Another day, another drive in from Otter Point... another later than optimal start. Oh well, hot showers and a kids-free day are worth it.

Today was the first real day of CONSTRUCTION, rather than destruction (although we still have the floor and old plumbing to dismantle). The focus was rafters and associated framing for vaulting the ceiling. Part of the idea behind vaulting the bathroom ceiling is to create a new and more accessible entrance into our attice. Previously our only way in was a little square above our dryer which was just plain problematic no matter how you sliced it. So we are building a mini clean storage space in the attic above the door to the bathroom - with drywall and everything. Kind of a 'panic room' for when the Americans eventually invade - I guess. From there you will be able to enter the messy attic area to service the electrical, chimney (?) or whatever. Come to think of it, neither of us ever want to go up there again so who knows what use that room will find. Since we are also creating storage off the front room I can't see what I would want to actually store up there.

Anyways, other events of the day included me adding a woman's touch to the front work room by tiding up and organizing everything - much to Steve's annoyance. Well, actually, he appreciated it but wished I would leave his square on the floor where he left it rather than putting it back in the 'small tools' bin. I also set up the shop vac so we can actually CLEAN something whenever we get in the mood. I also made nice with the reciprocating saw and hammered nails into the roof from the attic, just to feel useful and spend my own time in attic purgatory (I think I was up there for about 10 minutes - not quite the same as 3+ days).

The day ended with the return of the children and Thai food - Thanks PANDA!!. After reading over this entry we began to wonder why exactly we were dry-walling a mini-room in the attic and decided it was a bit over-the-top (pardon the pun). So tomorrow we will finish framing the vaulted ceiling and be done with it. All we really need is the plywood floor that Steve installed at the end of the day anyways.

P.S. Whomever keeps going to check out the flickr! photo of Steve in the tub YOU'RE CREEPING US OUT!!

Day Eight: Sistering Studs

Our morning started bright and early... at Otter Point. With the kids spending the weekend with my folks we are opting to join them for the evenings. A bit of a drive after a long day but there are hot showers at the end, and we get to drive the Sunfire which corners MUCH better than the Jeep and shaves about 30 minutes off the commute. We did drive the Jeep in today since we needed to stop off at Home Depot to pick up our new bathroom window, plumbing supplies and some lumber for the framing we began today. Home Depot without kids is much preferable to the alternative!

We were looking forward to a highly productive day, even with a late start (11am), when we had a bit of a nasty surprise that put at damper on my day at least. Our new tenant (and her aunt) arrived as I was about to begin the final coat of paint on our ceiling patches and were present to discover the fact that our previous tenant HAD NOT CLEANED THE APARTMENT! When I left the apartment around 2pm yesterday she had moved out and was vaccuuming, so I assumed she would complete the job before she left. Alas, no. The bathroom sink was caked in layers of toothpaste, the kitchen sink still had food bits in it, the floor was filthy with cat food, every surface was covered in cat paw marks, all the floors hadn't been swept or mopped and so forth. And to top it all off the AUNT was being mother hen and giving US attitude like WE hadn't cleaned the place when we gave them the option of waiting for a maid service, getting rent break if they did it themselves, or having us clean it (not our 1st choice). So I was pissed off that the first part of my day had to be spent playing Molly Maid - I charge $50/hr by the way.

Steve, on the other hand, spent the day happily framing away; Adding headers, sistering studs, blocking, cleaning, hammering, screwing, kicking up dust and so on.

Once I was done with cleaning, making lunch, pulling a few nails and taking Liam to a birthday party (Panda brought him in), I came back and was given a tutorial on the compound mitre saw. I figure if all those gals on 'Trading Spaces' can do it so can I. So I made nice with the big nasty power tool and didn't even hurt myself! Unfortunately Steve's back received a bit of a, ahem, three inch scrape on the table saw when he stood up to make room for me. Oops. With me on the compound mitre saw and Steve up the ladder with hammer nails, screw and power drill, we finished up the blocking required to vault the ceiling before we called it quits for the day.

Day Seven: Appetite for Destruction

(note: Blogger was down all last night so we're a bit late on this one)

We finally made it back into the bathroom today! At 2:30pm to be exact. And MAN did we wreck havoc on the walls!!! We had them all down and the rubble cleared to the side of the house by 6pm. It was liberating to finally be done with the electrical and finally get down to making some progress that FELT like progress.

The electrical renovation was basically four days of attic purgatory for Steve. But it's worth it. And the washing machine situation was taken care of in-wall so there was no removal of the dryer afterall.

And as for exposing the secrets within our walls, what DID we find? A stack of Action Comics #1's? A few bricks of Nazi gold? The loot of a thousand worlds? Hmmmmmm . . . . . well aside from a bit of mould and some 1950's news print, we discovered that in 1912 interior walls were framed in 2x3's, and outside walls were 2x4. Hard as nails old growth 2x4's mind you. They also didn't know anything about double plates, window trimmers, blocking or bracing. These walls are framed, and that's about it. It looks like adding some framing to the outside wall will job #1 tomorrow, so that it can take the load of the vaulted ceiling.