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!
