More Plumbing, Bathroom Tile, and Hardwood Floors

Yesterday, I took the day off to work on tiling the bathroom floor and to meet with contractors about some more plumbing and the hardwood floors. I want to have all our supply lines replaced; they're 50-year-old galvanized pipes, and they need to come out in order to keep our water in a nice, not-brown-and-gross condition and to make sure the water pressure is satisfactory. I also wanted to make sure we could easily get the washing machine drain pipe properly routed to the sewer line. These things will not be prohibitively expensive, and we'll probably have them done the week after next. The plumber suggested that we also replace the line coming from the street to the house (dig a trench, cut out the old pipe, put in the new one, fill the trench, sow grass seed), and I'd like to have that done too, but that alone will cost nearly $1,000, so I'm not sure we'll jump on it immediately. A higher priority than that pipe is getting our hot water heater replaced; the existing one is 15-20 years old and is probably helping to foul up our water due to rust/corrosion/deposits inside.

Mom-Mom and Papa came down, and Papa worked on the big kitchen window. Dad took half a day off to come help me tile. Thanks to his help, the bathroom floor is all tiled except for the closet. I'll have to buy a fresh blade for my wet saw before I can make the cuts that the closet tile will require; that porcelain is some seriously tough stuff! I hope to have everything in the bathroom grouted and sealed by the end of this weekend. And of course, I forgot to bring the camera to the house yesterday, so you'll have to wait a couple of days for pictures of the tile. :-(

The estimate I got for refinishing the hardwood floors was right around what we expected. We'll probably have them start that next week, but it's possible we'll decide to stay another half-month in the duplex so that things aren't so rushed. We wanted to finish the bathroom and finish all the painting before the floors were done, but it looks like that will take a little longer than we had hoped.