Hello, Walls

A couple weeks ago, I set forth to turn the cobbled-together hunks of sheetrock into legitimate bathroom walls with a roll of fiberglass mesh tape, a 6-inch taping knife, a 10-inch taping knife, a corner knife (borrowed from Uncle Keith), a huge bucket of joint compound, and a head full of drywall "mudding" tips (also courtesy of Keith).

I was prepared for some seriously patience-taxing work, especially since I'd never done this particular task before (though the tedious nature of it definitely felt familiar). First I taped all the joints with the mesh tape. Next, I used the 6-inch knife to scoop mud out of the bucket and apply it liberally along the joints. Then I went back with the 10-inch knife to spread it out as wide and flat and smooth as I could. After about 24 hours of drying, I attacked it all with sandpaper, wiped the dust off with a damp sponge, and started again. The second time, I applied the joint compound in a much thinner and wider layer. After more drying and more sanding, I evaluated things. Surprisingly, most of it was looking much better than I'd thought it would.



There are certainly some spots here and there that will need at least another coat, but I would say that most of it needs only another light pass with some fine-grit sandpaper before it's done.

(Progress on the ceiling part, small as it is, is lagging behind; the joints were very wide and uneven, so it has taken a lot more work to get it close to acceptable...not to mention that working overhead is about five times more difficult than working at eye level.)

Tub

Some friends of ours recently bought an old house in which the previous owner had left a bunch of old junk. This junk, though, included two old claw-foot bathtubs. They knew we might be interested, and we looked at them and took some measurements. One of them was just the right size for the master bathroom and looked to be in pretty good shape, although it clearly needs refinishing. A few weeks ago, we bought it from them for next to nothing (compared to what we had planned on spending on a new one, at least), and my dad helped us haul it home.


Jessica wanted a preview of what it'd be like once in place, so Dad and I lugged it into the bathroom and situated it roughly where it would ultimately be.


(Yes, there is one foot missing in the two above pictures. It fell off while making the journey from the front porch to the bathroom. Not to worry, though. It didn't break; it just came loose.)

I browsed the phone book and found a guy in town who's been doing bathtub repair and restoration for 35 years, and their cost to refinish a tub like ours was, I thought, pretty reasonable. He came and picked up the tub, and they're holding it for us until we're ready for it. We're supposed to call them about three weeks before we want it back, at which point they'll start working on it, and then deliver it when it's done. He sounded very positive about the quality of the tub, and said he thought it would look very nice when it was finished.

This was an exciting find, especially because of the money we're saving versus buying a new one. Even with the cost of refinishing added in, we'll have acquired this tub at well less than half of what we would have paid for a new one. We're very much looking forward to seeing what it looks like when they're done with it.

Master Bath Progress

The pace of work on the master bathroom hasn't exactly been brisk (there have been several large obstacles and distractions), but enough man-hours have been put in since the last blog post to make the progress highly visible and--dare I say?--encouraging.

The shower is completely gone; nary a trace remains. We finished taking out the wall and had an electrician come in to take care of the wire that used to reside in it. He ran the wire through the remaining walls, including newly-added wire that will one day deliver power to a pair of mirror-flanking wall sconces, and he installed a new combination switch/receptacle box near where the sink will be.

Then there was the plumbing to deal with. After getting two different estimates on the plumbing work, I suddenly found myself highly motivated to do a lot of it myself. I was able to get the drain and the old water lines dropped down and capped off below the floor, and just recently started working on getting the water lines for the sink moved into the wall where we'll want them instead of coming up through the floor.

Saturday, I finished putting up sheetrock to patch the "holes" where the shower and wall used to be. There was so much variation in the edges of the existing wall and the new sheetrock that would abut it that it proved as difficult as I'd expected to get the joints even and flush. I was able to do what currently appears to be an acceptable job, but there's still some magic to be worked with my big bucket of joint compound, so I'm still quite nervous about how it'll turn out. We may well end up with a very topographically interesting wall.



I still need to patch the hole where the mirror/medicine cabinet used to be, but I want to wait until after the sconces are installed since it may prove beneficial to have that area exposed during or just prior to installation.

Another major headache can be seen in the fourth quadrant of the first picture. The floor register that used to be right next to the shower wall is now right smack in the middle of the room and needs to be moved. I think I'll be able to cut a new hole when we decide where it should go, but I don't know if I'm up to getting the ducting rerouted to the new location; seems like it could be tricky. I guess we'll see what an estimate from an HVAC contractor looks like, and if it's intolerably high, maybe I'll get another boost of confidence and motivation.

Exterior: After

The "before" picture of the outside of the house is dreary, yet it's the one constantly displayed at the top of the right margin. So, we've decided to update it with a little comparison shot. And how timely! Jessica has just finished the front porch improvement project that she's wanted to do since the beginning of this whole adventure: replacing the wrought iron "posts" with handsome wooden ones. She had help (and borrowed some crucial tools) from her dad, and they did a fantastic job. Observe:


Mind you, these are not prefabricated posts picked up at Lowe's; they were painstakingly handcrafted ("from scratch"?) and customized, each for its own location. I thought it was a superfluous project and that the wrought iron was completely fine, but the new posts improve the look of the porch (and indeed the whole front of the house) enormously, and I'm very proud of my wife for executing it so well.

Here are some more exterior "after" pictures:




Also, I've updated the "Links" section in the right margin. There are now three separate links to picture pages: Before, During, and After. Enjoy!

More Emptiness

That title really sounds dark and depressing, but at this point in the bathroom renovation, it's our goal. We've removed significantly more matter from the bathroom, including the vanity and the all of the sheetrock/plaster from the doomed shower wall.




This has opened up the space a lot and gives us a better idea of what it'll feel like with that wall gone (which is, quite nice). The next several weeks of work will undoubtedly be the most challenging. We've got to take out those studs while taking care of the pipes and the wiring (one switch and one receptacle) that used to reside in the wall. We've got to remove the remaining tile from the floor. Then we've got to patch up all the holes that will be left in the floor, wall, and ceiling. I think that will be the most difficult part--patching everything up and making it all look nice and seamless (and, in the case of the floor, preparing a flat, level, and sturdy surface for laying tile). This will be the phase in the project when we're most likely to say to ourselves, 'We've made a huge mistake.' I'm praying it doesn't come to that.