Originally posted on 2018-10-09
As mentioned in The Interconnectedness Of All Things, one thing has been leading to another and we had to tear apart our bathroom sooner than planned.
We figured that since we were running new pex plumbing for the kitchen going into the western part of the house, we should install the pex plumbing for the rest of the house as well. Of course, in this house that wasn’t going to be as simple as running the new pex under the floor next to the current copper plumbing.
We knew the toilet needed to be replaced, being heavily stained with rust, and we knew it was leaking so the floor beneath it probably needed to be replaced. We also knew we wanted to take out the vanity down the road, and decided that it made sense to do that now.
We removed the mirror, throwing it into the large garbage bin we rented. Thankfully, we got it out there in one piece, so all the broken glass was limited to inside the bin. We removed the medicine cabinet on the north wall, much to the dismay of the five-year-old who thought it looked like a butterfly. Then we got to work removing the vanity itself.
It came out really easily, mainly because we were not concerned about keeping it in one piece, but there was some concern when we got to the base. We had to remove it around the plumbing and thought a tool would be needed, until we stepped on it. Stepping on it made it crumble due to the rot, and we worried about floor beneath it.
But, some finally some good news, the floor under the vanity was completely fine. We were happy to find that, especially considering we had to shut the water off to the house to do this, and wouldn’t have running water again until the plumbing in the bathroom was done.
Next we removed the closet, followed by the toilet. We removed all the paneling from the wall and the linoleum from the floor. The bathtub and surround is in really good shape, especially considering the state of the rest of the room, so we left that and plan to put in the new bathroom around it. The second bit of good news that we didn’t find anything wrong with it once we removed the wall beside it.
The ceiling tiles were next to go, along with the insulation that was above it. For the time being we haven’t replaced that insulation as we plan to re-insulate from above with a combination of batten and blown-in insulation before the snow flies (hopefully). This attic space is easily accessible from a ladder in the hallway.
Then we removed the floor, both under the toilet and in the center of the room. Under the toilet because it was rotted. The center of the room mainly to access the plumbing underneath, but it was slightly rotted by the toilet as well. While down there we removed the plumbing to and from the current kitchen as well as the old plumbing for the bathroom and laundry room.
We ran pex pipe throughout the bathroom and kitchen, adding shut-off valves everywhere. We ran this new pipe to the bathtub as well and had a little problem when we tested it. Because we don’t have any hot water (we removed the current hot water heater that was covered in rust and the new one isn’t being installed until this week) we didn’t hook up the hot water to the bathtub. We have since learned that the tap we have there
doesn’t work if either hot or cold is missing. Bought a new tap thinking the old one didn’t work before we temporarily hooked up cold water to go through the hot water line. Oops, but at least the new one looks better than the old one did. Still worth replacing, or at least that’s what we’ve managed to convince ourselves.
With the walls down we decided to clean up some of the electrical and set it up so the bathroom can eventually be on its own breaker. Right now it’s on a breaker that covers the hall & laundry room (less the dryer). We also added a fan to properly vent the bathroom and replaced the overhead light, putting the fan and light on separate switches so we can turn each on independently of the other.
We put up enough mold-resistant drywall and installed enough temporary floor to get the new toilet installed. The original plan was to tile the bathroom and we still will, but now that is going to wait until after we fix the septic tank as the pipe leading to that is under the bathroom floor.
From here, we installed a laundry tub to act as a bathroom sink for now, and right now that is the only running water we have until the new kitchen is completed. We plan to build a new vanity and carve a new sink out of a stone. After installing drywall to separate the bathroom and hall and putting the door back on, we had to put this renovation on hold to continue work in the western room.
Huron The Lake 