Bathroom Stall

  Bathroom renos part two 
  Originally uploaded by emira.

Regular readers may remember that back in mid-April we began a reno project on our bathroom. At the time, we had slightly different perspectives on how long it might take to complete the project. Martin figured the weekend and, his now famous phrase, "a week of evenings" for the final details. I was more pessimistic and figured we'd likely be looking at three or four weeks. At the time there were some mildly uncomfortable disagreements about what might cause the delay, Martin thought that I lacked faith in his abilities, whereas I simply held a deep fear that the all knowing force of renovations would slow momentum in ways we couldn't begin to imagine. While at this point I could be claimed the victor in that struggle, I'd rather not. For even I, at my most pessimistic, didn't think it would take until mid-July.

Three months of brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink and I'm finally kind of growing used to it. Delays following the initial "Oh look the tub is draining directly onto the basement floor," discovery have been more about bad timing than renovation disaster (though I knock on wood as I say that). Once we learned that we had a rotted out trap in our drainage pipe, we knew that the basic reattachment plumbing we would need to do was going to require a professional. And fortunately for us, Martin has a plumber friend/client who is helping us out on the cheap/contra. However, the one other piece we had to wait for, before we could reassemble the bathroom and replumb the tub drain, was the arrival of our Marmoleum flooring. And, a word the wise, going to pick out your flooring the same day that you rip out the walls to redrywall is not good timing.

The flooring we chose took several weeks to come in, then when it arrived the plumber was on holidays. And so, since then, we've been playing a bit of a scheduling game waiting for the planets to align such that Martin would have the day off, the plumber would be free and the flooring would be here so that we can undertake the final stage. In the meantime, we've been able to enjoy the luxury of at home bathing, and have simply being doing all bathroom sink activities in the kitchen. Barring any emergency plumbing events that would pull the plumber away, or unplanned personal chaos, tomorrow the reno planets should align. And we may be once again brushing our teeth in the bathroom. Praise be.

I've spent the weekend preparing for this by painting the trim that needs to be reinstalled, and the new baseboards and quarter round. Tomorrow's list of tasks is somewhat daunting and to be honest I'm pretty glad I won't be here to see it:

• Remove all the fixtures, ie/ clawfoot tub and toilet;


• Lay subfloor (already cut and waiting downstairs);


• Fill subfloor nail/screw holes with cement, let cure and sand;


• Install marmoleum flooring with bucket of glue (also waiting in the basement;


• Replumb drainage for the tub, move tub back into room and reattach;


• Install new bathroom sink that Martin has constructed (photos of which will follow post bathroom completion);


• Reinstall toilet;


• Hold breath, run water, and pray for happy drainage.

Now my renovation pessimism gets all hyped up just looking at that list, and really that isn't all of it (I'll need to touch up all the trim and baseboards once they are installed and I'm sure there are other unplanned bits and pieces), but that's the plan. So, please won't you cross your fingers for us?

Comments

[Mena]

I've been thinking happy bathroom renovation thoughts for you two... So? How did it go?

[Emira]

It went well! Sorry for the lack of updates! I'll give a full report this weekend once I can take some photos.