CONSTRUCTION UPDATE.
What a weight was lifted off my back on Wednesday. As our “Molding change” project in the bathroom took over our lives, we lost sight of life in general. Everything revolved around –THE JOB.
It seemed a good idea at first and it turned out to be a blessing. (Amazing how many of those have occurred since I started to look for them) But sandwiched in between was some real worry.
For those unaware of what I am ranting about this time, we decided to change the wall paper in the bathroom. We were already doing a lot of work in the upstairs, finishing off a room with new walls, moldings and a built in desk, bookcase, file system. All fun and good. So if the upstairs is ripped up anyway, lets go all out. We had the wallpaper already. We started stripping the old off. Well, that involved pulling the molding around ceiling and floor, so what a good time to fix the ceiling which I hated. And why not really do the floor this time? Lets get Scott Callaway to tile it. He did a spectacular job on the bathtub area.
So Scott came, took one look at our floor and said, “This is too weak to tile over. You need to pull the floor, strengthen it and put down new stuff. OK. Three years ago I would have freaked. Now it is just one more adventure. Little did I know!!!
The plan was to cut the old floor out, close to the bathtub and close to the vanity, but leaving the floor under those fixtures. (The thought of the alternative was Scotch inducing) It took about two days to get the front part out safely, then discovered that the mystery was not why the floor appeared weak, but how did it stay there at all. Basically, a large beam ran parallel to the outside wall with all the floor jousts tied into it. Very good, except this beam ran two feet inside the outside wall. The remaining two feet was bridged by – nothing! Or to be accurate, nothing that remained attached to anything. A few pieces of wood were run from the beam to the outside wall, but they had separated from the beam years ago. So, with big slices of wood and lots of lag bolts, we added support.
When that section was done we moved on, and here is the blessing. The toilet, (Installed by professionals two years ago) had been leaking. If we had not pulled up the floor, we would have been in serious trouble within a year. So, that section was easier to fix because I now had an idea what to do. The final step,was to cut plywood that would match the cuts near the bathtub and vanity and still go under the rim of the toilet pipe. this involved some pretty intricate measuring, layout and cutting. Nice when it is done, but hair raising ( If I had any hair!) during.
When all was put in place, we called Scott back and he pronounced the job well done and took over the rest. He did an incredibly beautiful job. Then we turned to Nick’s Friend Jay. He came three times to make sure the job was done right, went well beyond the normal quality and took the time to explain what he was doing and why. I will never be a plumber or anything close, but I do like to understand the intricacies of a job . It was also fun having both of them here for dinner and a visit. We really needed a break by then.
Finally, with the job complete, we took a day off. We went out to Windsor and toured the Lionel Store. I would love to dig out my old trains and set them up along with the HO layout I have now. But that visit convinced my unless I win the lottery, that won’t happen. I don’t want a toy train running around a small circle, I want an empire!!.
Then we stopped and visited with Bill and Mary Miller for awhile. I enjoyed this immensely. Today, back to the next construction job.