Day 3: Testament to the excellent Element

This week, I take a break from my normal posts to show you the bathroom I’m remodeling. I’m going to try to finish the entire thing in 5 days. Today, I tell you about day 3.

Rocking and rolling

Today was a much better day. The bathroom is starting to come together. We accomplished the following:

• Cut and framed wall to accommodate new door: For some reason, the bathroom had a super narrow door. We carved out the wall and reframed to fit a normal sized one.
• Got the tub in place and fitted (we’ll install it in permanent position tomorrow)
• Hung new drywall on the ceiling
• Completed the plumbing
• Put together the vanity and linen closet thingy from Ikea
• Fixed more rotten floor that we just found

I’m a huge fan of tile, but for this bathroom, we are going with one of those prefabricated shower enclosures. There are only two use cases where I would use one of these; rental home (less stuff for a renter to destroy) or for our kids’ bathroom (less stuff for kids to destroy). In this case, it is the latter. Children aren’t easy on anything, so this is an almost maintenance free choice for their bathroom.

Element

Our Honda Element has almost 150,000 miles on the clock. It’s been almost perfect, just one seized brake caliper since 2003. It just works. In return for its’ almost flawless service, I reward it with regular washes and synthetic oil.

I don’t like big cars. I want just enough car to do what I need to do and not a pound more. The Element is perfect in this respect. I can’t lay 4×8 sheets of drywall down in the bed, but I can load lots of them in at an angle. Believe me, this Honda has carried loads and loads of drywall and other stuff that comes in 4×8 sheets. I hope this vehicle lasts me another 150,000 miles. Long live the Element!

Forces of nature conspire against me

Have you read 11/22/63 by Stephen King (freakin’ great read)? It’s about this guy who goes back in time to try to stop the JFK assassination. It turns out that the past doesn’t want to be changed, so he has a very difficult time.

I’m beginning to feel that my bathroom is the same. Forces are conspiring against me to quash my remodeling ambitions.

• Rain, *&%$ing rain: We live in the high-desert, but not this week. It has rained every single friggin’ day. The issue is that the driveway is where I do all of my cutting. Can’t score/cut drywall during a rainstorm. Can’t cut 2x4s with the chop saw. Rain, please stop.
• Flight of the Streptococcus: Our 8 year old was out of school for two days with strep throat. She was cleared to go back to school today, but we did lose some time due to the nasty pathogen. Good riddance evil streptococci!!
• My real job: I haven’t been able to escape my 9-5. I took the week off, but stuff keeps popping up at work that causes me to have to log in and push some ones and zeroes.
• Mrs. 1500’s new…: Mrs. 1500 has stayed home to raise our children for the past 8 years. With the little one entering school in the fall, she has been thinking about what to do with her time. The most amazing opportunity popped up recently. We’ve been talking about it nonstop between hammer swings and Sawzall cuts all week. It is really THAT good. Anyway, she will be taking Thursday off to pursue this thing. Not having an assistant will slow me down a bit, especially when hanging drywall, but this is well worth it.

I am a day behind where I would have been under ideal conditions. Tomorrow, I will fall farther behind. That is OK though. I have a fine life and am not losing sleep over it. Not yet at least.

Progress

1. Remove all fixtures including light, tub, toilet and vanity.
2. Remove all plaster from the walls and ceiling, gutting it down to the studs.
3. Remove all floor tile.
4. Frame new wall.
5. Fix rotted floor. The shower doors were not installed correctly which resulted in a leak which rotted lots of stuff.
6. Reframe wall to accommodate a bigger door. The current door is very narrow.
7. Fix the plumbing: There is a clog somewhere in the sink’s pipes… (Mrs. 1500 note: Ask Mr. 1500 how that clog happened. Go ahead, ask him. **Someone** cleaned tiling tools out in the sink… Not naming names but it rhymes with Trister Bifteen Lundred…)
8. Hang and finish drywall.
9. Install new tub/shower enclosure.
10. Tile and grout floor.
11. Paint.
12. Install toilet.
13. Install new vanity and cabinet.
14. Tile backsplash and install light fixture.