1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

Day 4: What the flux?

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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 4.

???

Yep, this beer egg is staying in the wall for the next remodeler to find in 50 years.
Yep, this beer “Easter Egg” is staying in the wall for the next remodeler to find in 50 years.

Have you ever had one of those days where you worked your ass off, but at the end of the day, you have no idea what you accomplished? Today felt just like that.

We actually accomplished a lot, but it didn’t look or feel like it. We fought the shower enclosure for a long time, but it’s now installed and plumbed, except for the finish plumbing parts.

Mrs. 1500 went on her secret mission today, which I’m not allowed to discuss. However, I must report that it went well.

In any case, I was on my own for a good part of the day, but at least I could blast some good music (Hello Pantera!) which she despises.

A very poor picture of the current state
A very poor picture of the current state

Flux

I finally completed the plumbing part of the project including sweating copper which I haven’t done in at least a decade. I took Income Surfer’s advice from the comments a couple days ago and used lots and lots of flux. Everything went great, no leaks! Thanks Income Surfer!!

Let me tell you, I was very excited that all of my soldered joints held water:

IMG_20150507_193029697

When work accidents give you blood, make smiley faces!

I know, really gross, right?
I know, really gross, right?

I whacked my finger really hard while using the Sawzall. Blood started squirting out from under a fingernail. Yech!

A couple minutes later, I was OK and the project went on. No big deal.

Day 5

Tomorrow is the final day of this experiment. I am going to try to do the following:

  • build the half wall for the shower enclosure
  • hang all drywall and apply the first coat of mud
  • start tiling

Tune in tomorrow night to see if I’m being way too ambitious once again.

I failed

I won’t finish though. We won’t be able to complete laying all tile or even start the grout. We won’t be able to paint or install the vanity. We won’t have the new door on. So, I won’t have accomplished my goal.

Too many things got in the way. I didn’t account for all of the issues this old house had. Nothing is straight, so I had to do a lot of fixing. More of the floor was rotted out than I thought. I didn’t expect that I’d need to do as much plumbing as I ended up doing. The shower enclosure was a challenge. (Mrs. 1500 note: I hate plumbing. I hate hate hate plumbing. It ALWAYS leaks the first time you turn on the water. ALWAYS. I don’t possess the strength to tighten it to the point of no leaks. The wrench always slips, and now I have a new collection of bruises and scrapes all over my hands. I hate plumbing.)

However, we will be close and while I’m a bit disappointed, life is still good. I should be able to be mostly finished by Sunday. I’ll be sure to show you the finished product in a week or so.

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Comments

  1. I can’t believe you were attempting all this in 5 days. I have been doing my own house reno, and have been working on my bathroom now for about 8 weekends! Great to see things work the same over there as here in Australia – it rains on the week you take off, and you don’t feel like much is achieved after a day’s work.

    I must say I got a bit depressed with my bathroom up until last week when the tiling was done – all of a sudden it looked 90% complete!

    Great to hear other people having a go at everything too. People at work thought I must have been spending $15,000 to $20,000 on my bathroom. They were shocked when I told them I was doing mostly everything myself. “can you really do that?”

    • “I must say I got a bit depressed with my bathroom up until last week when the tiling was done – all of a sudden it looked 90% complete!”

      Yeah, you can do a whole ton of work and it doesn’t look like much. Then one day, bam!

      I love DIY! My bathroom would have easily cost $15,000 if I hired out. It will cost 1/10 of that since I’m doing it myself and I won’t lose sleep at night over shoddy work.

    • Yep, it has to be done right no matter what. I don’t tolerate crappy work ever.

    • “Well if blasting some good heavy metal music doesn’t help you power through all those jobs then I don’t know what will!”

      Ha, yes! Today, perhaps I’ll blast some old school Metallica (Kill ‘Em All) and really drive Mrs. 1500 insane!

  4. Cool. I still think that its pretty awesome to have it done even if it does take one week and 2 weekends.

    So what’s that aluminum foil looking stuff on the wall
    The Roamer recently posted…Blog BirthdayMy Profile

    • Thanks Brian! It’s 5:40 am now and I’m ready to go, just waiting for the kids to get up so I don’t wake them.

  6. Per my “do-it-all” hubby, “It’s not a project if you don’t have blood!” Good work! 😉 Can’t wait to see the finished bath! Your stress/efforts = $$ saved!

  8. Glad to see you failed. I was rooting for you to not finish, because if you did, it would make me feel bad about myself!

    I am feeling about 1/100th of your pain right now, as our kitchen faucet sprung a leak and I have been trying to find the right cartridge and other parts to replace inside it. Why can’t there be, like, one universal faucet design that everyone uses so I don’t have to hunt parts down? What a waste of time.
    Norm recently posted…Cost Per Serving: Chocolate BabkaMy Profile

  9. I am hoping my kitchen gut and remodel goes this well. All of the parts are purchased (I hope).

    Mrs. 1500, I feel your pain. I HATE plumbing. Valves leak, joints leak. They wait a day or two for you to look away and then they leak :/ . I started using Rectoseal on my threaded joints. It looks like bad mustard and can stain your good working clothes, but it saves you leaks.

    Good luck!

  10. Let’s face it: in an old house, trying to remodel a bathroom in 5 days is a pipe dream (that’s a bad pun worthy of Mr 1500). A noble goal, and if you had’t made it you probably would have finished so much darn work and wouldn’t have had 5 days worth of blog posts!
    Great job, but don’t be down on yourself for not hitting your nearly impossible goal. Look at how much you have finished!

    • Yes, that will be a nice surprise for someone in 50 or so years! I should have put a message in the bottle too! Too late now…