Ursus Pacificus

Yesterday, the flooring contractor stood me up. Not the end of the world, but it does set me back a day. They’re supposed to start today. We’ll see how that goes

Finally. FINALLY, I say.. Roughed-in plumbing is inspected. Drywall is up. First coat of mud is on!

The drywalling went as well as could be expected given my amateur status. I didn’t sever any fingers… I only have a little joint compound in my hair. I managed not to completely ruin anything. So… I’ve got that going for me I did manage to mess up the cutout for the ONE outlet in the bathroom… DOH. I think I can make it OK, tho. So tomorrow will be mostly getting everything off the wood floors in advance of the finishing dudes coming on Monday. I’ll prolly run a couple truckloads of junk up to the house from the apartment, too… Then, in the late afternoon, it’s Mud Wars Episode II: Attack of the Bubbles.

OK, well, I broke down and hired real, proper plumbers to run the drains for the bathroom. Why? Well…

I had the City of Warwick plumbing inspector come in to look at the supply plumbing I’d done, and go over what I was planning to do with the drains. Well, he said all the drains had to be separately vented. sigh.

Inspection is scheduled for Wednesday.

So here’s what they did:

New vanity drain and vent. They also re-stubbed the vanity supply lines.

Vent for the shower drain, going up the back wall cavity.

Roughed-in shower drain and vent (in the basement)

Stack connections

Stack connections (detail)

Well the insulation is in for the exterior wall, and I’ve started test-fitting the shower drain.

Insulation is up

Blocked-in wet wall

Test-fitting the shower drain

Well, today, I got the wet wall blocked in. Twice. D’OH! First time I used 2×4s. It turned out that I miscalculated how much depth I actually needed, and when I test fit the shower, the valve was too recessed.

The shower with the second set of blocking behind it.

…so, I had to rip out the first set of blocking, run down to Lowe’s and get a bunch of 1×4s. Here’s something I don’t understand. They have regular studs… 2×3s and 2×4s… for about $2 a piece. 1×4s? They’re $5 a piece. They’re “premium”. What a load.

Anyway. Got it all blocked up with 1×4s and huzzah!.. Cut the hole for the shower valve, did the test fit and not quite perfect. Close enough, tho. The shower valve is at the right depth. The shower fits where I planned for it to, and the the nailing fins are mostly in the right places. I still have to block in between the studs at the top of the left shower wall, so I can nail up those fins, but all in all, things are going pretty well.

Remember: Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with an axe.

I still have to clamp the pipes to the blocking and do a couple other minor things, but the supply plumbing is installed, sweated, tested… NO LEAKS! WHEE!

Here’s the pipes and the shower control.

Here’s the joints down in the basement where the shower supply is tied into the cut-offs I had to install before I removed the shub.

Still have to do some more modification to the drain plumbing, but making progress! Here, the old shub drain has been cut from the existing drains.

Next up, I have to extend the wet wall an inch and a half, and block in where the nailing fins of the shower walls will go. After that, insulate, do the bulk of the drywall, put the vinyl floor down, plumb up the drains for the shower and toilet, install the shower, finish the drywall, put in the vanity and toilet, and finally take a freakin’ shower in my freakin’ house!

Oh, then I have to have the floors done.

OK… Back to work!

Well, I guess I’ve set the bar for excitement pretty low… But… I unpacked the shower tonight and test-fitted the 3 main pieces in the bathroom.

Yay! The corner is square! …well, at least as square as the shower pan.

I had to finally cut out the old supply plumbing to get the wall pieces to fit right.

The less thrilling news is that I need to build out the wet wall (where the supply plumbing goes) to fit the new valve dealie. Hopefully an inch and a half will be sufficient.

…more good news:

The hole for the new closet flange is far enough out from the wall to accommodate a 12″-offset commode. Whee!

Alright… I admit it… In the grand scheme of things, it’s not all that exciting. I suppose V.J. Day or Apollo 11 might have been a slightly larger deal.

It’s a big day! After futzing with the stupid soil pipe for the toilet in the bathroom I’m renovating (for two days), I finally got it unhooked from the stack. Whee!

Here’s the bastard thing on the back patio. Boy was this fun to pull out.

Here’s the stack, from the bathroom above. You don’t want to know the horrors that lie beyond that wad of towels. Trust me on this.

Well, with the closet flange removed, I could finally put the second sheet of underlayment down, and nail it all…

Nope, not ready for the toilet just yet. That flange won’t be plumbed and screwed down until the vinyl goes in.

…and this is where the new shower is going… the supply plumbing will be replaced, and a drain hole still has to be cut. Be patient.

Yes, well… the house I bought was (is) something of a fixer… not bad… but… needing some attention. The biggies were the roof, the bathrooms and the carpets.

I figured if I was going to remodel the one full bath, I should do it before I move in, rather than after.

Here’s a quick rundown on what was wrong with the bathroom:

The Shub
“What’s a Shub?” you ask? Well… it has the footprint of a shower stall, but the walls of a tub. It’s a shub.

Awful Pink Tile

Bad Floor Plan
You step out of the shower, into… the toilet bowl.

Leaky Supply and Drain Plumbing on the Shub
See, because the wall was tiled, I couldn’t get to the plumbing without talking the tile down. All that crap piled up where the shub used to be is metal lath caked with thinset and plaster. Awful stuff.

Short list of what was wrong with the full bathroom.

The carpets were a wreck, too. Got them out.

The hardwoods underneath seem salvageable (though stained).. so I’m gonna have them refinished.

So… The work continues, and, hopefully, I can get the bathroom done and the floors refinished by the end of May and start moving in properly.

Well, the bathroom’s coming along… got the new false wall up, put down a big chunk of underlayment… and bought the shower enclosure and some 2×4’s. Now I have to cut off the cast iron closet flange. That’ll be fun.