Bathroom Remodel: Chapter 1

So two weeks ago I showed you my ugly bathroom, and revealed that we were going to tackle a full-on remodel over The Professor's generous Christmas break. Well, this past Thursday he started the demolition process, and we haven't looked back.

We are going to be doing our entire bathroom, but since we have house guests coming over New Year's, we're starting by completely concentrating on the shower so that we can have a working shower by the time four extra adults descend on our home. (I mean "descend" in the most positive sense; we are very excited for these guests.) If we simply demolished everything all at once, sure, we'd get the yucky work out of the way, but we couldn't be guaranteed a shower. So The Professor began bright and early Thursday morning, and by that afternoon he had ripped out all the old tile surrounding the tub, up to the ceiling of the shower stall, with some portions ripped to the studs.

We found rotted wood, yucky, scary-looking insulation, and mildewed plaster. Yuck. Our house stunk like mildew for a couple days. I won't pretend it was pleasant.

Over Friday and Saturday, he worked to rip off all the plaster down to the studs, as well as the ceiling of the soffit that is over the shower stall. We plan on tiling the ceiling, too, making this demolition necessary. He also tore off more tile on either side of the shower, including behind the toilet, meaning that the toilet is now downstairs. (More on that in a minute.) By the end of the day Saturday he had also pulled out all of the old insulation.

All of this demo means lots of dust. The Professor has done a great job of sealing off vents, drains, and cracks in the door to prevent dust from drifting everywhere in the house and through the pipes, but be assured, despite his valiant efforts, some has leaked through. The stuff is pretty nasty, and I'll be glad when he's able to finish demo-ing the rest of the bathroom tile and floor.

My dad worked with my husband all day Saturday, and he managed to find the prize: A Chicago Tribune from June 23, 1938, stuffed under our tub. I would post pictures of it, because it's truly a gem, but Blogger, as usual, is giving me problems for not having thought ahead and put in my pictures before my text. (Blogger, is anyone listening?) I'll share later--be assured, it's priceless, especially considering that our house wasn't built until 10 years after that paper was published. A mystery.

The other prize they found Saturday: A hole in our sub-floor. (Altogether now: Hurrah!) As I mentioned earlier, the toilet was moved so they could demo the walls behind it. Its absence revealed a hole in the flooring. A real, honest-to-goodness hole, like I can stand over it and see into the back portion of our basement. (Again: Hurrah!) This is not an unexpected treat, but it's still not a fun thing to consider.

And perhaps you've already noted this, but this does in fact mean that we are down to just one toilet, along with our 0 working showers. We are taking lots of sink baths and even driving a few minutes to my parents' house to take showers on occasion. Unfortunately, we don't plan on tackling the floor until after our New Year's house guests are gone, and we also do not want to put the toilet back down on a hole. So...we will eventually have six adults, three children, one working (downstairs) shower, and one working (upstairs) toilet.

Finally: Hurrah!

My dad and The Professor resumed their work Sunday afternoon. Their goal was to install the new window, the one we had ordered to replace the yucky, rotting one in the shower stall.

I'm sure my dad loves this shot.

And just so my husband doesn't go uncredited:

They worked extra-hard all day, my dad even working into the evening, to install this window, the first window-installing adventure for either of them. At one point I heard my dad say, "Okay. I think we need to pray, because I'm getting really frustrated." Evidently they did indeed stop to pray, and shortly thereafter, everything came together. They did a fantastic job.

The window is double-hung with obscured glass, so we should be able to shower without fear of anyone discerning our individual naked features. (Unlike before, when, if the mini-blinds were up, nothing was a secret.) I'm very anxious to try this one out. I don't know how, but I plan on conducting Nakedosity (a word, I promise) tests in the near future.

So that's basically where we are today, Monday, Dec. 21. This morning we went to Lowe's to purchase a ceiling (oops, I mean) exhaust fan for the shower. Shortly upon returning home, The Professor discovered that the lovely decorative fan I had picked out was too low and bulky for our shower, so he had to run back and exchange it for a sleeker, simpler version. His goal today and tomorrow is to install the fan and lay insulation, so that Wednesday afternoon, when my dad can once again join him, they can concentrate on laying cement board on top of the studs.

I keep walking into the bathroom and squinting really hard, trying to imagine what it will look like a few short weeks when all of this work is behind us. I know it will be beautiful.