A Little Bit at a Time

We worked a long time today, but anyone looking at our bathroom would say, "Well, what did you do?"  Most of what we did is not visible but is very important.

We risked our lives this morning to take the truck to Home Depot.  The store itself is not bad, but the parking lot is terrible if one is driving a large vehicle.  We picked up all of the electrical connections that we needed for the fan, and we also threw in a 1/4" sheet of drywall and a couple of long pieces of PVC pipe.

Once home, we tackled the ceiling. What we thought would be fairly easy once again turned out to be the most difficult part of the job.  We had two 2 x 4s that were part of the old frame on the inside of the shower.  We'll just pry them down, right?  Ha.  The first one came down fairly easily with little insulation falling on our heads.  We thought we were home free because we could see that the other 2 x 4 was backed by pieces of wood which should have held in the insulation. Rick tried attacking that second board with everything we had: hammers, crowbars, chisels, you name it.  Sadly, the board was firmly attached to a 2 x 8 section of board that was rock solid with age.  Those boards were not going to separate for anything.  Finally, the ceiling started to crack and we had no choice but to take out BOTH the 2 x 4 and the larger board to which it was attached.  Of course, as the boards came down, so did an avalanche of snowy white insulation.  Choke, choke.  My lungs may never be the same!

The good news is that we found an open cavity inside the shower ceiling into which the new fan will fit.  Another fortunate discovery was two wires in the side wall that we had installed earlier with the idea that we might someday put in a ceiling fan.  More on that later...

Success! An open cavity under the roof rafters will give us
enough access to install the fan.

Once the ceiling was open, Rick taped the two pieces of PVC pipe together and slipped them from the attic access opening in the hallway to the hole cut in the ceiling in the bathroom. Then he taped the wires that we had to run from the bathroom to the previously installed wires for the fan in the attic above the hallway attic access, and Rick pulled the wires over.  Since the PVC pipes are no worse for wear, we might take them back to the store tomorrow.

The cavity will work, and the wires are now in a position where we can add power, when the time comes, to the fan.  We also found that we will have easy access to the soffit, so we can vent the fan out the underside of the soffit through a previously purchased vent.

Our plans were falling nicely into place, but we still had uneven levels of ceiling and lots of holes in the ceiling that needed to be patched.  The first layer was a patchwork of left-over drywall from other projects.

A patched up ceiling will help even the ceilings.  Added 2 x 4s
on either side of the opening will allow us to securely screw
the fan into place.

Then we cut a single panel from the 1/4" drywall which both evened out the ceiling all around and provided a much easier surface to mud and to finish in the end.  We covered the whole ceiling and will cut the appropriate hole in it to house the new fan.

Ironically, we went to the store this morning because rain was predicted this afternoon.  We actually set up sawhorses and cut the drywall outside since the afternoon turned out cloudy but dry.  We came inside to put in some of the patchwork pieces, and when we went back outside, we found that the rain was falling just enough to get our good, finish piece of drywall all wet.  "Great," I said.  "I'll bet that is the only shower we get all day."  I was right.  It rained just enough to wet our drywall, and then it stopped and has not rained since that time.

The final layer of ceiling awaits us to cut a hole in it tomorrow
to install the fan.

Our other task will be the switches in the wall.  At first we were going to use two different boxes so we would not have to cut apart the wall; however, in the end we both agreed that a two-gang box would look better.  We will have to feed the wires from the one box into the new two-gang box which will replace the single box next to the door.  That will result in more patching of the wall but a better-looking switch in the end.

Two wires will eventually go to a new box which will
replace the single switch to the left.

The overhead work is a killer, so I am glad that most of that is done.  The ductwork to the soffit, the hanging of the fan, and the connections to the wires are all part of the plan tomorrow.  By doing a little bit at a time, this task, too, will eventually be complete.  Old Gladys has a few more patches to her structure, but she will be beautiful (and less humid) in the end.