Day 6: Bathroom Remodel

Today started early, but that allowed us to finish what we wanted to accomplish early also.  Life is choices, and there is always a trade off.  This is the first time since we started the remodeling journey that we actually have everything cleaned up for the day before 2:00 p.m.

The goal today was to get down all of the pink and white tile so we could fill this first dumpster and get a new one to continue our work. Rick had removed the tile at the head of the bathtub and half of the back wall.  Today he started by removing the rest of the back wall tile.  Had this just been drywall, the task would have been completed days ago.  However, this tile is still embedded in an inch-thick bed of plaster which is connected to wire mesh that is strong enough to stop a Sherman tank.  As he pulled down the chunks of wall, I was running them out to the dumpster in the driveway. (I have three new cuts and a nice bruise to prove it!)

The tile around the tub is now in the dumpster.
Success!

As soon as the back wall was down, Rick moved on to the foot end of the tub which is on the south outside wall of the house.  This was a bit more challenging because we were trying to preserve the frame around the window and the tiled windowsill.  Rick carefully cut the tile next to the window with his grinder, but our efforts were in vain.  As he pried the other tile away from the wall, the window sill cracked.  The sill is all tied into the wall structure with that same wire mesh, and one was not about to come off without the other.

Our tiled windowsill in the bathroom soon will be a thing of the past.

We are now resigned to finding something to replace the tile windowsill. In reality, the existing sill probably would not have worked anyway because the tile/plaster/wire combination is over an inch and a half wide.  Once it is all down, we will replace it with 1/2 inch drywall, so the sill would have hung over the new drywall anyway.  Modern building materials and 54-year-old houses don't always dance to the same tune.  I guess the good news is that when all of the walls are back to the studs, the new drywall will give me a wider and longer bathroom when we complete it.

This is a side-view of the mess we have to remove
from the lower walls.

The original plan was to take out the toilet so we could remove the remaining pink and white tile; however, as the fatigue set in, Rick decided to remove the upper walls instead.  The upper part was much easier to remove because that is just drywall with an ugly skim-coat of "texture" that was popular in 1960.  Thankfully, the upper walls did not have any wire mesh.

We want to leave the ceiling as undisturbed as possible, so Rick took the grinder and cut the wall about an inch from the ceiling.  By doing so, he was able to remove the drywall without cracking or ruining the ceiling.  We have a little "clean-up" work to do, but for the most part, the upper walls are down.

The dumpster was even more full after we added
the drywall from the top of the walls. We were
afraid it would be too heavy to move if we added more.

Rick took a break and called the City to request that they haul away the first dumpster and bring us a replacement. He called at about 11:00 this morning, and they promised him that we would have a new dumpster sometime this afternoon.  In less than a half-hour, we heard the back-up "beep-beep" of a City truck and looked out the window as the truck pulled up to replace the dumpster.  The City Waste Management crew is the only organization I know that promises something at one time and actually delivers said products early!

The new, empty dumpster is better place in the driveway.

With the new dumpster located a little further back in our driveway, we returned to working on the bathroom.  We decided to patch the ceiling where the soffit had been since we both were sick of insulation snowing down on us even though we had the opening covered with plastic.  Because the ceiling also is thick, we have to replace an inch of space.  Rather than shimming out the drywall, we decided to just put up two layers of 1/2 drywall.  The double layer will help insulate the room from the heat of the attic, and adding two layers is easier than putzing around with shims everywhere ... or so we thought.

The original ceiling seems to "slope" a bit since it is higher
on the south than on the north end of the room.

As we installed the first layer of drywall, we noticed that the ceiling is not quite level.  We still need to put up the second layer of drywall -- in places -- to fill in the gap, but the "gap" seems to increase or decrease in depth as one looks across the room.  The ceiling may call for some creative taping and mudding in the end! (Rick just said that with the new light fixture we ordered, we just will blind everyone with 500 watts of light and no one will notice the ceiling.  Worth considering...)

Only a small section of old tile remains. This is where we will
start tomorrow.

By the time all of that was completed, we were approaching noon.  Rick originally talked about taking the toilet out so we could take down the rest of the tile after lunch, but resting for a few moments revealed just how tired he was.  We decided to wait until tomorrow and to remove the toilet when our minds and bodies are fresh.  (Note that I did not say, "energized"!) I like my sister-in-law Chris' philosophy that if one works at a steady pace and does just a little bit each day, eventually the task will be completed.  Sadly, her husband and mine do not always know when to quit.

I am pleased with the progress today.  We have a new dumpster that we can use to finish the job.  The City's new rules are that one can only have a dumpster for two weeks instead of unlimited time, so this dumpster will allow us plenty of time to finish the project.

We have only been back to Gladys for two weeks as of today.  I would say that we have accomplished quite a bit in that time.