Day 7: End of Week 1 for Bathroom Remodel

We completed more than we thought we were going to finish today, so in that respect this has been a good day.

Once again we were up before the sun and putting on face masks by the time the sun was creeping over the horizon.  We agreed yesterday that our first task was to remove the toilet.  We wanted to make sure that we got the toilet out without damaging it or the plumbing.  Well, one out of two isn't so bad...

Rick is a pro at taking out and putting in toilets.  I can count at least a half a dozen times that he has done so, and other than it not being in the top ten things he likes to do, once again he removed the toilet with no problem.  I now am the only woman on the block to be sitting in the Florida room with a vanity to my left and a toilet right behind me.  I call the look Early 21-Century Remodel.

The second layer of drywall evens out the ceiling
where the soffit used to hang.

Once the toilet was safely out of the way, Rick cut the second sheet of drywall to patch the ceiling.  That, too, went up with little trouble.  Working overhead is still difficult for him, and the worst part of the job (taping and mudding the joint) is yet to come, but for now the ceiling is up and the room looks much bigger and better without that mid-20th-century soffit.

So far, so good.  Two jobs completed.  The next task was to take down the remaining tile in the corner where the toilet once stood.  The west wall behind the toilet came down with only one problem: bloodshed.

Experience has taught me that when I pack a bathroom for remodeling to always keep out bathing essentials, extra toilet paper and tissues, and the first aid kit.  Other than a collision yesterday between a hammer and Rick's thumb (a sure sign we had worked too long and it was time to quit), this remodel has been fairly safe and accident free.  However, today I picked up the handle on a bucket of debris, and as I brought my hand up, my middle finger just brushed against a sharp tile shard.  I quickly bled through the first bandage, so I just slapped another one on top.  The tile was fighting back, and I lost that round.

I learned the hard way that tile is sharp!

Little did I know that my cut finger was just the tile's opening salvo.  With the west wall down, Rick tackled the tile under the window.  Rather than cutting it into smaller pieces, Mr. Impatient put the large crowbar behind the wall and pulled.  The entire thing came loose!  He yelled for me to put down a 2 x 6 piece of lumber to protect the exposed plumbing, and just as I got it into place, the wall came tumbling down.  Sadly, the lumber was not strong enough to protect the plumbing, so when the tile wall fell, it cracked a connecting joint in the pipe that provides water to the toilet.  The tile was fighting back, and we lost round two also.

Thankfully, being the experienced remodelers that we are, we actually had all of the necessary tools and materials to fix the cracked joint.  I am so glad that Rick knows how to do all of this type of work because calling a plumber right now was not part of today's plan.  While he was in the plumbing mode, Rick also replaced the compression fittings on the sink pipe with new soldered fittings.  Plumbing was not part of the game plan, but completing this today takes it off the list for later.

Note to would-be remodelers: always take pictures of exposed
plumbing and electrical wires for future reference when the
walls hide those essential components.  The new joint and
shut off valve are soldered into place.

Yesterday we went to Publix for some groceries, and we found a Publix make-your-own-personal-pizza kit in the deli section.  It came with four crusts, sauce, and cheese.  We purchased some turkey pepperoni and tried two for lunch today.  They were delicious-- far better than the "cardboard" frozen personal pizzas that Rick used to eat.  And we could not beat the time (9 minutes in the oven) nor the price: $1.50 each.  We still have two crusts, sauce, and cheese left, so I suspect pizza for lunch tomorrow also.  I am sure that we will purchase them for future lunches.

After lunch, Rick said, "Well, we are done with the dumpster.  Maybe I will call them and tell them to take it away."  I told him not yet because we were not finished with all the demo, and we might find drywall fragments and other debris that we wanted to get rid of.

Am I glad that we kept the dumpster because Rick's next thought was, "Let's take out the tub."  He began to try to dismantle the drain mechanism which was no simple task since the drain was the original one from 1960.  It was rusted into place, and he had to practically cut it out to remove it.  Once the drain was free, he took a crow bar and pried up the tub.  We placed it on end on a furniture dolly and wheeled it to the front door.  Then we manhandled it to the dumpster, balanced it on the edge, and dumped it in.  Hooray!  It fit, and I was actually strong enough to lift it!

The pink tub fit nicely into the dumpster.

I went back into the house and started to sweep up the debris that was under the tub.  I really had feared that the tub was simply nestled in a bed of tar which was poured onto the dirt under the house. I was relieved because what I saw I thought was a cement foundation with just a foot-square hole cut into it for the plumbing. Then I looked closer and saw a faint, familiar pattern in the "cement."  I was astonished.

"Rick," I said, "You have to come and see this."

"What?" he answered as he came into the bathroom.

I took my gloved hand and rubbed at a section of the cement under the tub. A pattern appeared. "It's terrazzo," I said.

The washed area (upper part of the picture) reveals
the terrazzo look that is under all of the dust and debris.
A small patch of tar was all that held the tub in place.

I got a bucket of water, and sure enough.  The bathroom terrazzo floor went all the way under the tub.  I had been worried about what we were going to do if the new tub did not cover the same area of floor as the old tub.  I was afraid that the terrazzo would end and that we would have a gap to fill.  I need not have worried.  Now we just have to figure out how to polish the edges of the room and the lip of the floor that was in front of the old tub.  Maybe we will have to get the floor refinishers back in to polish the whole floor for us.

The final task of the day was to get rid of the old Home Depot laminate countertop that we have used for the past six years.  We were going to take out the Habitat for Humanity Restore $10.00 pink sink and take it back to the Restore for them to sell again, but Rick chipped the sink as he was trying to remove it from the countertop, so both the pink sink and the countertop joined the bathtub in the dumpster.  See, I said that we were not finished with it yet.

So, toilet out, ceiling up, wall down, plumbing fixed, tub out, and countertop and sink gone. And all of this was completed before 2:00 p.m.  This has, indeed, been a good day.