Day 16: Bathroom Remodel and Miscellaneous Other Tasks

Today has been an incredibly busy but productive day!  We have worked both inside and out, and we now can start to notice the results of our hard work.

Clean white paint brightens the bathroom closet.

Once again, we were up before the sun, and Rick had a paint brush in his hand before I had a toothbrush in mine.  The result is a coat of textured primer on all of the walls and ceiling in the bathroom, a coat of paint in the bathroom closet (which, somehow, never got finished in the first painting go-round), and two coats of flat white paint on the ceiling.  If a person did not know that we used to have a soffit in the bathroom, he now could not see signs of it in the ceiling.  I am very pleased with the results of all of Rick's overhead labor.

Please note that the above-mentioned work took four separate work sessions in the bathroom for Rick to complete it all.

Rick chips out the concrete and then fills
in the hole left by the old meter.  Note the pipe
from the old mast still on the wall.

Then we ventured outside. Rick wanted to chip out a protruding bit of concrete that was located behind the now-moved electrical meter.  He chipped it away, stuffed the resulting hole with some insulation, and cemented a fairly smooth surface in place.  That took care of one hole into the house.

Then we decided to see if we could remove the old mast.  The bolts that clamped it into the wall came out much easier than either of us had expected.  Once the clamps were off, we discovered that we could wiggle the pipe and move it slightly up and down.  Up on the rooftop went Rick.  He removed the clamping device that once held the wires, removed the cap on top, and wiggled the post once again.

I delivered to the rooftop our ever-faithful stubby construction sledge hammer.  As "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" played in my head, Rick took the sledge hammer and started to pound the iron pipe down through the hole in the roof and soffit.  I guided it from underneath.  When Rick had pounded it down as far as it would go from the roof, I wiggled it a couple of times, and it came down the rest of the way.  That mast was heavy, but I was able to keep it from smashing into our patio slab.  Step one accomplished.

All that is left on the roof is the old housing for the mast.

Rick left the wart-shaped housing for the old mast on the roof since it does offer protection from the rain.  He just needed to plug the three-inch hole where the mast had been.  Using layers of 6 mm plastic and aluminum tape, he was able to build up a rain-resistant covering over the hole.  Our roof looks like it has a giant silver pimple on it right now, and that is the way it will stay until we get the new roof installed.

Rick caulks the waterproof roof tar under the
rubber dam on the new mast.

Rain is predicted for this evening (slight chance), and since it has not rained since we returned to Florida, we would gladly welcome it.  Yet we knew that we had a little roof work to do to make sure the hole under the new mast would stay dry until the new roof is added in December.  Rick had purchased the necessary tar to make the roof water-tight.  Eventually the rubber dam that the electricians added to the mast will be tarred onto the roof, but for now it is loose so the roofers can work around the mast. Once Rick removed the old mast, he moved on to the new one to make sure that it, too, would not leak into the garage.

An ugly scar shows where the mast once hung.

The result is that now we have a nasty scar on our back wall that will need more patching and some stucco.  We need to call in the cable company to move the cable box first; then we can do repairs to the wall all at one time.

A text message from Home Depot informed us that our smaller replacement sink had arrived, so we made a trip this afternoon to pick that up.  Thankfully, that was in good condition.  While we were out, we drove over the Lowe's to pick up some baseboard and door molding.  We will add baseboard to the bathroom for the first time.  Before our remodel, the "baseboard" was pink tile.  We also will have to replace one piece of molding next to the door once we get the granite countertop installed.

At Lowe's, we looked to see if we could find the hallway light that we had seen a few weeks ago.  Our current light was gold and contained three "tulip" bulbs to match the now-gone lights from the bathroom.  We saw a brushed nickel, simple, three-light hallway light fixture that we thought would work with our new decor.  We found and bought it.

After we returned home, before we put the ladders away, Rick climbed up once again to inspect the gutters.  He removed a half- bag of leaves so if we do get rain this evening, it should be able to flow freely down the drainpipes.

The old light was fine for its day, but is very old-fashioned now.

Back inside, I started to work on this blog while Rick "just looked at" the new light fixture.  He asked if I wanted to put it up, and I told him,"No.  We can do that tomorrow. You have done enough today." So the next thing I know, I am typing this and I hear him tinkering in the hall.

"Are you putting in that new light?" I asked accusingly.

"Who?  Me?" he replied, trying to sound innocent -- which I knew he was not.  So now the old light is in the garbage and the new light hangs proudly in the hall.  I will match the new lights in the bathroom much better than the old lights, and with that exchange, we now have removed the last of 1960 from this house.

The new light has a modern look which will fit
in with the new bathroom lights.

Gladys has good bones, so we are grateful for the 1960's craftsmanship.  She will stand for a long time yet, and with the upgrades that we have made, she will be better than ever.