October 2006

What a crazy way to start a month! Mike's folks came to help us prep for some plumbing work his uncle was to do. We tore out the second most important room in the hole house...the bathroom. What were we thinking! We had some issues with the shower shortly after demolishing the laundry room, possibly rust stuck in the lines. So, we thought it's gross we should just take it out and start anew. Before we could really focus our efforts on the bathroom we had to get our radiant floor heat hooked up and fast! Winter was knocking on our door and the house was beginning to get cold.

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Mike and dad start jacking the dining room ceiling to make the bathroom floors level.

They had to cut the nails holding the joists to the wall and then start jacking.

They've learned a few tricks along the way, like wiring up the beam they use to jack so it won't fall on your head.

And of course there's always a few laughs along the way.

Here's our old bathroom and nasty shower that just quit working after we'd ripped out insulation...sorry Mike & Ron!

It's kinda weird using a bathroom with no walls, just doesn't feel quite right.

Our old nasty shower.

Sue and I had a good time ripping off tiles.

It's all about using the right tools and in this case, the large crow bar worked best.

A functioning toilet, but that's about it at this point.

The demo continues. Ron and Sue did a good job of destroying the bathroom. I didn't know it bothered you guys so much :)

And then there was no bathroom, just the great outdoors!

All of the rotten boards were torn out and replaced.

Subflooring was nailed down to stiffen the floor.

Next, we had to get our walls in so the plumbing crew could do their work.

Mike and I woke up at 5 am and worked on building walls before the power was shut off for testing at 8 am.

Once some walls were built the boys brought up the shower and plumbing could begin.

Here John and Eric were just starting their work on our spare bathroom. We're still using the great outdoors!

The old well and storage tank system circa 1950.

This was John's first task when he came to the house. It looks so much nicer.

Here's our new water lines running through the dining room wall.

Here's the old vent stack.

And, the new vent stack.

The plumbing below the master bathroom.

And, the plumbing in the master bathroom.

The plumbing below the tub.

This is nothing! The pile just continues to grow outside all of our doors!

Ah, the wee hours. Here Mike, Ron and I are working hard to get the insulation hung and the plywood up for the utility board.

Only a day later and all the plywood is up and the tagaki system is just getting started.

What Ron dubs "the board room". This is Mike's masterpiece. Our hot water and soon to be radiant floor heating system.

The final project before the folks left, stacking the washer and dryer. Now we just gotta get it hooked up.

Here's what the mud room looked like after the whole plumbing fiasco. We'll have to get this insulated soon, before winter sets in and freezes all of our new pipes.

Here's the mudroom all insulated.

Here's Mike's big project, hooking up the tankless hot water heater to the pex tubing in the floors.

Mike took out the floor furnace that was in the dining room floor.

Mike has feathered out the hole where the furnace used to be...now it's ready to be patched.

The patched up floor, you can't even tell there was a big hole in it.

Well, there still is no heat yet this month...maybe November and then we can finally get walls for the bathroom...do they sell those at Walmart?

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