Day Two

Bright and early the crew arrived to begin work. We had another walk through with the contractor and the designer. We talked about the custom cabinets, placement of light fixtures and they answered questions about the work that had been done.

Floor tile has become an issue as the pattern I wanted doesn't seem to be around any more. I wanted an art noveau style bathroom. The mermaid tile reminds me of the work of Alphonse Mucha. Seems cobalt blue is not in vogue. Neither is white. Art nouveau is art passé. Me thinks I was born too late. The designer will be making a trip to a tile place to see what she can come up with.

In two days, the bathroom has been gutted to the studs. Good news was nothing horrible like vermin and termites going on behind the walls. The house, around 49 years old, has cedar walls. A very expensive material for houses even back then. The basement leaks like a sieve. but the house itself is well built.

The tile was torn out and new underlayment put down. Plumbing connections for the washer, shower, sink and toilet were put in and connected to the out flow in the basement. The shower even has the water lines in the proper place. The idiot son of a contractor had reversed the hot and cold for some unknown reason. The outflow to the septic had to be changed over as we had a leak there, too. Now everything is clean, white PVC which the plumber told me was much better than copper. It won't corrode as quickly.

Not too happy about the trap that had to be installed and has to hang below our drop ceiling. The trap falls in the middle of the only window. There was no other place to put it and it's required by the building code. We'll just have to come up with a way to decorate it. The room is only used by the family and where my studio is located so company won't see it.

The plasterer stopped by to see the job. He will plaster the new ceiling in the bathroom as a crawl space access is being relocated out in the hallway. The ceilings in the house are scrolled. The plasterer told me he can match the hallway ceiling. Seems he apprenticed with an old timer and learned how to do the scrolls and sand textured ceilings. Very cool.

The Carpenter had been able to save the shower base during the demolition because it hadn't benn installed properly. I suppose thank God for small favors. He set the base in mud (concrete) so it won't move or crack. Before leaving for the day he reconnected the toilet, and he even built a temporary shower! I thought they would just staple some plastic sheeting to the frame, but the carpenter put up some thin white, laminate sheets! The contractor is conscious that this is our only bathroom and he's making sure we're not left stranded for more than one day or have to move into a motel. Good guys!

It's very quiet here today. No banging. No sawing. No music. No singing. The plumber sings along to the songs on the radio. The other guys were ragging on him. Telling him he should be the next American Idol. Plumbing work is on hold until the plumbing inspector arrives late Monday afternoon. Our town is small so the inspectors do the work part time, after their own full time jobs.

The electrician will arrive Monday to start his work rewiring for the light fixtures, washer and dryer and fan/light in the shower. I'm not sure if he will be installing the electric radiant floor heating mat yet.

The bathroom is quite ugly, but taking shape. It's also clean for all the rough work going on. The fellas clean up after themselves. The work area is left cleaner than when they first came in. I'll miss the carpenter today because he's the last to leave, he got the task of sweeping up the hallway, kitchen, and living room areas where they walk through.

I guess Monday I'll be baking a batch of Lambie's cinnamon buns. The fellas sure deserve a treat.