Demo complete

After several days of work and many dusty surfaces later the demo of the master bathroom and closet is complete.  The demo work took almost one week exactly from start to finish and produced literally close to a ton of garbage (filling over 30 contractor grade garbage bags) that is still in our backyard waiting for trash day.  It will take us about a month to get rid of everything.

 A sledge hammer, a crow bar, a sweat covered shirt that says "The Kingdom" ???, and a wonderful mask equals one happy Andy.

 After the last post all that remained in the old bathroom was the tile shower and flooring.  

 Getting the floor and walls out was by far the worst part.  As you can see they were both about 2" thick and complete with expanded metal lath.  Andy gets all of the credit for this miserable job.

Nails popping out of the drywall in the hall.  The side effect of taking a sledge hammer to a tile shower on the inside on a non-load bearing 2x3 wall.  A necessary evil, but still not the most exciting thing to see when you walk out of the bedroom.

Closet demo.

 Having fun kicking holes in the drywall. How often do you get to say that?!?

Standing in the old master bathroom and looking into the old closest.  

Old master bathroom.  Cleaned and ready for some new plumbing.

We are well on our way to selecting all of the new bathroom fixtures and colors. I've included some pictures of the cabinets and counter top.  The floor and shower tiles are still being decided, but the one in the picture gives you an idea of what we're leaning toward.

 Cabinet door.

 Counter top.

 Possible floor tile.

 All three together.

There is no turning back now...

Andy started demolition of the master bathroom this weekend.  We are expanding the bathroom into one of the closets and he started removing the fixtures and shower. 

Pre-demolition.  Goodbye awful pink everything!

The closet that is being sacrificed for a larger bathroom.  We will be adding closet space in the master bedroom later.

DEMO DAY!

More demo.

The wall at the far end of the picture is the closet wall.  I need to relocate my clothing before this wall can come down.

We are in the process of finalizing selections for flooring, cabinets, counter top, and fixtures.  I'll try to post all of the samples once they come in.

Weekend of the Plumber's Crack

I will spare you any pictures of the crack itself.  Instead, I'll share some new pictures from all of the progress made this weekend. 

First, we were able to find the flange we needed at a local plumbing supply store (meaning it's so old that Home Depot and Lowe's don't carry it).  They close at 11am on Saturday morning and I got there at 11:05.  They were kind enough to let me in and interpret the notes Andy made for me although I'm sure they're hoping I never come back.  The toilet is a Kohler model with a no-slam lid option.  It's one the of the taller models and has a low flow (eco-friendly) tank capacity.  I appreciate that the higher toilets are nicer for tall and elderly people that don't like to get down that low, but those of us with short legs find the tall toilets present a whole new set of challenges (i.e. my feet don't touch the floor!!).  Andy will have to make me a step!

 New flange installed before Andy soldered the pipe in place.

No slam lid.

Project complete!

 The more exciting project this weekend was the installation of a booster pump for our water service.  The new water heater helped with some of the water problems and we wanted to see if we still minded the low pressure as much once we had consistent hot water.  We still minded it -- greatly!  Andy did a ton of research and the only true remedy was to install a free-standing pump that literally boosts the water pressure.  In order to qualify for the pump you have to get a minimum of 10 gallons per minutes (gpm) off the water main.  We got 10 gpm -- it was close!  Andy ordered the pump and it was delivered this week. 

 Pre-installation.  You can see the water meter and the main supply into the house just above the work bench.

 New valves, guages, and pump installed.

 The pump -- it was bigger than I expected and smaller than Andy expected.

 Extra pressure gauges show the pressure before the pump (about 24 psi) on the bottom and after the pump (about 60 psi) on the top.

FYI -- the minimum water pressure allowed in the state of PA is 20 psi and when I say minimum I mean minimum allowed, not minimum desired.  At 24 psi we were barely squeaking by.  Now we function between 40-60 psi.  Average residential water pressure is around 60 psi.  It makes for a whole new showering experience!