Shower doors, floor and cabinets!

I came back from my Smith Reunion and found this!! So excited. The floor was done on Thursday, then on Friday the cabinets, shower doors and bathroom door went in. It's actually looking like a bathroom now :) I'm so excited to have a real door and the light on the inside now! We're getting so close. Next week the plumber and electrician have to come back and then it's just little finishes and we're done!

Painted walls and floor started

We have walls! The walls are blueboard covered in plaster. We had to let it dry over the weekend and I painted yesterday so I wouldn't have to worry about paint on the new floor, or trying to paint around fixtures when they go in.

The tile guy was here today, but had more leveling to do than anticipated and wasn't able to do it all today because he had to let some holes he filled dry, but you can start to see it. We actually had something work out well for once in this house, which is that the bathroom is the perfect width for 4 full tiles across, so no cutting in that direction, which will look nice. It almost worked out lengthwise too, but there will be a half tile at the back wall. He will be back tomorrow to finish the floor!

Shower in!

We have a shower! It will have curved doors too, but that's later. We also have all the rough electrical done, including new sconces in the family room! Yeay! This house is in dire need of hardwired lighting! I'm very excited we were able to tag that project into this one.

We are waiting for the electrical and framing to be inspected, then it's adding some insulation in the ceiling and putting up wallboard time!

New studs

Our contractor gave us the news that they were going to have to rebuild the framing throughout most of the bathroom. The 2 X 3 metal studs were just not going to cut it. Many had to be cut, many were bent and damaged. Our lead carpenter came up with some good ideas on how to beef things up without losing precious space. We fit all the pieces coming in assuming 2X3 not a bump out to 2 X4 all around. He did have to make one wall 2 X 4 but he actually put the 2 X 4 perpendicular to the 2X3 existing studs, which helped with securing the new plumbing and putting protective plates over the copper pipes as they pass through the studs. The other wall he used new 2X3s and put them right up against the existing. You'll also noticed the concrete has been re-poured! No more big hole! The shower was also delivered today! That is going in tomorrow :)

New plumbing!

Big day today with new plumbing and we already had the plumbing inspector here to sign off on the permit! Wohoo! They are utilizing a vent stack that is over in the wall by the light switch, which was previously either unused or just used by the sink, I forget. So the new vent pipe goes up the wall from the toilet area, across that wall above head height and then hooks up with the stack. Well, it's not hooked up just yet, they had to pressurize the system, and then the plumbers will be back to finish it off.

That's a hole alright.

Jackhammering commenced today. We vacated the premises- including taking Willow in the car all morning while I ran errands. Of course it would be rainy and I couldn't take him on nice long walk. Oh well. He was happier in the back of the car than in the house with a jackhammer going.

Erik, the "destroyer"

That's Erik's new nickname from our contractor. Here he is in action! There are just a couple little odds and ends left in the demo to finish today.

"Warm Sahara" Bathroom

That is the new nickname for this bathroom due to the vanity granite color and floor tile we picked today. Wohoo!!! This is the fun part :)

Bathroom #2 Redo

We have a plan cooking to make the house layout work better for us. This involves making a master suite out of the back bathroom and current TV room, then moving Keagan into our current bedroom.
First up: gut the bathroom. The bathroom was put in as part of the addition in 1969. As our contractor said "this bathroom doesn't owe anybody anything at this point."
The shower that was in there was not big enough to pass code today, so the first thing we were worried about is if we could actually fit a modern shower into the small space. We think we've figured out a new layout with all three pieces on the right hand wall using a corner, curved shower that is going to work.
Erik and Ken (thanks, bro!) concurred the demo this past weekend. Ken was vital to the operation because Erik needed an extra pair of (strong) hands to get some of the pieces out and Ken knew how to cap the plumbing! It's mostly done, with the floor, taking out the insulation (insulation? yup, it was apparently an exterior wall at one point), and the rest of any wallboard. We were happy not to have found any major rot issues behind/around the old shower. We were not exactly thrilled to find 2X3 metal studs, but as John (the contractor) says "we can work with it."
Can't exactly say it's a pretty sight at the moment, but it's one that means progress!