Bathroom Time Out #1

Around about the time they were getting ready to rip the roof of my bathroom, I took off for a little road trip across the upper Midwest/West.

One of my best friends found herself in the dubious position of being what boils down to the regional president of our historical group. Part of that job required visiting other regional management to discuss stuff. This is what led to her telling me that she needed to drive to Montana in June. I offered to go to keep her company. And thus she, her sister-in-law, and I set out to drive from Cleveland to Butte and back in a week and change.

It was a heck of a time, and I'm so glad I went.

Taking off in the homemade camper.

At some point we crossed the Mississippi. It rained like crazy right before.

We stopped at "Dignity of Earth and Sky" in South Dakota.

It was really quite beautiful.

We got off at Wall Drug for dinner. (We sort of felt like we needed to.)

I saw this really cool truck in the parking lot.
I can only shudder to think what the gas mileage is like.

Lots of driving.

The trailer (and we) made it to Rushmore!

If you get too close, all you can see is up their noses.

Cleaned our palates with a stop at the Crazy Horse memorial and Art Museum.
Really nicely interpreted, I would highly recommend it.

Things started to get plateu-y

The colors were super pretty.

Trailer made it to Devil's Tower!

Also referred to as "Bear's Lodge" but the local Natives. We got a really good hike in here.

Hiking!

More driving. So much driving.

Becky and I decided to go check out the local Pictograph Cave State Park.
(https://fwp.mt.gov/pictograph-cave)

It was an interesting place, but one riddled with cautionary tales about how *not* to protect historic sites.

The trails around the caves were super short, so we went and did 4 miles here afterwards. Good hike.

Oh Yea - there was a historic event too - Didn't really get many pictures at the actual event though.

On the way home, we stopped and saw the world's biggest Bison.
It was silly and fun, and I loved traveling with these two (Becky center, Erin far right.)

But my travel agent really sucked, and I wound up on a red eye out of Cleveland to Boston in order to get to Framingham in time to go to work rather than take a extra day off.
Terrible planning.
It's me. I'm the worst travel agent ever.

When I got home, all kinds of work had happened to the house while I was gone.

Next: Bathroom Photo-dump Part 2!

A grand dump of bathroom pictures! (Part 1)

The summer totally got away from me with more travel than usual, longer periods away from home than usual, and just more chaos than normal.
But the bathroom! Oh the bathroom! 

When last I left you, we were still gutting and discovering things in the wall (which, turns out, weren't even really doing anything.) 

In June they started working on the exterior to straighten out this wonky roof.

Stripped off the aluminum and vinyl to get to what they needed to see.

(A lot of old paint.)

They got the sewer pipe cut and capped temporarily.

We all stared at the (lack of) supports in amazement.

New water lines were run!

I realized I needed to keep the cat out from underfoot, and I was going to be going away for a week and change. She couldn't live in one tiny room the whole time, so I relocated the kitchen/dining room door to be the dining room/hallway door. This gave Chandos the office, hallway and living room to wander around in safely.

I was pretty pleased at how fast I got this sucker moved.

It even hangs nice!

I didn't have a spare functioning Norfolk Latch Keeper.
So I made one out of a piece of copper pipe.

Da Ta! Latch keeper. (Door to be refinished eventually.)

Once that was completed, I flew to Cleveland, met up with my best friend and her sister in law, and we proceeded to drive to Montana and back.

To be continued...

This is why sometimes you just hire professionals

They showed up at 8:30 am, exactly when they said they would. 

They have been nice and polite, and have tried to keep the mess to a minimum. 

By noon, half the crew had to leave because all the heavy stuff was done, and it's down to noddley demolition. 

By 1 pm, when the last two went to take their lunch, this is where we were at.

Tub is on the lawn!
No, it will not become a water feature.

The view from the door. Vanity used to be to the right (being re-used), tub to the left.

This is the wall between the bathroom and the laundry

The view in from the window into the corner where the tub used to be. True 2x4's!

The rafters, which are sort of just toenailed into the house with hopes and dreams.

The wall out toward the dining room from the window.

The tub corner again. There's a bunch of posts here, and I'm hoping to get a better look at it once they are done for the day.  I suspect some of these are just emotional support posts for hanging the plaster/lathe on. If you zoom in and look super close, there's a wooden peg through a mortise/tennon at the top of the corner.

Here we go again

 Well, friends, it's been a minute.
The bathroom is finally progressing again.
The old contractor has skipped out with the deposit, and the courts, having ruled in my favor, can't actually enforce anything. So that was a lot of time and hassle for nothing.
Karma will catch up to him someday.

I found a new contractor, ironed out a bunch of details, and now finally we're getting started. 

First, let's remember where we left off.

I'd removed the molding and the door to be refinished, and cut open the "mystery box" to the let of the door.

I'd had to replace the vanity, because the one that came with the house was literally crumbling.

I'd jerryrigged a shower situation with the help of my former partner so I could at least shower.

I'd started to demo the walls and ceiling to figure out what was going on inside of them.

I'd pulled the old, badly warped medicine cabinet off the wall, but installed a new light and mirror over the vanity.

I had explored the weird box at the head of the tub, only to find out it really only houses the plumbing.

I'd pulled all the green tile off the wall I could reach - it ends about halfway up where the chair rail used to be.

I cut lots of holes in the ceiling.

More holes in the ceiling.

Just this weel I removed all the temporary insulation so that Tad and crew didn't have to mess with it.
I'm going to pull down the fixtures I want to reuse too.

The shower/tub stripped of all it's protections.

It started getting real again earlier last week when my very own Porta Potty showed up. I wind up using these a lot in the summer, because it's the easiest thing to get to service campgrounds with several hundred temporary residents. I'm well acquainted with them.

The fact that it sort of matches amuses the heck out of me. :)

 Then Tuesday the dumpster showed up. I swear we could just rip the whole bathroom structure off and fit it in the dumpster. That had been an idea for a minute, but I couldn't afford that level of construction.

To no one's surprise, they couldn't make the turn, and instead parked the dumpster partially in the hillside. There will be landscaping to do when this is done.

The game is afoot, as Sherlock would say. Permits pulled, plans drawn, and ram board laid in the traffic areas. They will be back Monday or Tuesday (depending on weather) to start in earnest. I'm replacing the whole dang roof at the same time, so that will be nice not to have to worry about.

This has been a long time coming. I'm a little scared, a lot apprehensive, and at this point just want it over with. 

Someone is displeased with the upheaval of routine.