A Grand Dump of Bathroom Pictures! (Part 2)

Once I returned under-slept but relatively unscathed from our grand tour of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South and North Dakota, and Montana, I found the bathroom had changed while I was gone. Not a lot visually, but a lot structurally.
They had done the roof in my absence (the whole roof - It badly needed it) and in the process discovered there were 8! Eight! layers of roofing material over the bathroom. A mix of asphalt and rolled rubber, they were worried that the sheer weight alone would trigger needing a new dumpster. I think we avoided it though.

There was plumbing!

A a vent stack pipe in the corner!
Super exciting because up until this point my house hasn't met code. This fixes a huge problem.

All new rafters, also up to code!

John the Carpenter revealed that there was a hand-hewn post hiding inside the mystery box in the dining room. This was likely reused from somewhere even older than the house.

Labeled electrical! With a vent fan!

The vent stack was framed in to make a chase. This eats up about a square foot of floor space in an already small bathroom, but it's worth it. (And frankly, I didn't have a choice.)

Slowly pealing back the wall between the bathroom and the dining room. The Mystery Post is still hanging out in the wall to the far right.

John left me this piece of the original Victorian Tongue and Groove so I could see the beaded profile. I didn't wind up saving any of it in the build, because at a certain point, I just wanted it Done. In hindsight, could I have reused it and run a small bit as wainscotting behind the toilet? Sure.
But Done.

Still Pealing. Old lathe it the far left.

Framing in the wall that will enclose the tub and help create a closet in the bathroom.

Brand new tempered window. This is also a code requirement due to proximity to the shower.
(I might slip and pitch myself headlong out the window.)

A floor! I don't have to worry about falling into the basement on my way to the portapotty in the middle of the night!

Wait. Water? Oh no.

There's no reason for the wall to be wet here. Not like this. Me, the plumber, and the GC Tad chased pipes and waited for it to rain for days - weeks, really. We could never get this to replicate once it dried.
The only think I can think of is that the washing machine (which backs up to this wall) needed to be moved. I think the hoses were disconnected, but it's so tight they couldn't get a bucket in there, and the hoses must have drained out, soaking up the wall.

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.