It’s a Bathroom! Well… almost.
Yes… Yes… I know. It’s been too many months since my last confession, er, I mean update. Sorry for the big gap in the remodeling updates. Life has been, well, I’ll just leave it at ‘busy’.
I realize we’re missing quite a few bits of ‘in-between’ segments in our remodeling project, but I at least wanted to bring everyone up-to-date on our current work.
The electrical is now complete. You’ll see in a couple of the new photos that we now have the ceiling fans installed and working (though, the blades will wait to go up when everythign else is done). And, we have working outlets and switches all over the place. If you’re wondering how happy we are to have that done, here’s a little example: When everything was finished and the electrician’s left for the day, Jude and I stood at the bottom of the steps flipping the light switch on, then off, then on, then off, then on - okay, you get the image - grinning from ear-to-ear. We would then jump up and hug each other, exclaiming, ‘We’ve got REAL LIGHTS!!!! WOOHOO!!!’ There you have it.
Also, A couple months back - October, I believe - we had the plumbers come in and install all the pipes and other necessary plumbing accessories. Everything was done in one day! Including installation of the shower. The only things they couldn’t finish were the installations of the toilet, the pedestal sink and the glass doors for the shower.
Doesn’t pay to put those in until we finish the drywall and floor! They said to give them a call back when we got all that done. So… that’s what we’re working on now.
Since then, Judy and I weren’t able to get back into the attic to work, until just after the holidays… yep, just a couple weeks ago! We’ve finished drywalling the bathroom and started mudding and taping last week.
Note: for those of you who have never had the distinct privilege of drywalling, mudding and taping, let me give you a couple of exercises that will give you the same ‘feeling’ we got when working on our ‘out-of-plumb’ and ‘not-so-level’ attic:
In place of drywalling, hold something very heavy over your head for 10 minutes. Then, walk up to a wall… ANY wall will do… and repeatedly bang your head against it. This will give you the arm/shoulder pain from holding up a 4′x8′ sheet of half inch drywall and the headaches involved in trying to fit it to our ‘out-of-plumb’ rafters.
Next, mudding, taping and sanding… take a job you most hate to do (raking and shoveling for me) and do that for many hours… over your head. Then, wait a few hours and repeat. Do this at least 3 times… maybe four if you have an old house like ours. Oh.. and to TRULY get the effect, throw a lot of white flour all over yourself and track it throughout your entire house, leaving fingerprints everywhere!
That will give you at least a TINY idea of what it takes to drywall, mud, tape and sand and old house.
Now… if you TRULY want to know what it’s like, please feel free to stop on over and help us with the REST of the attic!! No… really… feel free… I’m totally serious. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!
Okay. Fine. Nevermind… chickens.
Well… back to the work being done. As I said, we’ve gotten a lot done in the past two weekends. Today, Sunday, we started the second layer of mud on the bathroom walls. With luck, we’ll finish that Monday night and sand it. Wednesday, we can start the third - and hopefully the last - layer of mud. I’m hoping to put up the wainscoting on the walls this weekend, so we can call the plumbers to come back and finish the bathroom the following week.
Now.. you’re asking, ‘Okay. Cool. You’ll have the bathroom done. But, what about the rest of the room?’ Well, I’m glad you asked!
We’re finishing off the bathroom first. It’s just easier and will be nice to have a second, working bathroom in the house. Once it’s done (though, unpainted), we’ll finish the rest of the room. We’ve already got a nice start on the ceiling drywall.
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| View from the front of house toward the bathroom wall/door. | View from the bathroom toward front of house. Notice the beautiful ceiling fan! |
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| Judy, working on the bathroom wall. Drywall went up first, then we cut the opening for the linen cabinet. | Facing into the bathroom toward the linen cabinet wall. The sink will go just inside the door to the right. |
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| The shower stall! Just inside the door to the left. On the right side of the wall (in the photo) is the cubby where the toilet will go. | Photo of the opening in the divider wall above the shower stall. Just a little added feature we wanted. A shelf will go there later. |
After the bathroom: Drywall rest of room (including mud, tape, sand, etc). Paint. Finish ‘built-in’ bookcases. Add trim. Sand and finish floors. Replace stair treads. Add stair railing. Move everything upstairs. Have a party to celebrate! ;o)
I promise to keep the progress more up-to-date in the coming months. Things should progress a little faster once the bathroom is completed.
Thanks for being patient. Give a holler now and then if you want to know more about what we’re doing.
Oh yes… and we WON’T discuss the Packer game today. Let’s just say, I’d have preferred to stay upstairs mudding and sanding! ‘Nuff said.
Peace out!
Jules & Jude 
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