Earlier I eluded to some construction projects around the house. The plan was to take some much needed time off of work and put it to good use finishing the back half of my basement off. Basically we realized that we wanted to enjoy our summer instead of me working in the basement every weekend until it was done. So this was the plan: Send the Emily and Isabel to Gma and Gpa Kuennen's so I could work freely, frame the laundry room/man-cave or office (3rd bedroom to any Realtor), plumb the laundry room, replace outdated water lines to the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, wire necessary lighting and outlets, drywall, mud, tape, texture, primer and paint. Seems simple enough right? Well, it got a bit more complicated!
To replace the galvanized water lines to the upstairs bathroom involved running PEX (barely flexible plastic tubes) up the Main Waste Stack coming out behind the toilet and making the main connection. Then at a later date doing a slight remodel of the bathroom which had deteriorating walls anyway.
1st Step was to remove the toilet. I proceeded as normal until when I squatted in reverse fashion over the toilet to lift it the floor partially gave way underfoot. It seems the floor was quite weak in this area. I had to assess the damage so I removed all of the bath furniture to pull up the linoleum floor that needed replacing anyway. Found dry rotted hard wood flooring and sub-flooring around the toilet and bath tub drains. We've known that the dinning room (directly below the bathroom) had a newer ceiling installed at some point. We didn't know why. Evidently at some point a long time ago they had a substantial leak in the bathroom. Instead of remodeling the bathroom they decided to cut through the dinning room ceiling, make the necessary repairs, patch and forgot about the potential water damage to the flooring. I'll give it to them, they fixed the leak. It was only a matter of time until one of us sat on that toilet and found ourselves closer to the dinning room.
I had gone this far, Emily was gone for a week, I was still at Day 1 so I gutted the 3 walls that were falling apart and tore all of the flooring down to the joists. Then I remembered I hated the layout in the bathroom so I made a plan to reconfigure it to a more suitable design and went to work. Probably took on more than I should have considering my time frame. What were my choices? Do a partial remodel? I had it apart, I just need to start working.
To replace the galvanized water lines to the upstairs bathroom involved running PEX (barely flexible plastic tubes) up the Main Waste Stack coming out behind the toilet and making the main connection. Then at a later date doing a slight remodel of the bathroom which had deteriorating walls anyway.
1st Step was to remove the toilet. I proceeded as normal until when I squatted in reverse fashion over the toilet to lift it the floor partially gave way underfoot. It seems the floor was quite weak in this area. I had to assess the damage so I removed all of the bath furniture to pull up the linoleum floor that needed replacing anyway. Found dry rotted hard wood flooring and sub-flooring around the toilet and bath tub drains. We've known that the dinning room (directly below the bathroom) had a newer ceiling installed at some point. We didn't know why. Evidently at some point a long time ago they had a substantial leak in the bathroom. Instead of remodeling the bathroom they decided to cut through the dinning room ceiling, make the necessary repairs, patch and forgot about the potential water damage to the flooring. I'll give it to them, they fixed the leak. It was only a matter of time until one of us sat on that toilet and found ourselves closer to the dinning room.
I had gone this far, Emily was gone for a week, I was still at Day 1 so I gutted the 3 walls that were falling apart and tore all of the flooring down to the joists. Then I remembered I hated the layout in the bathroom so I made a plan to reconfigure it to a more suitable design and went to work. Probably took on more than I should have considering my time frame. What were my choices? Do a partial remodel? I had it apart, I just need to start working.
Original vanity location and toilet location. You can see rot around the toilet in the hardwood I'm about to remove.
A bit further along: drain lines set in new locations. Working on the hot and cold PEX lines. The tub is too wide to fit through the door so I was moving it back and forth across the bathroom out of my way. I must have moved that thing 20 times. It's one heavy bathtub!
Plumbing completed, about to replace the sub-floor, then a 3/4" additional floor to compensate for the hard wood thickness, then laminate wood flooring on top. Notice the Volcum'd boot on the sewer stack. Lowes doesn't carry a PVC to Lead pipe coupler (imaging that) so I had to make it work. Good old Volcum's a life saver!
Mostly finished new toilet location behind the door. Where the back of the tub used to be.
Moved a larger vanity closer to the window since the toilet was gone.
With the tub in the corner we have a lot more room!!
We did give the bathroom a face lift several years ago with an updated toilet, pedestal sink and paint. Not bad, much improved from below.
Now this is what we moved into. It's come a long way!
I ended up spending 3 solid days in that bathroom (long days). Finally was able to frame, plumb, wire and eventually drywall the basement. In all I put 133 hrs in 7.5 days to get to this point. Then I decided to pay a contractor to tape - painting because I had to get back to work. Plus I had yet to put the bathroom back together. That didn't happen until the following weekend.
Storage area under the steps turned out nice. I still need to do all of the finish work + doors.
I love my office. I have my own space again to spread out. Emily loves me not being in the dinning room anymore.
Laundry room after drywall.
Laundry room completed after 3 days of straight laundry.
