Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Bathroom Rehab: Step One


2007
When we first moved into our house, neither one of our bathrooms had a shower. So at first we had to take baths (which strange as it may be to most people, I don’t like). Until Michael changed the faucet to allow a hand held shower head hose to be attached under the spout. I was so excited that finally I was able to stand up and get CLEAN!

Through the years, there were a few tiles that would come loose and Michael would put them back up with caulk. A couple of tiles he even used the mortar from Bobby’s bathroom which was a reddish brown color. After each shower, we would wipe the water off the tiles off with our hands. We knew the water was beginning to leak through but were not aware of how much damage was really happening under there.

Fast forward 5 years

2012
The tiles around the tub were getting looser and looser. I would do the same thing Michael had and use caulk to reattach them. But eventually it became apparent that the current method was no longer sufficient. It turns out the wood and the dry wall under the tiles was rotting. I kept an old hand towel and a washcloth on a towel rack in the shower that I would place on the shelf surrounding the tub area. I also had a large cup to catch any extra dripping water from the shower head. In order to reduce the possibility of water seeping through the tiles any more, I covered the tiles with plastic wrap. What a joke that is! But I was grateful to have my shower and I have been making it work.
In this picture you can see where the tiles had come off.





2013
January 4th & 5th – Dad and I began removing tiles from the wall. Most of them came off without any problem because of the state of the drywall. After removing the tiles and some of the drywall, the ‘wood’ used became visible – WOOD PANELING! Why in the world would someone use wood paneling for that?

This is a picture of the P-trap. Evidently, our tub had been watering the dirt under the house for quite some time!


Some of the wood structures had to be cut with the sawzall but it’s all out now! Taking the tub out of the house was interesting but with the help of a two-wheel dolly and lots of talk about every step and turn, we did it!

One of the boards that was cut off by a sawzall





It’s interesting the things you find in the crawl space of your house!


A random piece of 4 inch PVC piece of pipe found under the floor unattached from anything!
So for now the tub can be found in the carport and I will have to use Bobby’s bathroom for my showers. But that’s a small sacrifice for a new non-leaking shower!


I always knew the tub was small but now I have proof! It was a 4 ½ foot tub that was made November 7, 1966.


We have some planning to do from this point but I’m excited about the first step.  


Here are a couple of random pictures:




Yes, that's mold that you see from leaking tiles!



The hole for the drain that was open like this under the tub!

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