Worm Can Redux

I finished my transcript (at 2:00 a.m.) so today is wide open.

So is the bathroom wall, because obviously the way to replace a toilet is to tear down a wall. If Mike Holmes were here he probably would have had the house razed by now.

Anyway, we discovered that the previous renovators (and I use that term very loosely) framed in the radiator pipes that run up that wall and painted them black, presumably so they would be less noticeable behind the window shutter they used as a vent. I don't really object to the idea of pipes standing in space against the wall, but since the framing is done (or nearly so, because it stops a few inches short of the real ceiling, just above the suspended ceiling) I'll just go with the original plan of drywall and aluminum grate. It'll be pretty, warm, safe, and easy to clean. All pluses.

The ceiling is showing some of the effects of the long-term toilet leak from the bathroom above it, but I don't think it's too damaged to be repaired. However, there's a junction box where the original light fixture was, and it's connected to a lighting track that is securely fastened to the suspended ceiling on the side of the room opposite the toilet. Ultimately I want to remove the suspended ceiling and put a pretty light in there, but since I can't do anything about the track lighting until I get an electrician in here, I'm now thinking of ways to put the top third of the room on hold while still making the bottom two-thirds look the way I want them. The trick will be making sure we'll be able to eventually do the top third without damaging any work we've already done.

Or maybe I should just find the circuit breaker for the bathroom and shut it off, take the whole mess down and renovate around it. Except there's a fair chance that half of the overhead lights in the house will be connected to that same circuit, just because.

I'm taking photos as I go, because my plan is for the bathroom to look so amazing when we're finished that nobody would ever imagine it was ever the dump that it is.

I can't believe it's almost June.

(no subject)

Well. I suppose it's a miracle this toilet didn't explode on us years ago. I just went in to remove the pipe that connects the tank to the bowl. One good twist with the wrench and the entire pipe buckled and disintegrated at the elbow.

At least I don't have to spend hours wrestling with the connections.

Ugh.

It's a damn good thing I knew to expect to find a wax ring under the toilet bowl, or that gummy brown mass would really have made me worry.

(no subject)

Hrm. It becomes more and more complicated. Yet progress has been made. The toilet is in pieces in the basement; a rag has duly been stuffed into the waste stack. Most of the wax has been scraped away; the rest can wait until I'm ready to put in the new toilet.

First there is the floor to deal with.

It looks like there were once linoleum tiles glued to the wood flooring, long before the luaun and vinyl sheet extravaganza. The boards directly behind the toilet obviously spent a good deal of time being wet over the last *cough20cough* years or so. They're dry now, but they've shrunk a bit. I could cut them out and replace them with plywood but I think instead I'll use the filler I bought when we did the upstairs bathroom. Basically it's cement.

Nothing I could do will make the boards any better, so I might as well go the whole hog. Besides, cutting out and replacing that section of floor will involve nitpicky fitting around pipes that already look as if they shouldn't be knocked around too much more.

Also I don't have quite enough floor tiles to do the entire room. I'm about four short, and the pattern has been discontinued. So there's that to deal with.

But! I must deal with that later because I see I am late to pick up Danny at school. He is bringing home one of the class crayfish to keep as a pet. I hope we don't kill it.

I wish I was here...

Stolen from htnatch

The instructions:

"Find a piece of artwork that represents where you'd most like to be, right now. Post in your LJ with the header, 'I wish I was here'. Invite others to do the same, should they choose."

So where do you wish you were?



Six weeks :)