1 Bed 1 Bath… but sort of there are other rooms
I’ve decided to shift my focus to the essentials that will allow me to move into the house and stop paying both rent and a mortgage at the same time: a bed and a bath. The laundry room is officially on hold, and I’m not touching the range hood exhaust or the chimney cap for the second fireplace again until the bathroom no longer looks like a movie set for an abandoned building (pictured below).
There was significant progress in the bathroom this weekend. The room was fully gutted. The remaining wall panels and old insulation batts came out. The fiberglass tub was angle grinded into sections so it could fit through the doorway. The vanity was disconnected and removed. The remnants of a neglected parquet floor were bagged and hauled off.
With the room stripped to the studs, I was finally able to assess the wiring properly. I reset everything all the way back to the panel: new Romex, new switches, new outlet, new boxes—everything. I also relocated the electrical to the shared wall with the living room to accommodate a future pocket door, which will reclaim space otherwise lost to the swing of a traditional door.
One unresolved issue is what appears to be a second circuit running through the same ceiling cavity as the bathroom circuit. It serves outdoor lighting and outlets but does not seem to connect at the panel. That mystery needs to be solved this week before I can insulate and close up the walls and ceiling.
It’s always striking how much difference drywall—or cement board or whatever wall panel system you’re using—makes once it starts going up.
The remaining major concerns are the floor and plumbing. I plan to sister the angled roof rafters with 2x8s to create deeper bays for insulation while also gaining a bit of ceiling height. With that added height, I’d like to raise the shower head. The supply line is currently positioned on the low side the roof slope, but relocating it won’t be difficult since the galvanized pipes and cast fittings were being replaced anyway. The cast iron drain, however, is another matter. Any advice would be appreciated.
And the cast iron problems don’t end there. The toilet drain is so heavy that it appears to have shifted a joist over the past fifty years. The plan is to use hangers, a bottle jack, and an extra set of hands to bring the floor closer to level before rebuilding. After that, I’ll need to determine the proper sequence once the floor is opened up everywhere—most likely installing new subfloor and starting clean.
Overall, I’m much happier with the state of the house than I was two weeks ago. On Super Bowl morning, Ryan and Alex stopped by just as I was showing up to bag demo debris and having last seen the house on one of its worst days, they were surprised - and genuinely encouraged - by the transformation in just two weeks. What had been dust, plaster, mold, dirt, and frustration in the front rooms is now clearly in-progress construction, with drywall and taping underway in three main rooms and a cleanly gutted addition.
This week’s goals are to clean out the crawlspace by removing the old insulation and abandoned wiring, then reset the bathroom floor so I can shift from demolition to building the future bathroom.
QC
