Jim Alfredson Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 I promised back in April when I created my homage to de-Dunkle-fying our home (see this thread) that I would post pictures of my bathroom project upon completion. Well, I did complete the bathroom exactly one day before my wife and newborn baby Zora came home from the hospital and now I will keep my promise. The Alfredson 1st Floor Bathroom A photo essay of de-Dunkle-fying our old home - by Jim Alfredson When we were looking for a home to purchase, my wife and I had three criteria. We like older homes (pre-1940)We had to have a big enough home for a music room/rehearsal spaceIn order to afford it, the house pretty much had to be a fixer-upperWe looked at a lot of homes in Lansing, actually bid on one (ah, Beal St.) and lost and then finally found the one we're in now. We moved in last August (2003) and true to our criteria, this house needs some serious TLC. The last owners were completely inept at home maintenance/repair/remodeling but that didn't stop them from trying. Case in point: The 1st Floor Bathroom. When we first looked at this house I remember my wife having to use the bathroom. I was in the basement at the time and witnessed water pouring down from the drain onto the floor as the toilet flushed. The home inspector said, "Ah, probably just a leaky wax seal." Famous last words. Besides having a leaky toilet, the bathroom itself was absolutely hideous. Notice the strange yellow and orange "waveform" wallpaper. What the hell!?? Up in the top left corner you can kind of see the "shower rod" (I wish I had gotten a real picture of it.) This consisted of some 1" PVC pipe stuck through the drop ceiling. They didn't even bother to paint it. It's just bare PVC pipe. Beautiful! Here's the bathtub. It's only about 4 feet long, shoved into the corner about 10 inches or less away from the bowl of the toilet. I'm almost 6'3" tall and I like to take baths. Obviously the tube had to go. Notice they took showers with a freakin' hand shower thingy. The tub is really short so they could make space for this awesome home-made, built in cabinet. Actually it was a real piece of shit that was far too large for a bathroom. I think they may have kept ALL their linens in it. Ridiculous. Again, you can see some of the PVC shower rod in the upper part of the picture. I wish I had gotten a picture of it protruding through the drop ceiling. It was real slick looking. Onto re-modeling. First order of business, rip down the ugly drop ceiling. Once again, a drop ceiling is hiding something (a recurring theme in this house). Those are supply lines for the upstairs bathroom. There was no plaster left on the original ceiling since they opened it all up to add those lines. Notice the pipes on the outside of the beams. I eventually removed those, bore holes in the beams, and re-connected them so they were up inside the ceiling, raising the ceiling to above 10' (nice!) Removing the ugly sink counter unit. Don't get your hopes up. Those aren't real tiles back there. Oh no... that would be too classy for our previous home-owners. No, they are some weird metal tiles things that are glued directly to the wall! Awesome! Sink out. The trash can is about where the toilet was. Notice the water damage on the floor. That luon was put there only a few months earlier and it was already rotting away. They just placed a "new" floor on top of the old one before they sold the house. They didn't even bother to use glue on the cheap-ass, ugly linoleum they laid down. The just nailed it with a pneumatic nail gun. Sweet! The toilet had been leaking so long it had rotted through not only the luon, but the original floor and subfloor as well. It would all have to come out. How hard is it to replace a friggin' wax ring, people!?!? Bathtub out. For such a little tub, it weighed an absolute TON!!! It was pure cast-iron, and my buddy Bill helped me take it out. We lifted it up off the ground enough to get my organ dollies under it, strapped the dollies together (just like moving an organ!) and rolled that baby out to the garage where it sits to this day. Eventually I'll rent a dumpster for the rest of the trash we need to get rid of around here, take a sledgehammer to it, and bye bye! Notice the checkerboard floor. That's vinyl tile laid down sometime in the 1950's I think. So the tub must've been somewhere else before then?! Jim think's, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?!" as he realizes that the plaster will have to come down. But first: The really, really shitty part is that all that water damage had destroyed the original hardwood floor that was in the bathroom. It's the same hardwood that is in the rest of the house... 3/4" thick yellow pine. So I took it all up. You can see that even the subfloor is damaged. It'll all have to come up. Before messing with the floor further, I decided to tear down the plaster on the walls. It was just too far gone and most of it too covered with old wall paper to be worth saving. I did it all in one day and did not take any pictures during the process but let me tell you... the amount of plaster in a 6x10 room is absolutely mind-boggling!!!! It piled up on the floor about 2 feet thick! And all that dust! Yuk! I hope I don't have to do that with any other room in this house. What a mess! But there's the finished product.... looking at the window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted August 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Here's where I start to cut up the floor, exposing the actual joists below. Mr. Sawz-All is my best friend!!! New subfloor in and Alison and I start playing with placement. The sink and toilet are brand new and the tub we got used from an plumber who took it out of a 1906 farm house! We were now completely broke and the project came to a halt. This was last November. In January I ran the rough plumbing to the locations we had choosen as well as electrical. In February we had enough money to move forward again. I got Backerboard up on all the walls and also laid some on the floor and then laid the tiles with the help of my dad, his girlfriend, and my sister. Lookin' sharp! Hope those solder joints on the plumbing in the walls hold up! Me groutin' away! One of the most fun parts of the job, in my opinion! It's like playing with mud in the sandbox! After putting drywall on the top part of the walls, above the backerboard, and also on the ceiling, the project again stalled as we saved money to get wall tile. It wasn't until April, when Alison was getting due, that I started it up again. I put all the wall tile up two weeks before Zora was born. One week before she was born I started installing the fixtures and painting. And the finished product: The bathroom took 9 months to get done, just like Zora took 9 months to be born! I finished the day before they came home and we LOVE IT! Next up... The Kitchen. I can't wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wesbed Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 (edited) I remember re-doing my bathroom with my Dad back in 2000. We took all the old fixtures, tub, and cabinets out, then replaced them with all new (tub, tile, floor, cabinet, mirror, drywall, paint). We'd completed the kitchen in 1997. I enjoyed the projects very much. It was a good time, improving my property and spending time with my Dad. We drank lots of coffee, told stories, listened to music... quite a good time. I'm glad the projects are done but I'm kind of sad about it at the same time. All of my major house projects are complete. I can't ever sell the house because it has, literally, the blood of my Dad and I under the new floor, behind the new walls, under the tub. Congrats, b3-er, on a job well done. It brings great satisfaction to complete a remodel project on your own property. Especially when you do it yourself. Edited August 9, 2004 by wesbed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted August 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Thanks, wesbed. If you miss remodeling a lot, I've got plenty of work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajf67 Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Nice job! I've been helping my girlfriend fix up her house. She bought an old row house in the Columbia Heights section here in DC. It's actually been fun doing projects and spending time together. Our latest project -- which has been the least fun -- is stripping and re-painting the trim on the front of the house. There are about 7 or 8 layers (one is pink!) and even though it is all cracked and looks terrible, the paint will not come off. We have had to resort to one of those heating tools that melts the paint so we can scrape it. Tedious to say the least. Removing the old tile in the back room and replacing it with hardwood flooring is the next task. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 (edited) Wow, Jim, that looks really nice. You've got some chops. I'm in the process of learning all this stuff. My wife and I were working on a project in May (before she split for Santa Fe) and we had to go to Home Depot for some caulking supplies. I told her I'd give her $100 if she'd go up to a HD employee and ask him to show her his caulk. She didn't do it. Anyway, burnin' bathroom. What's next? edit: BTW, thanks for not having a case of "plumber's crack" in that one picture. Edited August 9, 2004 by Free For All Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted August 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Next up is the office which will be in the basement and entails framing a room, doing all the electrical, hanging drywall and such and such. That should be relatively cheap. After that it'll probably be the kitchen!!!! The kitchen needs some serious work. I'm still workin' on my "plumber's crack". A couple more root beer floats per day oughta do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with the Golden Arm Posted August 13, 2004 Report Share Posted August 13, 2004 I'm still workin' on my "plumber's crack". A couple more root beer floats per day oughta do it! A tip o the trousers to bentsy and the babe thread. (deletion at the moderator's discretion) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted August 13, 2004 Report Share Posted August 13, 2004 I'm still workin' on my "plumber's crack". A couple more root beer floats per day oughta do it! A tip o the trousers to bentsy and the babe thread. (deletion at the moderator's discretion) I'll give you a dollar if you make it your avatar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted August 13, 2004 Report Share Posted August 13, 2004 (edited) I'm still workin' on my "plumber's crack". A couple more root beer floats per day oughta do it! A tip o the trousers to bentsy and the babe thread. (deletion at the moderator's discretion) I'll give you a dollar if you make it your avatar. I will donate $25 to Organissimo ... btw, CONGRATS on the project - my house was built in '39 - fortunately it was mostly updated, cause I have ZERO ability in the remodeling dept ... Edited August 13, 2004 by Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny E Posted August 13, 2004 Report Share Posted August 13, 2004 Jim that's so great! Nice tub! It looks like a really nice place to take a shit My wife and I just bought a house and she is 4 months pregnant. I am getting ready to start re-doing my bathroom too! Mind if I PM you if I have any questions? I hope I can get it done before the baby is born, but since I just sank $900 on getting car fixed....I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alfredson Posted August 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2004 Mind if I PM you if I have any questions? Go for it! Or just post them here. Somebody may know more than me. Man with the Golden Arm, that's pretty funny! I think my ass is more white than yellow, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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