This Old Mess
Project is kind of stalled, since infrastructure stuff needs to happen before we can progress. We ripped up most of the floor to discover a sill must be replaced and the house jacked up a bit to do it. That should happen this weekend. We found nice floorboards, alternating strips of pine and walnut, under the 2 layers of lino, but unfortunately only a few boards could be saved. We pried all that up and got down to the subfloor--and then I've had to pull about a million nails out, some with pliers, heads snapping--not fun. Some of the subfloor will need to be patched, where fixtures evidently leaked. More rats' nests. More dirt and mess. We tore down most of the ceiling, and as the photo shows, the new ceiling that Gary and helper framed will be uniform height. Gary also cut away more of the wood added for all those closets and we had a sheet rock guy in to give us an estimate. The plumber comes tomorrow morning to cut off all the skanky old plumbing. On his first visit he looked at what was going on under the house and gave his verdict: What a mess. We decided just to have it all yanked out and start anew, because it is, in fact, a giant mess. There is gas pipe used as water pipe in places, all of it's patched together willy-nilly, and some if it's so fragile we're afraid to work around it. The grey pipe you can see in this photo is the drain from the upstairs bathroom, and it needs to be re-routed.
Since the photo was taken the heating and AC guys came and added 2 vents, one for the dressing room and one for the bathroom, and they re-routed the one that got walled in and now goes all the way to what will be the bedroom. They also added a vent on the stairs, since we have a hot pocket after the landing. Hopefully that will help knock down the heat upstairs.
While they were here they accidentally cut the wire on the smoke and fire alarm you can sort of see peeking out in the photo--it's just dangling until we get the new ceiling in. The alarm was bellowing, the dogs were running around barking at it (except Hattie who ran and hid), and I couldn't remember the code. Or rather, the sequence of buttons you press before and after the code. By the time I got it done and called the alarm company to tell them not to send anyone, the fire truck was already pulling up (with sirens blaring, causing more barking and running and hiding and fuss). I apologized about 80 times and we're going to bring the firemen some cookies to the station. But it wasn't all bad: I found out how quickly they get here (very!) and gave them a tour of the house. It can't hurt to be on friendly terms with one's potential saviors.
To me it's unbelievable how much material--the sheer quantity--we've had to wreck out. It would have filled at least a couple of dumpsters. We saved what we could, but it wasn't much.
We picked out subway tile for the walls, some of which will be beadboard, too. The floor will be little hexagonal tiles, off-white with some black accents. The dressing room floor will be cork--we love the cork floor we put in our kitchen, and it's the same only a lighter color. We are still arguing over stone for the tub surround, vanity top, and shower trim. Gary wants Carrara marble; I want something gray but not granite, or if granite, the stuff that had a kind of rough surface. We are buying all the fixtures this weekend during the Louisiana sales tax holiday.
Meanwhile my friend Tracy called to say This Old House magazine was coming (today!) to photograph their kitchen for the November issue. Their place, in Baton Rouge in Beauregard Town, is really gorgeous--they spent over a year remodeling, Tracy's husband working solid on it. Their bathroom was already featured on the TOH website. It was a real wreck when they bought it--for instance, it rained inside--but they've brought it back and now it's so lovely. Even though they had to do much more, their reno must have been easier since they weren't living in it while they did it. Gary and I are kind of slow, but it's the best we can do. Right now, we've got This Old Mess.
