Remodel efforts started in earnest early in the spring. Top propriety was to get a functioning bathroom. There is a usable outhouse on the property, but the girls could really not come up for the day and help me. From what we have been able to find out so far, the house was built pre-1900’s. It is a post and beam construction house with outside plank walls. There are 2” thick planks that run on the outside of the house from top to bottom and 1” thick planks on the inside from floor to ceiling; no studs. The only insulation was newspaper between the planks. The plan is to leave the planks and build 2X6 framed walls on the inside of all the exterior walls. This will allow space for new wiring, plumbing and insulation. We will also be installing new windows and doors.
The bathroom was in pretty rough shape. It appeared that the outhouse got more use than the bathroom. The cast iron bathtub was hauled out to the side porch (still sitting there – anyone want a cast iron bathtub?!?) and the toilet came out in pieces. We submitted a new layout to the landlords, which they approved. It was roughly the same layout except we rotated the tub 180 degrees and added a large closet. The bathroom is roughly 8X10. We started with the rough framing, then installed the tub. Next was the new window. My brother Matt was gracious enough to take a break from his new home construction to help me install the window. Nephew Camden came along to make sure he fully understood what we were doing. The windows are new construction windows, which are a little bigger than the existing window. We had to cut the planks to increase the rough window opening. We then framed in the rough window opening using 2X10’s. Once that was completed the window fit right into place. Because we are building the walls out we are going to have very deep window sills.
The next order of business was the rough wiring and plumbing. Once the rough-ins were completed, we put in the insulation and then up went the drywall. Next I mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded. Once the mudding and sanding were done we tackled tiling the tub surround. This is the first time that I have tiled and JJ and I were both pleased with the end result. JJ’s dad helped out with this, as well as a lot of other things along the way. We then painted the walls and installed the flooring. Once the flooring was down we could put the toilet and vanity in…and Voila! FUNCTIONING BATHROOM. We completed the electrical as well as the hook ups to the tub/shower. We also put some of the trim up but we then stopped there to move onto the kitchen.
