Bathroom Repair

Before repairs, southeast corner, where the shower will go. Contrast this with the finished bathroom, shot three months later from roughly this angle, though lower.

Before repairs, southwest corner, where linen closet and Peter's sink will go.

Before repairs, northwest corner, where my sink and radiator will go.

Before repairs, southwest corner, where toilet will go.

Day 1 of the project was mostly spent at Lowe's designing and picking colors and materials. The demolition started later in the day. The "before" shots were taken with flash. Most of the remaining shots are taken with ambient light which is why they are warmer.

See how I'm in front of the sink and my head is against the ceiling? Bad place for sink. Also notice the salmon/peach/pink color on the walls. The paneling below this patch has a flower design in it with this same color.

As I pull down the paneling I see a long history of bathroom designs. First, wainscot. Then tile. Then paneling, first with a floral print wallpaper, then painted red, then white.

When we look closer at the peach section we see that it was a kelly green before that.

Meet Brian, not impressed with our posed shots earlier. Now the real work begins!

The insulation was blown into place long ago. Since then, it has shrunk and is no longer effective.

Horse-hair plaster and lath. When all of this is replaced, the new bathroom will actually be slightly larger than before.

Not sure how that diagonal framing helps, but Brian said that he sees it frequently in old houses. Mine was built in 1909, which kinda makes this the 100th birthday bathroom repair.

Decision time. Brian thinks that the blown-in fiberglass insulation along the slanted part of the ceiling is holding up. But I want the 3/4 inch gain from removing it so down it comes.

This cast iron pipe vents through the roof.

It curves here into the wall between the kitchen and foyer.

After the requisite sneezing and coughing, I tell Brian that maybe we should just keep the insulation up there. He looks stunned before he sees that I am kidding.

This pipe runs up into the attic and then directly into the chimney. Ostensibly, a soot and/or smoke-producing heating unit was connected to this long ago. Right next to the toilet, nice.

That radiator pipe plunges into that tub wall and goes all the way to the corner of the room.

Here Brian has laid out where the shower walls will be built. Since the shower will be built under the slanting roofline, we'll have a bench in there. The X on the floor is where the toilet will be, privately out of sight except from folks at the sink.

More bathroom history being revealed: The door was once shifted 6 inches to the right, where it will be going again. Also, the framing around the tub unit is much newer.

Close-up of the old door header.

Day 3...demolition continues. Here plumbing of the tub and shower is revealed.

Sadly, I can't really blame hard water for this.

Familiar friends, discarded. I was thinking of my youth, living on the farm, when I shot this. Slaughter day, and where we put the heads.

This gas lamp was shoved up into that hole in the ceiling.

The ceiling came down and another motherload of insulation tumbled out. I won't miss this part of the job.