Angela Law

Things certainly didn’t go how I hoped today. Right after work, I busted my ass to get the toilet and tub areas painted. Our intention was to install the toilet this evening. We started working on that after supper only to find that the new shutoff valve we bought was the wrong kind. We went to the hardware store up the street and bought a new one. This one was the wrong size. Then we ran to Lowe’s and bought another one. This time it worked.

Brian attached the wax ring to the toilet and set it on the floor. It didn’t look like it fit properly (it was too small–probably because the ceramic tile raised the height of the floor). Since it was 9:30, we didn’t feel like running to Lowe’s again, so this will have to wait until tomorrow. Also, the bolts that were in the toilet flange were too short. New bolts were supplied with the wax ring and they look like they’ll work, but we had a scare when we thought the old bolts weren’t going to come out.

This is the worst project we have ever worked on or ever will.

Will it ever end?

I actually feel like we accomplished something today. After I got home from work, I texture painted the bathtub area. After Brian got home from work, we removed the rest of the damaged plaster from around the tub and replaced some of it with drywall. We didn’t even work that long today. I guess I feel a sense of accomplishment because there is no more damaged plaster. Hooray for us! Granted, I’ll have a lot of patching to do once we get the rest of the drywall in, but since the tub surround is going to cover all of it, I can get away with doing a half-assed job for my patching.

If tomorrow goes how I hope it does, I will finally feel like we’re getting somewhere with this project. Keep your fingers crossed…

I forgot to mention this in today’s bathroom remodeling post. After Brian cut the hole in the roof, out popped the cat onto the roof. I thought we were going to have to call the fire company to get her off. It took a few minutes of coaxing, but Brian managed to get her to go back through the hole and into the attic. A few minutes later, she popped her head out again, but Brian was on the ladder and made her go back in the attic. It would’ve made a great picture, though. But, I was not prepared for a potential photo op this evening.

I was motivated to do all kinds of stuff today, but remodel the bathroom wasn’t one of them. So, I did a bunch of other random stuff while Brian was at band practice this afternoon.

There are many undesirable tasks in our bathroom remodeling project. Number one on Brian’s list was installing the roof duct for the new bathroom fan. We did this today. Or rather, he did. I did have to crawl in the attic and drill the center hole for the ductwork (Brian claims to have a problem with his knee and was therefore unable to crawl around in the attic. I, on the other hand, think this was my punishment for making him remodel the bathroom). But beyond holding the ladder, my work ended there.

The reason this task was so undesirable for him (besides the very fact that he had to cut a hole in the roof–that just doesn’t ever seem like a good thing to be doing) was that he had to stand on top of a 16 foot ladder for 90 minutes in order to complete the task. Our roof is too steep to stand on so the project had to be done from the air.

All in all, I’d say it went pretty well. It only took two hours total, which isn’t that bad, I guess. Now, all we have to do is wait for it to rain in order to determine if it was a true success or not. The way things have been going with this project, I might as well put a bucket in the attic tonight.