poplar road

Framing in the main bathroom tub and the new master bedroom's entryway did not go as easily as Richard expected on Tuesday. Then when we slid the tub into place, the drainage hole lined up right over a floor joist. With changes needed to the plumbing, a door that didn't fit, a few too many studs ripped out and redone, and the last of the 8-foot lumber used up, we had just given up and begun a shopping list for a trip into town when the phone rang. Ben and Adrienne were an hour away!

We knew they were camping in the Okanagan and would be dropping in, but expected them later in the week. Richard tidied up the construction zone while I tried to make the huge pile of bedding, clothing and boxes in the middle of the living room look less like a tidal wave had passed through here. Then he put a roast on the rotisserie for dinner. After the frustrations of the day, it was nice to sit back over a good meal and just chat.

Ben was one of the first to see the house after we bought it (he and Chris helped us move in), so he could fully appreciate the transformations of the past 10 months. I was happy to finally meet his new girlfriend Adrienne, and look forward to having another gal to hang out with on the next wheeling trip. We gave the usual tour, and after dinner (and blueberry pie which they bought at a roadside stand in Enderby) we took a walk in lightly falling rain to feed the llamas and goats. I guess that energized us because we stayed up talking well past midnight.

They had a camper so we didn't have to worry about the guest bed being in the middle of the living room. We just had to leave a lot of lights on so our guests didn't wander into the unfinished bathroom, or fall trying to get downstairs to the only working toilet in the middle of the night. (It's a bit disconcerting to open the stairwell door and see the hole in the wall - this is where our 5' x 3' ensuite shower is going.) Ben and Adrienne slept in Wednesday morning, but we were up early, discussing our reno plans and preparing for our shopping marathon. After a liesurely breakfast Richard and Ben loaded our cracked shower and too wide bedroom and bathroom doors into the truck. We couldn't believe it was after 2pm when we all got going, Ben and Adrienne towards home, and Richard and I to Kamloops.

The returns took a couple of hours, and then dinner, and then back to HD to get 42 more 2x4s, 3 sheets of plywood for the subfloor in our master bathroom, a replacement bedroom door and pocket door, a maple cabinet, mirror, and gallon of paint for the main bathroom, a heating pad and thermostat for under the ensuite tile, lights for both showers, screws, foam, and a free sample of maple-look laminate flooring which we may use for the bedroom, office, and living room/dining room. We spent a long time talking to the flooring guy. And then Richard had to go by the office so we were right next to the grocery store anyways… so it was almost ten by the time we got home. Exhausted.

Today, Thursday, the pressure was on to get the plumbing done so we'd have a working shower finally. After a break from it yesterday, Richard was feeling confident that we'd have the main bathroom paint-ready by Saturday, but as we should know by now, everything takes longer than expected. He's been to the local hardware store twice (which charges about 40% more for the same parts as the plumbing store in town), up into the attic (in a haz-mat-like polyester suit that's supposed to protect him from the drifts of blown-in insulation he has to crawl through, only it doesn't fit him), and up and down the stairs struggling with the plumbing all day. Two parts (which we luckily had doubles of) didn't make it through the trial and error of setting up the shower head and bar, but he figured it out and I was able to have a shower tonight. It's gorgeous. Still no water pressure, unfortunately, so that will have to get looked at eventually, but the new white acrylic tub and adjustable height shower head are wonderful. (The old seafoam blue tub, now lying in the back yard, is going to make a nice water feature in the garden one of these days.)

Tomorrow morning we have one more quick shopping trip to make, to get or at least order a counter top for the bathroom cabinet, and find lights for our closets. And maybe a few other things, but we still have so much to do just to get plumbing and electrical working again. A working upstairs toilet would be nice, and what a nice fixture it is, too. At least, unlike the tub, the plumbing is all there from the old sink and toilet so (cross your fingers) there are no problems getting that done and moving on to framing the closets, et cetera. I'm loathe to leave on Saturday when there is still so much work to be done! But the shower was the big thing, thank goodness that works. (I just wish Richard had had enough energy left after finishing it to have a shower before he crawled into bed at midnight.) Well, time for bed, if I can just shut off the interior designer that has taken over my brain....

Over the past four weeks we hit a dry spell, in several ways at once, but there's been a change in the weather this weekend! Starting on Friday we officially began the master bedroom and two bathrooms renovation that we've been planning since May. The main bathroom, master bedroom and closet/ensuite, and guest bedroom have been gutted down to the bare bones, and we've begun to restructure it. I have fifteen photos of our progress and very sore feet, so this is going to be mostly pictures again. Sorry not to have posted anything sooner, but that's the way it goes around here, doldrums one day, and dramatic changes the next! Please leave comments if you'd like to know more about what we're up to, and I'll reply with more details when I can. Richard is on vacation this week so we can get as much as possible done by next weekend, so we're working dawn to dusk.

If you've read previous "Playing House" posts, you've seen what the old master bedroom looked like back in October, and that awful adjoining closet with the cramped bathroom behind it. (To the left at the end of the hall in this "before" shot.) Last month we gutted both those rooms. We also removed the venting from an old wood-burning furnace, which allows us to remove the wall of closets dividing the existing master bedroom from the guest room. (The wall with the mirror on it.)

This weekend, right after our latest guest left on Friday morning, we emptied out the main bathroom and the guest bedroom (last door on the right and 2 pics above), and began to strip the remaining walls at that end of the house down to studs, or to nothing at all….Which leaves us with no guest room. And no bathroom. Oh, joy.

In the picture above left, Richard is standing where the wall at the end of our hallway used to be. The large square hole in the floor was for the furnace vent. You can see by the gaps in the ceiling where the framing of the closets was. Richard drywalled over the gaps this morning, replacing some of the insulation from the attic. He decided not to take the ceiling down, it's just too messy, time-consuming and expensive. Thanks for the expert advice, Rick!

For those of you who haven't heard about or seen our reno plans first hand, here's a quick explanation of the changes. The main bathroom off the hallway, which you can see below is now missing walls, is staying the same size, but the tub is being relocated to be opposite the cabinets and toilet, bumping out the wall of the bedroom by three feet. The space it occupied will belong to the new master bath, with a toilet going in over the old bathtub drain, and our washer and dryer beside it. A new shower is going in the small niche where the old ensuite bathroom used to be, and the vanity will go on the outside wall, next to a tall narrow window squeezed between the studs. Natural light in my bathroom, hooray! We're also going to put glass in the wall between the two bathrooms to extend the daylight into the main bathroom.

The plan was to tile both bathrooms, but the Pergo came up so easily off the guest room floor that we've decided to save time and money by using it in the main bathroom rather than tile. We'll just have to seal it really well. That'll be the least used bathroom anyway so laminate should be fine. Using the laminate in the main bath means we can afford to put underfloor heating in the tiled ensuite, very nice on chilly winter mornings! Neither bathroom will be very large, but they'll be bright and comfortable. And not having to trudge up and down those steep stairs with a laundry hamper will be nice, too.

It's all one big space! But it's not staying that way. In the photo below, you can see the edge of the new tub enclosure, in its new spot. Tomorrow we hope to have the new bathroom walls in place around it - especially urgent since we could both really use a shower!

The original plan was to install the ensuite shower first, and focus on finishing the master bath. But when we unwrapped the new shower this afternoon, we found a crack in it, so it has to go back. Despite the problems caused by having to wait another six weeks for the replacement, we're kind of glad this happened, because Richard figured out that he can bump out the wall above the stairwell a few inches to accommodate a 5 foot wide shower instead of the four foot one. In the meantime we can get the main bath workable, and get all the electrical and plumbing ready to hook up in the ensuite for the end of September.

One of the last things we did tonight was frame in the French doors, which replace the sliding doors with a smaller opening to allow for deeper closets along most of the east wall, and the extra three feet that both bathrooms gain on the other side. We haven't got our doors yet, and there's still the shower and its replacement to move out and in, but Richard framed the opening and then boarded it up. A storm was blowing in while we were cleaning up for the night.

I hope it rains. The garden needs it desperately, and I'd sure like some cooler weather for the rest of the week. The exterior framing is done, but we've got several interior walls to do, plus plumbing and electrical. If I'm still able to move by the end of the day on Wednesday, I'll post a few more pictures then. Oh, and we look forward to more visitors mid-week! More on that next time. Cheers.