Rec Room Bathroom

The red arrow in the below floor plan is in the Rec Room Bathroom and shows direction of sight in the following photos.

Arrow showing location of former inside corner of exterior walls.

I don’t have any ‘before’ pictures of the Rec Room Bath.  The first is after the new second floor had been installed.  The second photo is after we started demo’ing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve written previously about the leaking roof cricket above the Rec Room Bathroom. Here.  The back wall, where the tub and shower were, had mold and water damage that made its way to the floor under the tub.  Once the tub was removed, it was obvious the floor tile sat on underlayment that was severely damaged.  Not originally part of the Scope of Work, Marina and I completely demo’d the bath….walls and floors.

Because the wall separating the bathroom from the basement stairwell sat on the underlayment and had some water damage from “the worst weekend” , as well as, years of a leaking cricket; it became obvious the best thing to do would be to remove the wet drywall, framing, and replace the rotting underlayment.  This would be my job to do.

Upon removing the flooring it was obvious the plumbing had been done by someone with little consideration toward the support needs of the structure.  All the plumbing runs through the studs were accomplished with 2-1/2″ holes which left about 1/2″ on each side of the hole (1″ total) for each of the studs in the load bearing walls.

The waste lines were unsupported.  There was a crack in the toilet PVC waste line which had allowed the creation of a “poopy” stalagmite on the crawlspace floor below it.  The cold and hot water supply lines crossed each other three times before reaching the shower body; by which time they had ended up on the wrong side of each other (‘hot’ on the right; ‘cold’ on the left).

We decided to replace the tub/shower combo with a shower (since we ended up removing everything anyway), therefore, all the supply and waste lines had to be reconfigured to the new placement requirements of a shower kit.

We found a shower we liked, bought it, took out the installation diagram, and put the shower parts in storage.

I was a little nervous about finding the proper drain location for a room that hadn’t yet been built.  Taking the thickness of the drywall, etc., into account I did get the drain perfectly located.

The shower body and shower head, well, not quite so perfectly.  It’s a little off-center and the back sides of the shower kit don’t sit flush, in contact, with the wall.  But we got it to work with some nudging and shimming and a little suspension of our quest for perfection.

Some day, when this bathroom is finished, I’ll post the results.

May 2012 – J. Benson (JB) Formally Begins His Work

 

On May 1, 2012, we removed the original window frames, in which the vinyl Andersen replacement windows were set, in order to resize and relocate the framing to accommodate the new window dimensions and locations.  I was surprised by the bathroom walls in that concrete (instead of plaster) was used.  Plaster wasn’t used anywhere in the original structure.  Cellulose fiberboard (ie. Homosote) was used in all the “dry” rooms and concrete in the bathroom.  What also surprised me about the bathroom walls was the thickness of the concrete.  The walls are 1″ thick to the metal lathe and another 1/4″ through the lathe for a keyway or key (to lock the concrete to the lathe).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the exterior:

 

 

 

 

 

Normally, I wouldn’t have decreased the size of a window but, in this case, the window sill could end up being below the toilet reservoir or sink backsplash, depending on how we reconfigured the bathroom (which we hadn’t decided yet).  Thinking back on it, I think we should have installed a window the same size as those used in the kitchen.  Maybe, someday, we’ll change it back to the way it was or the current width but taller.

First Scrap Metal Load

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JB and I made the deal he’d take a truck load of scrap metal to Gershow http://www.gershow.com/ for $50.00 + 50%.  This load brought $191.00, JB received $120.00 and we got $71.00

Arrow showing location of former inside corner of exterior walls.

 

The dark red arrow (pointing down) shows the wall (yellow rectangle) of the following pictures.

 

 

This is how the Rec Room Bath looked after the framers had finished.  This room was added during a 1996 extension to the original house.  The wall straight ahead used to be below the roof cricket that leaked (about which I’ve previously written a few times).

 

 

This is what was underneath the fiberglass shower surround:

 

The original cove clapboard siding hadn’t been removed.  The dark stains are mold from the leaking roof cricket.

Prior to the 1996 addition, I would be outside to take this picture.

 

 

In this close-up, one can see the ghosting left from when the right side exterior wall was sided with cove profile clapboard.

 

By the way, all this siding was saved for use elsewhere.  It’s still in storage.

 

 

Jim’s arrival indicated we needed to start thinking about colour schemes for the exterior.  Marina is a “white-to-eggshell beachy” kind of person and I’m a “darker-is-dignified” kind of person when it comes to colours and shades of colours.  I think this was about the time we bought America’s Painted Ladies: The Ultimate Celebration of Our Victorians and Daughters of Painted Ladies: America’s Resplendent Victorians both by Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen.

Now, let me be clear, the whole “Painted Lady” ‘thing’ can look whorish to me.  Painting Victorians bright, carnival colours became popular in San Francisco in the 1960’s.  And a “painted lady” is a polite term for prostitute.  It’s application to brightly coloured Victorian homes is attributed to Pomada and Larsen.

From America’s Painted Ladies:

p. 44 – 100 Elm St., Malone, NY; This is also the house that made me feel better for having smaller windows on the front façade.  The trim colours are now different.

p. 51 – 39 Tompkins St., Cortland, NY; The attic level colours are now different.

p. 166 – 222 W. McClane St., Osceola, MN; I really like the dark blue trim with maroon accent.  But the cream colour is a common vinyl siding colour I didn’t want to imitate.

p. 174 – 212 W. VanBuren St., Gallatin, MO; This home is my favorite.  I’d love to see the floorplan.  We tried to find similar porch columns to wrap the steel support columns.  If there were a house, used as the inspiration for our project, this would probably be it.

From Daughters of Painted Ladies:

p. 36 – 515 South Avenue, Rochester, NY; Another blue and cream colour scheme which has since been repainted and is now derelict looking.

p. 65 – 229 Stuart St., Kalamazoo, MI; While I love the colours, the “spooky” was to be avoided by using yellow.  It, too, has since had a colour change.

p. 70 – 870 Mull St., Elgin, IL; The dark blue and red trimmed in cream looks nice to me.

Marina and I came up with the following palette:

Glidden Early Morning (yellow)

Behr Southern Evening (dark blue)

Behr Winter Lake (light blue)

Glidden Deep Garnet (red)

Glidden Deep Forest Pine (green)

We originally intended to paint the window sash either a maroon or a dark green or some combination of both.  The maroon turned out to require three coats before it stopped looking a pinkish-purple.

 

 

 

Beams & Headers

Ready Header of Lindenhurst, NY supplied the second floor support beams and columns.

 

 

 

 

I took pictures of the main beam which replaced the load bearing wall between the old living room and kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clapboard siding wasn’t removed when the northside addition was added.  The fiberboard (ie. Homosote) was attached over it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standing about where the upstairs guest bath doorway would be.

 

 

 

 

Standing in the Dining Room looking southeast toward the Living Room.

The window in the hallway will be removed and the opening enlarged.

The railing is where the new Living Room wall will go.

To the left of the railing is the basement stairwell.

Some sort of hornet/wasp nest in the wall cavity.

The header for the removed sliding glass doors to the deck was just a 2×4 oriented (flat) sideways instead of on edge.  It doesn’t actually rest on the wall stud.

This wall was so chopped up we replaced it, as shown in the picture above (centered on the plans table).

 

 

Winding Stair

 

Winding stair from Rec. Room to Rec. Room loft after the roof had been removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We couldn’t find a buyer so we donated the stair to the ReStore.

 

 

 

DIY “To Do” List (3/23/12)

“To Do” List from 3/23/12:

– inventory scrap metal

[not so much an “inventory” but a sorting of light steel, copper pipe, copper wire, and aluminum so each could be taken to the appropriate weigh station at Gershow Recycling http://www.gershow.com/ ]

– clean & sort high-hats (remove wires)

[there were three types of high hats: ‘insulated’ (IC), ‘open’ (non-IC), and CUL (rated for damp locations); the “wires” refer to Romex (actually any non-metallic) of the circuit from which the light was cut]

– remove outside lights from bldg.

– photo & measure windows & doors being donated; send email to ReStore for pick-up approval

[Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore donation procedure for pick-up requires pics and details (dimensions) emailed to the coordinator for approval and pick-up appt. http://www.habitat.org/restores ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[none of the existing windows & doors were kept as they were all vinyl and the lower end stuff (ie. molded, hollow core doors)]

 

 

 

 

 

– clean deck lumber of nails, sort, re-stack

[during demolition I set aside particularly nice, long pieces that would be difficult to buy new and transport in a Toyota RAV4; if I could, I would have stacked nearly all the CJs and rafters; “deck” is a characterization indicating 2x8s or larger]

– wind-up & bag scrap wire

[as I removed the old electrical wire (BX & Romex) I’d toss it into a garbage can for later stripping and sorting; altogether around 8 x 35 gal. cans worth were scrapped]

– sort removed switches, lights, receptacles, etc. & box-up

[originally, I thought these would be reused or donated but, in the end, they were tossed because ‘new’ aren’t expensive and ‘used’, I learned, could be damaged and could be a hazard]

– assemble carport & tarp for additional storage of window delivery

[we placed the window orders before knowing about the delay from the additional footings and the subsequent rescheduling of the demolition; we didn’t think we’d have a ‘safe’ room before delivery so were going to put them in a temp carport]

– drop PC ceiling & clean-up debris

[“drop”= standing on the ceiling joists (CJs) and using a push-broom to knock the ceiling drywall down (it’s a thrill to do); “PC” = the bedroom we used as a home office where the computer was kept (later to be the kitchen)]

– remove carpeting from bedroom & drop ceiling

– remove rec. room drywall

– remove bathroom vanity

– remove drywall in basement along all plumbing & electrical runs

[the following pics taken from same direction]

 

 

 

 

 

 

– remove exterior siding from PC room wall that’s being removed

– tarp & plastic in prep. of weekend rain

[rain was expected and there were a lot of materials in the yard to cover; I also wanted to tarp things “inside” just in case the house tarp leaked…which it did]

– clear basement of wood so water can be swept to drain

[I don’t remember what wood was in the basement; maybe it was the base molding, from all the rooms, we would be replacing (it was finger-jointed pine painted white)]

Diary Excerpts (3/12 – 3/20)

March 12-15, 2012

Framers arrived on-site and begin framing the first floor walls of the future living room before moving to the demolition of the roof where the sleeping porch will go.  As usual, we’ve procrastinated in packing.  We procrastinated when moving out of the previous house and now we scramble to get everything into storage.  I don’t know what we were thinking.

Thursday, March 15

Double-Pole Electric arrived to transfer wires from the service mast to the temp service pole.  In one of those situations I neither understand or tolerate, my polite request for the framers to construct the temp electric service pole went ignored while I was busy taking care of something on the other side of the worksite.  When I returned, to check in with the electrician, I found him and two assistants waiting where I left them.  No service pole; no framers working on one.  I was livid.

I have zero tolerance for any b.s. among the subs.  There have been times I’ve seen one trade sabotage another in a childish continuation of some longstanding feud.  Some simply don’t like other tradespeople out of some trade vs. trade bias.

Even though the framers were sub’d by James Benson, he and I agreed I would oversee his subs in his absence.  This let him work on other jobs until he arrived to do his part of the work.  The framers were an independent company and both owners were working on the site.  The problem was I was getting reticence from one of the principals.  A cocky bully on occasion, he was a discipline problem throughout their portion of the project.  Fortunately, his partner was someone who’s talent and professionalism made him a good counterpoint to keep things from getting out of control.  The bully whined and complained and put together a half-assed pole, which the electrician politely rejected and patiently insisted on a proper one.  With a proper pole assembled and erected to the electrician’s specs everyone got back to work.

Several times, later that day, the bully approached me in a conciliatory effort to ‘make nice’.  While I felt like the ‘mouse that roared’ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/ I also got the impression people became toward me the way a younger me used to be around my supervisors.  I could live with that.

Friday, March 16 – Sunday, March 18

At noon on Friday it was 58F (14.4C) in the room I was sleeping and 53F (11.6C) in the room adjacent.  By 8:00 P.M. it was 62F and 55.5F respectively.

Spent the weekend packing-up and taking things to the storage unit.  A trundle bed, tv, coffee maker, microwave, refrigerator, and electric heater would be my comforts for the next several months.

Marina ‘officially’ moved in with her mother in Wantagh, NY.

Monday, March 19

11:00 AM – Began demo of kitchen roof

5:00 PM – Roof over kitchen & living room is gone

6:30 PM – Finished cleaning the kitchen and living room of ceiling drywall and ceiling rockwool insulation.

Tuesday, March 20

11:46 A.M. – The first truck of the day heads to the landfill with drywall, insulation, and living room ceiling joists (the latter I had hoped to save).

The living room floor, where the dividing wall used to be, was jacked-up 1-3/4″.

3:00 P.M. – All the roof is off.

 

Kitchen Demo & Raising (Razing) The Roof

The original house started to look small alongside the sheathed foyer and the skeleton of the living room (LR) south wall (which, to me, suggests the outline of Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris):

 

 

 

 

 

It was so nice to see the cathedral kitchen ceiling come down.  If it rained now it would leak no less but, at least, there’d be no expectation of shelter.  The framing for skylights must have pre-dated the 1996 addition which required a roof cricket which terminated immediately below the skylight framing.  It would have been an even greater challenge to prevent leaks had the skylights remained in place.  As it was, the cricket was an afterthought of the addition as it rested on a layer of roof shingles without any sort of rain shield (ie. EPDM):

the roof cricked right below skylights

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only real down side was all the drywall and insulation left for me to clean up.

corner of kitchen, where refrigerator stood, showing mold

kitchen looking SE. Plywood becomes arch to LR.

 

 

 

 

Where the refrigerator stood, beneath the soffit from hell, mold and soggy plaster was found.

Is that a pink, plastic bundt cake mold falling from the attic?

 

 

The kitchen looking southeast.

For the next week or so, after the roof and dividing wall was removed, I could step out of my bedroom and into the open courtyard that was once our home.

The refrigerator remained in use by everyone working the site.

 

 

The 10 x 20 living room felt like living in a mobile home.  It’s tough arranging furniture in such a room and, without a vestibule, there was no place to store coats and footwear.

Living Room looking south; kitchen to the left

 

 

The ghost of the load bearing wall between the kitchen and living can be seen between two removed vinyl windows.

 

 

 

 

I actually enjoyed the aesthetics of “courtyard” living.  It was surreal, especially at night, when I’d go from where I slept in BR#2 and find myself outside to get to the bathroom or get something from the refrigerator; which was still in the kitchen (under plastic in photo above).

Once the roof and dividing, load bearing wall between the kitchen and living room was removed the area outlined in red became a “courtyard” open to the sky.  BR#1, the bathroom, and BR#2 had ceilings so the removal of the roof was mostly unnoticeable from within.

Living room roof being removed.

The removal of the living room roof was fairly quick and easy.  Fortunately, I was nearby when the original attic windows were about to be tossed into the dump truck (parked behind pine tree).  I recovered two sash of a double hung and two wood screens.  The other set wasn’t recovered.

BR#1 gable roof being removed

 

 

Note the “magic” shutters which flank the double windows.  Apparently, they magically expand to cover the entire window when closed.

That vinyl gable vent: fake!

It was just attached to the attic gable end wall as a decoration.  The attic wasn’t vented.

South yard; 1940 house on left; 1996 addition to right.

 

The south side attic vent was fake, too.  There used to be an attic window there (see below photo) but it had been improperly covered when the vinyl siding had been installed.

South side gable as is under vinyl siding.

The vinyl siding was installed over this opening without proper sheathing or venting.  Then a vinyl louvered vent screen was attached to the wall to make it appear the attic was being vented (see above photo).

West (front) attic gable wall removal.

 

 

 

 

 

The front (west) attic gable wall was last to come down.  I was able to document the original house and window trim colours from this gable.

Close-up of west attic gable window frame trim.

 

 

 

 

The pieces of trim, as well as the original sash, have been in storage awaiting restoration.

 

 

 

 

 

The house is topless.

Jim Benson’s ‘Junk to Go’ truck takes away the last of the roof.

Ghosts, Skeletons, & Sleeping Porch

“Ghost” – the outline, discoloration, cut or broken parts of something suggesting the shape and/or nature of something that existed in the past but is now gone.

‘ghost’ and cut concrete blocks of removed pump room

The subterranean pump room (see Excavating The Basement, posted February 13, 2015) was one among several features recorded about the history of the property.         The patched in ledger board and ‘ghost’ of a missing feature against the face of the concrete blocks indicates there was probably a poured concrete stoop and steps matching that removed from the rear kitchen once the deck was removed (see Removing The Deck, posted February 1, 2015).   This was the first time we saw the original Cove (also called “Dutch” or “German”) lap wood siding.  It had been covered by fiber-cement shingles and then by vinyl siding in a profile similar to the original cove.     After the new basement and reinforced footings had been constructed the floor joists (FJs) for the future living room (RL) were installed and covered with the flooring underlayment of 3/4″ plywood by February 3, 2012.  We covered the new floor with a blue tarp then waited for the framing crew to be available.       The framers arrived Monday, March 12, and started framing the skeleton of the living room addition. It was sunny and 45F (7.2C).   At some point they moved to the cathedral ceiling roof of the first floor rear bedroom and began its removal in preparation of framing the second floor sleeping porch.            By Thursday, March 15 the living room had been framed and the sleeping porch cut out of the rear roof. It was 55F (12.8C).       The main roof would be coming off the following Monday.  Since I would be staying at the house I was hoping for continued warmer and sunny days.  Marina packed and moved in with her mother about 31 miles away (which is closer to where she works).The boiler had been shut down and pipes drained since there was no point in having it run without a roof on the house.  The weather would become a concern from this point on. Rain on Friday kept the crew away except to erect the temporary electrical service pole.  The electrician prepared the temp service pole and took the wires off the roof that soon would no longer be there.