We're back from our vacation now and I have two days remaining before the in-laws get here. The subfloor will be finished and bedroom furniture back where it belongs today so things are looking good.

We went to Mexico as a group with a few others from my family and one of them is a designer so we were able to figure out all the details for the bathroom that were still unsettled. We may not know where we will buy everything from, but at this point I can work as fast as I want without running into roadblocks. At this point the path forward is to finish the subfloor, continue electrical mods and remove the old doorway, and then take care of the server closet wiring and bedroom closet framing.

Fife-

Are the walls framed on top of the sub-floor or did they go up before the sub-floor went down? I have a mobile home on some property I am debating fixing up and one issue I have noticed in the past is that they lay the sub-floor before they frame everything. Now I am trying to figure out the best way to replace rotted sub-floor against walls. Not sure if you just cut as a close as possible or if there is some trick I don't know about.

The walls are framed on top of the subfloor.

- One wall is an exterior one, here I stopped cutting adjacent to the last joist (inward).
- The wall opposite to the exterior one I did the same as above. There is not a joist directly underneath it. On the other side of it is the server closet. Here I also stopped cutting next to the last joist in that room. In other words, the plywood remains in place between those two joists.
- The third wall Is the start of the addition so there there was nothing on top of the plywood there.

Hopefully this is clear...

I ran into a situation like yours in the last big project at the house. I cut as close to the exterior wall as possible and sistered in new wood for the subfloor to sit on. In the event of an interior wall you would need some way to support it while the subfloor was removed unless it was load bearing and already had a support structure underneath.

That's what I was thinking. It's a small single wide so the only load bearing walls are the exterior walls which is where most of the rotting has occurred.

If you have rot like that I'd suspect water intrusion. My grandma's trailer was like that + electrical problems and since it was a depreciating asset it made more sense to scrap it.

Oh it is definitely letting water in as the siding is pretty well shot. Its 30 yrs old and the debate is to scrap it and go a different direction or put it back together. The metal frame and most of the framing is still solid so I figure I can build/patch it back up for cheaper than I can replace it with a new one or build something new.

We initially were planning to build something but the remodeling at the house ate that budget up.

Two weeks later and now my list of things to do in the bedroom and server closet is pretty small. In a nutshell...

- Subfloor and joist work is DONE! All wood chips and debris in the crawlspace are gone and the cat can't get underneath the house any more.
- Wiring for the server closet is also finished with the exception of the speaker wire but that still has to wait on a firm plan for where surround speakers are going in the family room. That stuff will be a lot easier to run anyway.
- The server closet picked up one 20A circuit with 4 outlets, 2.5" conduit for whatever cables need to run to the TV, and a shiny new wall plate for the (cable) internet and antenna line in.
- Old doorway now has framing to make it a wall with outlet for the nightstand, and two outlets in the middle of the run that would be in new doorways are bypassed.

I can't complete installing conduit on the family room wall (feeding the TV) yet because sometime this year we're moving the old set to the bedroom and the new one will be a lot larger. We're hoping for 80". Where I was planning on putting that and the outlet for the TV may be in the middle of the wall mount structure. We'll figure it out later, no big deal.

There was a dedicated circuit with 1 outlet for the previous owner's DLP TV that I relocated the outlet to behind the entertainment center 5 years ago when we moved in. I almost extended that for the server closet but a larger TV, sub, media center/gaming PC, good receiver and whatever else ends up in there didn't leave me enough room for expansion. TV + sub get to stay on their own circuit.

The only remaining work for the closet area and master bedroom are to put in the framing to cut the long closet in half, cut the drywall and frame in the new opening to the master bedroom, put in the accent lighting in the bedroom once it comes in the mail, and patch up drywall everywhere. Then it's on to the master bathroom/master closet half of the project.

The new bedroom closet is fully framed and drywall is nearly back together. To add the framing for the doorway I removed the drywall on the closet side only. This used to be the wall behind where the previous owners had a giant DLP TV and the drywall is two layers thick here with insulation in the wall. This would be the one and only time any of them planned ahead.

Anyway the insulation is now in the wall I added separating the bedroom closet from the server closet and that area is basically done except for drywall tape/mud and adding a ceiling box, switch and wiring for a light fixture for the closet. It's about 5.5' wide x 3' deep so that's a little too big for it to not have a light.

I need the accessory lights to come in the mail so I can put those in, otherwise I'm going to finish up patching drywall in the bedroom before moving on to breaking out the tile on the walls in the master bathroom.

So what are you going to do when you finally move the air compressor and shop vac out of the house and in the garage for good?

Will the wife still like the bedroom decor without the lingering scent of mud and drywall?

~egon

When it was still a long, narrow closet (after I walled off the giant TV hidey hole) this is where the Christmas and other decorations lived. It was a royal PITA getting anything out of the closet so we didn't decorate much. Now we'll be able to get to everything.

She wants me to hurry up on the bathroom already even though there are still some pretty major decisions to be made
- What kind of tub?
- Where are the shower and floor materials coming from?
- What kind of underfloor heating?
- Final vanity and hamper design?
- Closet shelving design?

I may stall a little before making the bathroom unusable by working on some of these, plus painting the bedroom, finishing the drywall work and things like that. There's also structural work to be done under the floor in the bathroom, same as I've had to do everywhere else. I think that should run about two weeks.

Mrs. Fife's friend from China left on Tuesday and I've been back at it again. Everything electrical in the master bedroom is done except for swapping out light switches and outlets. The only thing I can possibly do in there is drywall work, painting and pulling the old window casing (it's the generic kind) until the flooring is in and I'm not in any hurry to do that.

On the bathroom/closet side I've been pulling out lots of wall tile and the closet is nearly empty. This afternoon the closet walls are coming out along with the tile in there. The bathtub in there is ready to come out too. It's a large jetted one that goes in a corner (triangular shaped) and is 64" x 64." I'm hoping Habitat can help lift the thing and walk out with it... today I'm calling them to schedule pickup of a bunch of other things I've removed + a range and dishwasher.

By the end of the weekend there might not be very much of the bathroom left any more, it's surprising how quickly I've been able to demo the old stuff out.

Walls are finally coming down in the bathroom. The old closet is almost completely broken out. It might be possible to see just how bad it really was now. The only hanger space was against the two places where it bumps to the left and right from the door. About 4' total. Drywall and studs are quick and fun to tear out but I'm not looking forward to hauling off the debris.

This afternoon I'm going to try and take out the part of the closet with the doorway. I'm not at work this weekend so the bigger goal is to empty it out as much as possible. The floor in here is in good physical shape unless I run into problems under the shower, but the joists weren't attached correctly and that needs to be redone. I also need to add 4 or 5 piers underneath the floor. What I'm thinking about doing is cutting out a rectangular strip from the subfloor so I can add the piers and support beam and the patching it back up. Unless removing the backerboard from the plywood is too much trouble, then I'll just cut it all out and redo everything.

Demo in progress...


Done for the evening, picture taken from what was the opposite wall in the 1st pic.


Here's how the accent lighting in the bedroom came out. It all needs to go on a dimmer and I'll need to point the lights in the right direction but the hard part is done.

Uh DEMO, my favorite part...where you find more **** that you were never expecting that will need to be fixed during the renovation!

Since I was expecting to have to rebuild everything completely I'm not sure what more could be unexpected than that, unless it's something underground. It wouldn't surprise me if we dug up whoknowswhat when I do the holes for the piers. I've already found lots of strange blue and white china pieces.

When the English showed up around 1670 their first settlement was one mile from here so who knows.

Quick update since lunch is almost over...

This weekend I only worked on demo. The floor in the bathroom is basically gone, along with all of the hardwood from the small hallway that's joining the closet and the last 4' in the bedroom. More walls are gone too. The tile was a lot easier than I thought it would be since the backerboard was not adhered well to the plywood. Someone followed the 'dot' method.





If your vanity or kitchen uses these white plastic lines I would recommend replacing them with something better. They're total garbage. This one sheared apart when the vanity was bumped hard. It was installed in 2003.



The flood pretty much ended my evening. I was able to shut the water off fast at the street so it didn't really do anything at least. I planned on removing the toilet and some of the wall tile but that didn't happen. No big deal, I can do it today.

Still working on getting Habitat out here since we have a lot of stuff to donate to them. There's a range, dishwasher, two ceiling fans, the bathtub, toilet, prehung door and all of the trim I removed. I'd like this stuff out of here already.

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The flood pretty much ended my evening. I was able to shut the water off fast at the street so it didn't really do anything at least. I planned on removing the toilet and some of the wall tile but that didn't happen. No big deal, I can do it today.

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So I have a silly question...why didn't you just shut that valve off at the wall?

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The flood pretty much ended my evening. I was able to shut the water off fast at the street so it didn't really do anything at least. I planned on removing the toilet and some of the wall tile but that didn't happen. No big deal, I can do it today.

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So I have a silly question...why didn't you just shut that valve off at the wall?

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Not a bad question at all. When I heard the water I wasn't sure if it was coming from inside the wall or vanity since I wasn't doing anything around any plumbing. My natural instinct is to run out to the meter with the shutoff tool and cut water to the house, then sort out what happened. It was probably a good call since if I opened the door to the vanity water would have shot out towards where I would have been standing, and I've been 0-for with shutoff valves here. This is the first one where the rubber o-ring didn't disintegrate when I turned the valve.

Text only update...

The flooring is out
Tub is out
Vanity is out
Toilet is out
Wall tile is out (excluding shower)
Shower glass block walls are almost out small side is still there)

Today Habitat is supposed to be picking up the tub, a prehung door assembly removed from the closet, a range, two ceiling fans, and a crap-ton of trim that I removed. Hopefully also the glass blocks that I've taken out but that's still to be determined. I really need the space back.

At this point demo is nearly complete and I'm planning for what's next. Starting on Sunday if I'm lucky I'll cut about a 3' wide access hole through the middle of the bathroom floor so I have space to dig holes for the new footers. Structural work (add piers, center beam, sister all joists and hang them with actual hangers) is next on the agenda. I'm about at the point where I need to start ordering materials like the bathtub, fixtures, vent fans, flooring, doors and plumbing supplies so I'm not held for materials here.

Yesterday I managed to get the last glass block wall out and demo half of the shower. Previous owners set it up locker room style for some reason. We're going with one valve. It's slow going here - someone actually followed a nailing schedule and used larger nails than whoever framed the joists used.

Contractors don't normally use waterproofing and this shower was no exception. The left side leaked all over the place but the wood isn't rotten and a small nest of ants will need to find a new home. Just needs some new insulation in that area. I don't think the other side will be as bad since there never were any signs of trouble there but we'll see this afternoon.

Just a reminder, if a contractor tells you backerboard, tile or greenboard is waterproof that's their way of telling you they have no clue what they're doing and that you need to find someone else.

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Just a reminder, if a contractor tells you backerboard, tile or greenboard is waterproof that's their way of telling you they have no clue what they're doing and that you need to find someone else.

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Designing your own shower system is a huge pain. There was one that was simple to order and came with all the pieces to it but I found in the details that it's not recommended with a tankless water heater so that one is out. At this point it's a tossup between Grohe and Hansgrohe. The Hansgrohe valves are 3/4" and Grohe is 1/2". Since our water lines are 1/2" everywhere I've bothered to check would there even be any noticeable difference in how well the two work?

The only place I might run into existing 3/4" is the lines underneath the house going into the addition where this bathroom is. Even if they aren't 3/4" it wouldn't be that big of a deal to change them out anyway, at least running from where the water heater will go to this bathroom anyway but even then I'm not sure what the supply line coming from the street is.

What a huge difference a few days makes. The shower is out, vanity and tub gone, and demo is basically complete. The shower floor was also fun to remove. This part they got almost right, but managed to put a few holes in the liner nailing it up and they didn't run it up very high. None of it matters any more and I'm just putting in a Kerdi shower anyway. All of the stuff below was hauled off during large item pickup yesterday.



I reset the joists running underneath some of the bedroom and all of the bathroom on the bedroom end and reattached them level and with joist hangers. Still need to do the other end at the exterior wall, but I'm doing that after I add the beam under the center of the span. Whoever did the addition spanned 2x10s 16 feet after notching the ends down to sit on the ledger board. That's way too long. After the joists are back in and level I'm sistering them with 2x8s, probably tripling them underneath the set that run below the washer and dryer.

To add the beam this time I'm cutting a 3' wide strip through the floor instead of pulling all the plywood up. This is because none of the lumber is rotten in here. That happens tomorrow afternoon and I'd like to have the concrete for the new footers curing over Saturday/Sunday. The bigger goal is to be done with all the structural / floor stuff by the end of next week.



I'm 2 for 2 on houses that I've owned and worked on that leaked water from somewhere now. This is from around the glass block window. I don't think it's the actual window or anything between the blocks, it's probably some bad caulking somewhere around the edge.



Thinking ahead I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do next once the structural repairs are complete. Maybe take out the half bath, move the doorway to the master bathroom and block off obsolete ones and start framing the new layout. It's sort of putting the cart before the horse but I'm about at the point where I need to start ordering things, and at least come up with a coherent lighting scheme for the bathroom already.

Words only since pics of holes in the ground and said holes filled with concrete are boring.

Things are actually on schedule for a change. The footers are dug and poured and this afternoon I'm building the piers and working on joist hangers on the far side wall of the bathroom. I have a nice drawing for the bathtub and shower area showing where the framing goes so when the time comes that should be pretty simple. Just need to do the rest of the area now that final dimensions for the space we're working with are in. The gameplan is to be done with the structural rework by Thursday so I can move on to other things like relocating a doorway and building the actual bathroom.

Materials are slowly getting figured out. I have...
K-1821 tub + drain kit

Shower (Grohe P/Ns)
Rain Head 27288000
3x sprays 27252000
Wand holder 27621000
Wand ????????
Wand rough 35035000
Thermostat 27620000
Therm. Rough 35026000
Diverter 27625000
Div. Rough 35032000

Kerdi-Line LS pre-sloped tray (will do center instead of wall drain if plumbing will not fit).
12x24 travertine for walls
18x18 honed marble or travertine for floor including shower

The beam is in and everything shimmed in place, so the structural rework is complete! There's still the matter of the hole in the floor... to deal with that I'm installing 2x4s underneath the seam in the plywood where I ran the circular saw and then it all should be good to go. That's this afternoon/evening's adventure.

I'm still playing around with the floorplan too. Our old place had double doors to get in to the bathroom and I may end up doing the same again here. The drawing has a 30" door that swings into the bedroom to the left, but this would force us to angle the dresser in a sort of odd way (swinging the door the other way would have it hit the TV on the wall).

This is what our old place looked like - I haven't checked the drawing but I think this door is 36"?

You will probably beat me home tonight, but I have the same double doors to my bathroom & i can measure if you'd like this evening.

All the structural crap that had to happen under the floor is finally finished and the random nails, screws, hardiebacker, and shower curb are gone so I'm finally able to move forward with this little adventure. While I was under the house I got a good look at all the plumbing down there and I have no clue what they were doing when they built the addition. None of the vent stacks running through the walls except for the one by the pedestal sink in the half bath are actually hooked up to anything. The wyes and fittings are in place but nobody hooked them up to anything.

The gameplan for this evening is to start putting the second layer of subfloor in. May go ahead and throw down some extra screws in the first layer since they only nailed and glued it but that shouldn't hold things up too much. Next up after that is to work on framing in the new closet wall, drywall and framing around the bathtub and shower area, and moving the doorway to the bathroom. I'm about at the point where I need to get a lot of materials on order or I'm going to be setting us up for some delays soon. Anyway here's what things look like right now...

New doorway location - 36" double door so it won't hit the dresser like we had in our old place.


Nice and clean!

"mood" track lighting?

Previous owners installed that crap, probably without a ceiling box like usual. It's terrible, contacts on the lights were corroded so some of the lights would flicker and buzz sometimes.

I need to get working on a lighting plan... I'm pretty sure I'm going with an overhead light for the shower, one for the tub, and general lighting consisting of some extra 4" Crees left over from the family room and something installed above the vanity mirror, or maybe just a couple of lights installed directly over the sinks.

That glass block window is tough to design around. I'm pulling the casing off and the mirror will run from about the countertop level to the bottom of the window and the wall between the bathroom and closet will be just to the right. I'm thinking maybe something above the glass blocks but I haven't really found a fixture that I like yet.

No pictures this time since my phone suddenly died and my old one is incapable of logging in to Texags. The second layer of subfloor is in the floor is marked up where new walls will need to be. This weekend after work I'm going to be doing a lot of framing. One doorway needs to be moved about 3' to the right, the wall between the bathroom and closet needs to go up along with the wall around the water closet. If I'm lucky I'll be able to do a little of the electrical work to move the light switches to their new location and add ones for the new areas.

I wanted to get more framing on Sunday than I was able to accomplish. It's all because of the original floorplan for the bathroom.

Backing things up a bit... when we moved here the doorway between the bedroom and bathroom was only that - a doorway with drywall around the corners instead of having an actual door installed. I took care of that quick. During demo I found a few things that suggested they changed their mind a few times during construction of the addition they put on. Mostly smaller stuff, like a straight tub instead of a corner one and a different shower layout. What I found out yesterday when I started relocating the doorway was that they were originally going to have double 28" doors between the bedroom and bathroom. This would have made the closet even more worthless than it already was. There was a HUGE header up there.





The second picture shows where the builder added framing to cut the size down after the wall was already built. I couldn't put the doorway where we want it with that mess in the way so I had to pull the whole thing out after a trip up to the attic to see what was installed above it. Lucky for me there was absolutely nothing at all up there, no loads whatsoever.



This also means I'm without lights in the bathroom since that wall box facing the bedroom controlled all of them but at this point I'm more concerned about framing and I can mess with electrical stuff later. I wrapped up yesterday night with the wall between the bedroom and bathroom complete and now I can move on to new stuff in the bathroom and closet.

Framing is just about complete. Still needs blocking, the pieces around the med cabinet and the stud between the bathroom door and water closet added though. Still, it's nice to be working on something else for a change after work today. I need to run the surround sound wiring in the family room before the attic gets too hot for that nonsense.

Water closet on the right, closet on the left.


View towards the bedroom


Looking into the water closet


Back towards the vanity and shower area. I would like to frame the shower and bathtub this weekend.


Also all of the shower fixtures came in. This is the rain head. I left the instructions next to it for scale but it doesn't really convey how massive the thing is. It's 20" x 20" and weighs a ton. Plumbing for the shower and bathtub are next up after that area is framed in, then I move on to the electrical work.