I initiated the floor removal. Yeah I know, weird for me to initiate demoltion, BUT I really want to get this bathroom finished. I want to be able to walk on clean floors, having running water to brush my teeth, a mirror to look into when I put make-up on, and a toity of course.

I put on goggle, gloves (eventually a face mask to keep out dust) and picked up the sledge hammer and chisel. I started at the doorway and worked my way in. Hubby did half of the work too and I cleaned up as we went because it can really get out of control.

We got all of the tile out and then my Father-In-Law (Fil) came over to help remove the toilet – again – and rip up the plywood that was under the tile. We found really old linoleum and decided to leave it rather than pry it up in pieces while in the process rustling up all that extra nasty dust.

Once they got the toilet up and the rest of the plywood. Hubby and his Dad decided they would replace the Lead Sweep because, it’s nasty, it’s lead, and it was going to be a problem for when we replaced the flooring anyways. This large “Exit” pipe is in the basement above the “other” bathroom. The pipe was fairly easy to access and it was pretty easy (i think) to remove but the hard part was when the guys had to take off the actual lead joint part thinger doohicky. You can see Hubby in the photo below working on it. I think they employed a drill, a screwdriver, a mallet/sledgehammer, a thing to gouge out the lead, and a sawzaw, PHEW!

RAWR!!!!

Phew! It was only Hubby’s Dad!

After working for awhile on that and brief dinner interlude (I made a chicken, veggie, stuffing casserole) they got back to work and fit a piece of plywood into the toilet area that needed to be leveled out. They also cut a hole the perfect size for the pipe to come up through.

This was me and the nugget twins:

Note: I am covering my nose and mouth with my sweatshirt….boo for asthma. We had to stay out of there because the dust was really bad and I have found out that it isn’t very good for my asthma to be around it. The guys even set off the smoke alarm. Nugget got really scared (it was the first ever smoke alarm sound he had heard) and he huddled next to Trixie. Surprisingly Trixie let him come over and huddle. I know she wasn’t scared she was just being nice. Awww how sweet….but I don’t have a picture of it because the huddle/cuddle didn’t last long.

Basically a full day of work for Hubby and his Dad earned us a beautiful shiny white new poo pipe. Woot!! LOL! I am not sure what the technical term is but, its the part of the piping that all of the flushed stuff exits your house through. Its PVC now and super duper special! (I think we went through this poop chute description thing earlier in this post – deja vu?!?). Since we all know I said I am not ever moving again this is just hypothetical but, IF we were ever to sell this house it will be great for people to see the update and not that grungy old lead pipe. Isn’t a lead pipe a murder weapon anyway?

This is how the bathroom will look until next weekend when we can hopefully start installing the tile flooring!

So the other side of the bathroom had to be “Demo’ed” and Hubby was up to the task. Once again there were tiles to be ripped off the walls and then the plywood behind them had to go too. Hubby shut off the water and removed the vanity as well. Of course there is always unexpected when going into the walls of a house.

While under the sink Hubby found out that the main pipe drain from the sink was completely corroded and would have to be replaced. He mentioned to me that he isn’t sure how that pipe wasn’t leaking as well.

After Hubby took off the bendable water pipes he asked me to stay upstairs and check it the water would STAY off at the sink if he turned it on downstairs. We wanted to be able to use the toity of course.

I waited. Trixie waited.

And after all that waiting we found out that one of the shut off knobs was leaking. How did you find this out you ask? Well, I was turning the knob in a “righty-tighty” fashion and there was still a trickle. So I kept turning in a “righty-tighty” fashion until it budged….all the way around again and spurted out in a nice steady stream! Luckily I had a bucket and the water didn’t really go anywhere.

Hubby had to find a replacement knob and success! we had one that fit and all was good in the world again!

Then we removed the sink, and saw just what 50 plus years of “Oh crap!, my comb fell behind the vanity” really meant.
It was grody (yes I said grody!). You don’t want to see a close up. About 6 combs, 15 curlers, 2 tweezers, 2 nail files, 1 eyebrow brush, and 25 lbs of dust/grime/gunk!

Then Hubby did the rest of the Demo and found some hidden newspapers again from where original soap dishes or tooth brush holders had been in the walls.

This time the date was Tuesday May 17, 1955 — a day later than the last newspaper.

Hubby commented that although people feel like society has gotten worse it might have been just has messed up back then. This newspaper was full of articles about terrible things including: “Flying Tiger Vet Kills Self”, “Woman Pleads in Fatal Knifing”, Winston Churchill’s thoughts, the death of baby siamese twins and all kinds of crazy stuff! Mixed in (to lighten the mood I’m sure) were advertisements for new Frigidaires, vacations to Florida, the “Biggest most beautiful car”, and Chesterfields which promise to “Put a Smile in your Smoking”.

Enjoy!