Let the Bathroom Demo Begin!

Today, we began the bathroom remodel and the part that's most fun in a remodeling project (apart from enjoying the remodel when it's finished) is the demolition!

Cass and I went to a movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, then got lunch, and after that we went to the hardware store to pick up a few things we'd need to get started...like a mini sledge hammer, dust masks, and some safety glasses. When we got home, I got all "suited" up, grabbed the mini sledge and went to town! Since the "water catastrophe", Cass and I have been talking about what we'd like to do with the master bathroom and what we decided on means we're gutting the entire bathroom. Everything's coming out down to the studs including the floor! This bathroom's shower is literally suspended above our staircase to the second story, so I'm a little nervous about this whole project because it is by far and away the largest project I've taken on. We'll see what happens and pray that it goes well and that I don't destroy the house. ^_^

The first obstacle I ran into today was I couldn't find where the valves were to cut the water off to the shower. Unlike the shower for the family bathroom which has a door on the opposite side of the wall to access the plumbing, the opposite side of this shower's wall doesn't have a door to access the plumbing. Why you ask? Because the opposite side of the shower head wall is that huge wall above the stairs. Yeeeeah, that one in the top-middle of the picture on the left! Which means...you guessed it...the shut off valves to the shower are IN THE WALL which would be really helpful should I ever have to shut the water to that shower off! So, just in case I accidentally hit the water handles too hard and broke the lines or something I figured it'd be wise to shut the water to the whole house off until I could get to those shut off valves.

Anyway, I get started tearing the already loose tiles off the wall and things are going good. I've never put in a bathroom or torn one apart so, I'm being careful in everything I do (except for the swinging a hammer at the wall part) and kinda learning how it's put together as I go along. Thankfully, before I really started making a mess I had the presence of mind to jam a rag into the drain so tile and sheet rock doesn't end up clogging the drain. That would be something I'd forget! Pretty soon after fiddling around with taking off the shower doors and frame, the skirt tiles along the floor and the first row of tiles on the bottom of the shower head wall I decide it's time to start whacking a bit harder on this thing and really start destroying stuff! I start breaking the bullnose tiles off of the top all around the shower and pretty soon I realize something about the construction of this. They put up drywall, then a sheet of concrete board, and then the tiles. That seemed strange to me that they had done this over top of the drywall, but what do I know? So that gets me thinking...what's holding this tile and concrete board to the wall? I still dont know what was holding it up because the more tiles I broke the more it started to feel like the whole wall of tiles was just hanging there.

Another moment I was thankful I had presence of mind to think before I did something stupid. I said to myself, "Self, this wall of tile is probably going to be REALLY heavy. Maybe I should break it in half before I try pulling the entire thing off the wall." So I did just that and sure enough I folded the top half down over the bottom half and just pulled the tiles off the wall with ease. It was, as I suspected, really stinking heavy so I broke it up further into smaller pieces so I'd be able to haul them out of the bathroom.

I then started pulling wet drywall off the studs. I knew it! I knew water was getting behind that wall. I dread to see what under the subfloor looks like. Only time will tell. Hey Look! The shut off valves to the shower's water lines! Yay, now I can shut them and turn the water to the house back on! If you've never shut the water to a house off, drained the lines a bit, and turned it back on I gotta tell you the sound it makes is weird! In some parts of the house it sounds like a space shuttle taking off. So after I turned the water back on, I bleed the air out of the water lines and start cleaning up. I decided that was enough for one day since I had accomplished what I wanted to and that was find a way to shut off the water to the shower. That meant I got to throw tiles and concrete board into a tub and hoof it downstairs into the bed of my truck. That picture may look harmless, but that stupid thing had to weigh 70 pounds, and I had to fill it three times before I cleared out the rubble.

Well, that's all for now folks. I'll share more as more happens. Thanks for reading!