Our New Old House

I ripped out the carpet in the bathroom this week. It smelled like pee. Here’s Zoot sitting on the carpet one last time:

Under the carpet was some nasty padding:

And under that was some wierd old flooring that looks like those marble colored rubber balls that come with a jacks set.

Anyway, that smelled like mildew. I put down some baking soda and left it there overnight. That got rid of the smell. Now it’s just ugly. But it’s better than pee-smelling carpet.

[tags]bathroom, cats, photos, flooring, carpet[/tags]

At last!  We finished the bathroom sink last week.  We’ve been happily using it ever since.  As you can see….

 [tags]bathroom, photos, plumbing, sink, bathroom sink, pedestal sink[/tags]

Remember last month when I found those clothes in the wall and looked up the family who lived in my house when those papers and clothes were stuffed in the wall and I wrote a letter to the lady I guessed must have lived in my house at that time?  Well she wrote me back!!!

I was worried she wasn’t the right person or didn’t want to talk about her past or didn’t remember anything since she was so little.  But none of these things turned out to be true!  She was excited to hear from me, remembers lots of details about the house, and is going to share some of her photos with me when she gets back home (she’s spending the winter down south) at the end of April. 

Here are a couple excerpts from her letter:

“It is surprising how much I do recall of the house – I remember where each room was & some of the placement of furniture. Yes, I do recall a built-in buffet or cabinet in the dining room with windows above it on the south side of that room. I also remember the living room and fireplace, the enclosed front porch, kitchen, bath and 2 bedrooms.”

“We had a cherry tree in the backyard & also a goldfish pond, which my Dad filled in because he didn’t want me to fall in and drown.”

Pretty neat, huh? I’ll keep you up to date about what I hear from her.

Oh, and… I haven’t finished the bathroom sink yet. I don’t have an excuse. I don’t have an explanation. I can only tell you that I slept all weekend. I wasn’t sick, just needed to catch up. (shrug)

[tags]neighborhood history, bathroom, correspondence, old photos[/tags]

I am just a six inch piece of plastic tubing away from completing the bathroom sink installation.  I made my third trip to Menard’s last night and STILL came home with the wrong size tube.  I just wasn’t paying attention!  Gah!  I wanted so badly to get up this morning and brush my teeth in my new sink.  Oh well, as my Great Grandpa Rivera would sigh in resignation at the end of the day: ”mañana.” (“Tomorrow.”)

Meanwhile, here are photos of my progress so far:

I used a hack saw to cut the drain pipe to the right length.

Then I used the hack saw to cut the PVC drain pipe too.

The PVC pipe was a little messy after I got done cutting it.

I used a steel wool pad to scrape off all the burrs and clean up the shavings and grime that might keep the PVC cement from bonding.

Here’s the sink after we mounted it to the wall.

The faucet now in place. We got the one from the same line as the one in the kitchen. “Savannah” from Price Pfister.

Ooh shiny! (This photo should come with a sound effect: “Ting!” Like the little chime it makes when someone on TV winks or smiles brightly.)

Last night when I realized I was missing one final part to hook up the sink, but it was too late to go back to Menard’s, I decided to take a break and go hang out with my friends at a bar. After a gin and tonic and sampling my friends’ drinks, I decided to come home around 11:30pm and at least hook up the drain stop before going to bed. Let’s hear it for plumbing while under the influence!

Zoot says, “Ur doin it wrong. No waterz comin’ out.”

Hooking up the drain stop.

Almost got it.

There was a big hole in the wall behind the back of the vanity from where they’d taken out some water damaged plaster from the old leaky sink. The top of our drain pipe branches up and over to the left somewhere. I can’t figure out where this extra drain pipe goes. It’s pointing toward the outside wall, but there’s no evidence of it exiting the house. Quite mysterious.

Tonight, I will be making what will hopefully be my final trip to Menard’s for this project. Hopefully.

[tags]bathroom sink, bathroom, plumbing, pedestal sink, faucet[/tags]

 Hopefully this will be the last of it. But don’t worry! I got to do the fun part today: demolition!

Today’s mission: demolish the old bathroom sink to make room for the new bathroom sink!

Scratch can’t understand why he can’t sleep in the sink anymore.

Tore out some of the carpet to reveal some really… um… interesting flooring.

And what’s left of the water damage from a leaking toilet.

Zoot got to sniff in the wall.

Some of the… um… interesting paint colors the bathroom had been.

Coming up later this week: the installation of our new pedestal sink! (It’s shiny!)

And a bonus photo for you: Scratch got nosy when Brandon was making garbanzo salsa.

[tags]bathroom, flooring, plumbing, photos, cats, vanity, sink[/tags]