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Tag: plumbing

Progress: Basement Bath and Bar Sink

2 min readProgress continues in the basement with the final plumbing work. Its about to go on hiatus, however, when I turn my attention outside for fall.

The basement isn’t quite finished but I made some great strides forward to prep for the final plumbing work down here.  I also introduced myself to the Ikea kitchen system which gave me a few moments of confusion and then turned out to be even more straightforward and hackable than I’d hoped. Continue reading “Progress: Basement Bath and Bar Sink”

Quick Change: Replacing the bathroom toilet and flooring at the same time

3 min readThis is actually a project from a few months ago I forgot to report on. Here’s how I chipped out the old vinyl floor, pulled the existing toilet, snapped in the new floor and popped in the replacement all between 8am and 8 pm.

Before I let the drywall team go to town on the basement, I wanted to exchange the upstairs toilet JUST IN CASE there would be an leakage during the process which might undo the nice clean ceiling below.  Since the basement bathroom can’t be finished until after the drywall is complete, this meant taking out the house’s only toilet.  I decided to forge head and replace both the despised green vinyl flooring and the old toilet in one fell swoop.  Continue reading “Quick Change: Replacing the bathroom toilet and flooring at the same time”

Progress: Bathroom Framed and Roughed In

< 1 min readPutting in the floor plates and wall studs was an exciting first step to building back the rooms I’d spent so much time demolishing. Hooray for new spaces!

We got the walls of the new basement bathroom done and had the plumbers back to do the rough in.  It is really starting to look like a room with the vent and supply lines in and especially with the shower enclosure installed.   Continue reading “Progress: Bathroom Framed and Roughed In”

Progress: New Pipes, Water Heater and Softener, and Utility Sink

3 min readThis phase is all about win-win changes.  By updating the supply plumbing for the main floor I can improve the time for hot water, get bette pressure, save energy, AND win and extra 1 1/2 inches of ceiling height!

In order to start the next stage of basement progress, framing up the new walls, I needed the plumbers to come back and move some old pipes out of my way.  At the same time they replaced a bunch of aging equipment and re-located the water heater to make a more efficient pipe layout!    Continue reading “Progress: New Pipes, Water Heater and Softener, and Utility Sink”

Progress: Pouring the Concrete Slab was Pretty Easy!

4 min readI poured a mother freaking 28 square foot concrete slab in the basement this week … and it really wasn’t that hard. Here’s how I did it (hint: I roped my parents into some of the extra manual labor!)

I admit, this was one of the tasks I’ve been most excited about … and afraid of.  I could, of course, have asked the plumbers to repair the slab they tore up when their work was done but I’ve never worked with concrete before and wanted the chance to try my hand.  When I saw the size of the hole I had a few second thoughts in the end it was a really fun time to fill it back in.

With the right tools (another post) the job was really pretty simple. Continue reading “Progress: Pouring the Concrete Slab was Pretty Easy!”

Progress: There is a Huge Hole in the Basement to get at the Under-Slab Plumbing

2 min readTwo weeks ago I took the most dramatic step yet in bringing the basement plans to fruition.  A crew of plumbers showed up at 8 in the morning with jack hammers and tore up a big patch of concrete slab in the basement.  

This is step one of removing the ridiculous open-to-the-laundry toilet and shower arrangement.  They carted off the broken basement floor chunks, removed the old plumbing and then did  the underground rough in for the new 3/4 bathroom. Continue reading “Progress: There is a Huge Hole in the Basement to get at the Under-Slab Plumbing”

Progress: Basement Measuring, Mockups and Making Final Checks

2 min readWith the plumbers incoming the next day to tear out the concrete slab and old pipes, and lay new ones, time for a good old fashioned mock-up with blue tape lines and visualize it one more time.

Having finally (mostly) cleared the deck in the basement I took a moment to revel in the bare walls, exposed floor joists overhead and swept-clean floor.  Then I got out my laser measure, a pair of tape measures, a sharpie and a roll of blue painters tape and marked the location of the new bathroom walls (and fixtures) on the basement floor. Continue reading “Progress: Basement Measuring, Mockups and Making Final Checks”