Have we mentioned the bathroom?

Saturday was still a bit gray and damp. I was under the bathroom floor, Erika was handing me stuff from above ground, Mom was deep into cleaning the kitchen by this point.

It only took a few minutes to glue up the rest of the tub drain stuff. Figured we would wait a couple hours before testing. So, we measured and drilled the holes in the wall behind the tub for the faucet, valves, and shower head.

The day before, Friday, Erika had located a few excellent bathroom vanity options at an antique store south of town. Since we had been on the hunt for a nice piece of furniture to convert into a vanity for a while now, we thought it would be a good idea to go check 'em out before they disappear. So, we loaded up into the van, stopped at the hardware store on the way out (of course), and made the 25 minute trip south. I stretched out, flat on my back, in the back of the van and fell asleep.

All three pieces were good options. But the third one was the coolest. A hard bargain we did not drive, but we did manage to get them to knock $25 off the tag. Erika backed the van up to the door, opened the hatch, and offered the clerk a reason for all the beer bottle empties destined for the recycling center. "Do ya'll make your own beer?" the clerk asked. No, we're just renovating a house! haha.

We transported our lovely new piece back to the house and carried it straight into our bathroom-in-progress to get a preview. Fits perfectly, looks great!




Next, I wanted to test the tub drain for leaks. I crawled back down under the house to the bathroom and spread out underneath the plumbing to watch. Erika stood in the tub above me and dumped a two-gallon bucket of water directly on the drain. I got showered with water that was spraying out from the drain flange - of course, because we never put the plumber's putty under the drain cap! That's okay though - the good news was that the trap, trap arm, and stack were not leaking. A successful test. My wet shirt made mud as I slid back across the crawl space and out from under the house.

For the rest of the afternoon up until quitting time, we worked on getting the tub/shower fixtures mounted into the wall cavity. We secured the plumbing tree to the frame we had assembled for it a month ago and lifted it into place, between the studs. So far so good. Next, we had to attach the PEX tubing that we had roughed in for the shower. Consider 'em crimped.

The tough part was getting the valves to stick out of the wall at the right distance (eleven sixteenth of an inch from the center of the threaded collar, for those counting). We had to adjust some things but not to keep you in suspense - we got it lined up and screwed in and it's solid. Hooray!

Wow, not only do we have walls, but we have valves and spouts sticking out of them now!

Home, eating dinner by 11.

- John