Cleaning up the rubble

After digging ditches for new sewer lines, building walls and pulling out paneling....we had an entire truckbed full of rubbble to take to the city wood/rock, yard debris recycling.  For $22, they will turn your trash into someone's treasure.  We have visited here many times to dump our materials and purchase items like soil and rock for our yard projects.
Everything went well with clean-up until Steve was pulling out the last 1' section of cast iron old plumbing from the bathroom on Monday....when he yanked, unfortunately, yanked more than he bargained for and I heard a waterfall and heard "help" from the nether-regions of the basement.  Steve accidentally pulled and snapped a hot water line.  Luckily, we were able to shower at Steve's work Monday night and plumber Bob was able to return and restore our hot water (setting the new basement toilet flange as well since Steve leveled the bathroom floor on Sunday) on Tuesday.  Looks like all is up and running again.

Patriotic Plumbing

Wanted to post a few more pictures of our progress...note how all the plumbing lines form a nice red, white and blue

 

white lines are for hose bibs...this hose bib that runs to the driveway will actually give us hot water for washing cars when we need it!

View through the new partially framed bathroom (toilet flange is in as well as lines ready for sink) to what will be a utility closet that holds a drain and the water heater

can you believe this will be our new basement shower/dog washing station...lots left to do but at least we have bought the supplies-going to pour a shower floor slope next weekend

Nastiness!  Stack of dishes left from having no sink water for a couple days-the old faucet was clogged past the point of saving so we just went to buy a new cheap-o from Home Depot to last us until our kitchen remodel BUT....

of course when we brought the new faucet home, we found out that the holes in the cast iron sink were 6" spacing (which of course is hard to find and not really made anymore) and we had bought a common 8"....well after deciding not to spend $100 on a 6" faucet that only needs to hopefully last about a year....Steve just zip-tied the new one on....holding strong for 5 days now :)

baths, baths, baths

Amazingly, the plumbing is done!   Our contractor was absolutely awesome and finished in record time....we survived with not having a kitchen sink for two days, no bath for 1 1/2 weeks and still have our bathroom sink missing, however, no big deal as Steve is busy leveling floors and getting all ready for tile. Our plumber was able to keep the toilet going the whole time-a necessity for a pregnant woman.   We have gotten our tile bids and the tiling should start in the next week or two.  Here are pictures of the boys moving out the old tub-it was ridiculously heavy, framing in the main floor bath, lack of sink and the temporary shower set-up we have until we get tile.  I hope to get some basement bathroom pix up in the next couple days and maybe some nursery pix too.

breathing after tub made it to the dining room

 

going out the door-score!   We only found one big scratch in the floors after....luckily covered by a rug

made it to the porch, down the stairs and into the pickup to sell to rejuvenation the following day

framing in the bathroom on the main floor

new plumbing for main floor bathroom sink

temporarily shower setup-but aren't the handles on the new venice cal faucets awesome?

Demolition...and some building too

So, our weekend consisted of filling our sewer line ditch with concrete, buying a ton of wood and concrete, some wall demo and starting framing of the new basement bathroom we are putting in.  Despite how it looks, we feel like it is starting to show signs of getting done.  Our plumber Bob is doing an awesome job keeping our plumbing up and running while replacing everything and adding a new bathroom at the same time.  We hope to have all the new lines up and running by the weekend.

 

our stack of concrete-15 bags worth to fill the ditch

     

Friend Ben helping with concrete & when they started covering the new sewer line (it was 90% blocked before)

 

the outline of the new basement bath, new shower to left, framed in with pressure treated wood put into the concrete with special screws.

 So gross, can you believe this is 95years worth of hair that came out of the shower drain pipe-makes me sick

1. tub just before turning to make room to stub out new plumbing

2. old asbestos floor tile under tub and several layers of old linoleum.  We found some super old paint samples with a brochure and what appeared to be the last home owners underwear

-gloves required to throw out

3. Tub turned temporarily until we bring in new tub....only friends and neighbors showers for a few days :)

Twas the night before....

Plumbing-

Tomorrow starts a project we have been meaning to do since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. Deposit for materials are down and Bob the plumber will be coming over tomorrow morning to start the sewer line replacement and then he will start on the water lines.  In addition to replacing all the existing plumbing, we are adding a kitchenette sink to the basement, full basement bathroom, sprinkler system plumbing, 2 new hose bibs (finally one in the backyard and one towards the front of the house), moving the water heater, and lots of other small upgrades.  It will be great to have plumbing that does not have rust coming out of the pipes each time we get home from vacation.    Lots of work ahead as we need to re-concrete over all the sewer and put up bathroom walls just as soon as the sewer lines are done so that he can get finished. 

sewer line-note hole we found at top after digging out-old pipes, eh?

laundry sink faucet-very archaic but has served its purpose well

Steve's markings for new plumbing

another part of the 35' long sewer line getting replaced, notice all the dirt piles we dug out over the weekend

lines that were replaced in 2006 and were done all wrong....

what you get for spending $500 and hiring a plumber without a license