Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Heating Things Up

Disclaimer: This is not a post about warmer weather.

Our house is officially 200 years old this year! In houses this old there were no grand master bathrooms in the floor plan. They weren't built with beautiful walk-in showers. Instead, there are slanted roofs and tight floor plans, weird bump outs that hide vent stacks and waste lines, wonky wiring and water lines that were retro fitted to bring bathrooms indoors at some point. And they are probably all in desperate need of upgrading... unless you're lucky and the people that owned it before you bought it did all that for you. Well, we are those people.

In 2005 we tackled the only full bath in the house with a very limited budget. I found some tile I loved (and still do) and Mister put it down on the floor and put a row of accent tile in the shower for me.



There is a radiator in the room that takes up precious floor space- 12"x 22".


Originally, a door swung into the room hitting the shower wall. Mister made a pocket door for me using the existing door.


Mister also had built and installed some shelves on the wall to make up for the lack of storage but they always look messy.





Yes, that is a window that is 1/2 in the shower and 1/2 out! Who does that? 


And for the past 15 years it has sufficed.

Much more time at home lately has had us thinking about all the things we could be doing. I have wanted to put radiant heat in that bathroom for a l-o-o-ong time. There are 3 reasons for this: 1) that 12 inches I mentioned before and 2) a real vanity with storage vs. the pedestal sink would be so nice and 3)the radiator was the last one in the house to ever heat up-making it basically useless. Don't get me wrong, I loved that pedestal sink when we put it in years ago and I still do but I need storage!

Mister's initial and usual reaction to any of my ideas is "it won't work, we can't do that". Hmm. So, I let it sit for a little. But, true to form, it came up again. Now he has had a little time to get used to the idea and what that means as far as learning something new. We've never installed radiant heating so some internet research and some videos helped to explain how it all works. Mister said "I need to make a small hole in the floor to see what we are dealing with. The old radiator will have to be removed and the line will have to be capped." Me, I am okay with that. (I think it's because it's not me doing the dirty work.)

Off he went. 5 minutes later he came back with a hammer, jigsaw, and a flat bar. I knew it was about to get real. There is no such thing as a small hole with this guy. Upstairs he went. I stayed downstairs trying to occupy my mind with the pretty things that will fill the space after all the ugly happens. But for now, ugly is my new reality. 15 minutes later Mister informed me that he never said "little hole".😳😲




(The toilet waste pipe. If you're to attempt this, block that bad boy off! The gases are noxious.)


3 layers of flooring removed revealed joists that had been cut up to put in supply lines. All those had to be sistered up. That means putting uncut wood next to the original piece and screwing it in to restore integrity.

Long story short, it took a larger "hole" to figure out how all this old house was rigged but since it is our only full bath in the house we're trying to have product on site to make it still usable during all this. In the present state of our country that may prove more challenging than usual.

We were able to pull the radiator and supply pipe, clean up the joists, level out the floor better and put down new plywood as the underlayment.



Much better! 

My lesson in this has been that sometimes when Mister says it can't be done it means that he isn't confident that he can do it. That is where my inner high-school cheerleader needs to come out to encourage him. Worst case scenario... well, who knows but right now I just need to find my pom-poms. This is gonna be great!

Stay tuned.

Linking up to these blog parties:
Katherine's Corner, The Pin Junkie, Shabby Art Boutique, Dabbling and Decorating

6 comments:

  1. Wow, what a great team you make. A great project.

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    1. We do make a great team (in my humble opinion). :) Grateful that God saw fit to put us together. Thanks for visiting with me.

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  2. Can't wait to see what happens next! Our house is 100 years old, and I thought that we had some problems! We put in floor radiant heat in our bathrooms because there were no heaters. It does a great job warming up the entire space!
    Kim | Shiplap and Shells

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    1. That's great to know and glad you're happy with the decision, Kim. I tend to question my choices a bit afterward until I can tell for certain that my ideas are working. Gotta love old houses, right? I do think it takes a certain kind of people to be happy in them. Thanks for spending time with me and for leaving me a word of encouragement! Have a great weekend.

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  3. Wow what a project😱 I’d luv to invite you to share it with us over at Charming Homes and Gardens💁🏼‍♀️ https://www.dabblinganddecorating.com/single-post/2020/03/31/Charming-Homes-Gardens-Wednesday-Link-Party Wednesday - Sundays!

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    1. Thank you for the visit and for the invitation, Ann!

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