Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

I would like to start out tonight's blog with a special note. I am requesting  an unspoken prayer request for two close family members that had an incident. Things can change in an instant. Please tell your family that you love them. They will be okay, but prayers will be appreciated.


Scrub-a-dub-dub
 This birthday chick's got her tub!

But first off... We had to page Dr. Stevieo. He donned his blue rubber gloves because he had a sterile job to do.

Remember in my last blog I mentioned that he was going to redo all of the plumbing from the upstairs down to the basement? He is bypassing all of the old steel pipe drain lines which are a hundred plus years old. Everything now will be new PVC and up to code.

Well, part of that project had to do with the toilet in the half bath on the main floor. The piping from the half-bath toilet was still old cast sewer pipe. Since he is replacing all of the pipe in the basement, that means ripping up the toilet in the half bath and changing out the flange and elbow to a new PVC flange. The little corner sink we put in the bath a couple years ago already has new plumbing.

Of course, don't you know--- when he got down in there to remove the toilet, the floor itself was in rough shape and needed some beefing up as well. So he cut out the bad areas, installed new support wood, put in some new subfloor, and a new wax ring for the toilet. That took up the entire morning and soon he had the toilet back in place. Everything was functioning again.

Upstairs, we had some creative decisions to make. The bottom of the tub has a number of circular support feet to help hold the weight of the tub on the floor. We had to transfer the designs from the bottom of the tub onto the floor so we knew where we could make a cutout for the piping to drop down. Because there is no access from the side wall, all of the plumbing had to be installed in place on the tub as we set it down. So Steve has to cut a channel in the actual floor between the joists for the pipes to fit down into. If there is ever a plumbing issue under the tub, we will have to remove the trim screws around the tub and lift the entire works back out again from the corner. Either that, or cut up from the ceiling below in the back stairwell.

By using some large sheets of taped together freezer paper, and a piece of sidewalk chalk, we made a rubbing of the bottom surface of the tub with all of the little support feet and drain sections preserved onto a template. From there we transferred it right onto the old flooring and traced where the support brackets needed to be. Now we knew the route that we could send the drain pipe over to the down drain to the basement.

As much as Steve hates templates, it was my idea to do it this way. He did admit at the end that it was a good idea!

Here is all of the plumbing mounted directly to the tub. The tub is laying on its side in this picture. This is the drain and the overflow pipes attached right onto the tub. Now it is ready to drop into place because Steve cut out a channel in the old flooring.

On the top corner of the tub seat, he drilled in the hole for the faucet. This is actually the cute faucet from our last bathtub that we are reusing. I just loved this one when I saw it in the store and it reminded me of a a little well pitcher pump. Actually, I think it was my birthday present from him 3 or 4 years ago. I was glad we were able to make it work for this tub.

He attached all new PEX water lines for both the hot and cold water.  The old water lines were copper pipe, connected to lead pipe in the basement. It's nice now that everything is fresh and new and up to code.

While he was working on configuring the drain pipes and traps, he had these two supervisors take over to make sure he was doing a good job.

Little Finnegan intently observes everything he does,
 while Binney just barks her fool head off every time he runs a drill or a saw.

I popped them into the tub to keep them out of the way.

Soon he had all of the plumbing hooked up and tested. Now both the separate standalone shower and the tub each have the correct trap and a vent as well. That was never done before in the old days and was probably part of the problem why the tub or shower did not drain very well. He capped off the old pipes even though they're not connected to anything downstairs. He's going to leave the old steel pipe in the wall but he was able to pull out the copper one. We were fortunate that he did not have to bust up any plaster in the route from the second-story down through the first story wall in into the basement.

He has new subfloor and flooring to put over this access spot on the floor and we can always open it back up to address any plumbing issues in the future. Hopefully not, of course.

He said we should test the tub and the shower both right away just to make sure there are absolutely no problems with the setup. As my tub was filling, I prepared my new birthday bath spa caddy tray. I ordered it from Amazon 2 days ago and it came toot sweet. It also had with it an extra bath pillow which I really needed and a little overflow plastic cover to allow you to allow a tub fill a little deeper. Never fear, I don't even need to use that because this tub is plenty deep enough!

Bathtub Caddy and Bed Tray with Luxury Bath Pillow and Bonus Drain Cover

I poured myself a glass of wine, got myself some aromatic candles flickering, a bar of scented soap from my friend Rosalyn and enjoyed my bath. I set my little tablet securely on the rack. Don't worry, it's not plugged into an electrical source. And if it ever did get wet or fall in the tub, it's no big loss. It was a free tablet I got from a phone deal many years ago.

I am happy to say that the tub worked perfectly. The water heater was plenty fine to fill the capacity and actually it was a little too hot to begin with. The last tub was 60 gallons and this one is 71 gallons. I will have to adjust my fill temperature or get into the tub sooner to adjust it as it fills.

Steve tried out his separate shower and everything works perfectly with the drains for both units. In the past everything tied together between the shower, the tub, the sink and the toilet. All four items on the same line to go down to the basement???

This morning, Steve started putting some of the trim back in the bathroom. It took some special cuts carefully with his jigsaw to replicate the shape of the tub especially around the base. He was able to get some of the baseboard back into place and it looks custom-built to me. He does such fine work and is so talented. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life who enjoys doing this type of work as well as enjoys creating such a wonderful birthday bathroom oasis for me.

I decided that if one bath last night was good,
 then another bath tonight would be even better!

So tonight's blog is being dictated to my tablet,
directly from my
 Birthday Bathtub!

"Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to spoiled rotten me,
Happy birthday to me"

Our Old House Project - My Early Birthday Present

Since only 2 of the 3 parts are in for the motorhome repair, my Steveio is just waiting around with nothing to do. Oh my... that is NOT good for him, is it?

Well---- a while back he mentioned that both our shower and bathtub upstairs are draining slower and slower.  Even with cleaning out the trap, they are the last of the old original steel drain and copper water plumbing pipes left in the house. The rest has all been replaced with newer PVC drain pipes and Pex water lines.   He said in order to drill in a new hole to go down inside of the laundry room wall on the first floor, then he would have to pull up the bath tub to get access!  Oh my, that is not good either.

On Sunday night, he said that since he has to pull up the tub, would this be a good time to actually get the bigger corner tub that I looked at 5 years ago when we first redid the bathroom??  It was not in our budget at that time and we bought a cheaper regular tub instead. We decided to put the money into the separate stand-alone shower.  The tub was fine, and it was deeper than most on the market. I was happy with it. 

But in our last home, in Oconto, we did have a big corner tub which was soooo nice! It was good for soaking, or bathing grandkids, or even getting a romantic evening as it had a two-person capacity.

I said to him: "Yes, a corner tub would be nice, but we are watching the budget for the motorhome brake repairs, remember?"    Then he turned around his laptop to show me his screen of what he found on Craigslist!!!

It turns out that last year, a guy had bought the same exact tub that I had looked at 5 years ago.  It had to only be 4 foot on the side walls because of our window placement. The more common 5 foot ones are too big for our bathroom configuration.  So I knew that the 4 foot Lyons Sea Wave was the only one that would fit in our house.

That Craigslist guy brought this tub up to his cottage near Rhinelander and planned on remodeling his bathroom up there.  It took over a year and a half before he was ready to set the tub in place, and guess what?  It was TOO BIG for his cottage!  Now it was too late to return it. He listed it on Craigslist for a very, very good price.  He was only asking $150.  New it is over $600.  Steve said we can re-use my same faucet and drain and it can be my early birthday present. Wheeeeee!

Steve said "Let's hook up the trailer and go see the tub".  It was a little trek over to Wisconsin Rapids where the guy lived. (about 90 miles one way)  He met us in the parking lot at his place of business.  He and Steve wheeled and dealed until they settled on $130.00  Ahhhh that sure is a nice early birthday present for me. 

We drove home and while he had it in our own driveway, Steve MADE me get in the tub and try it out.  Hahahaa I knew I would like it, because I sat in it 5 years ago on display in the store too.

I could just see it---

 full of bubbles, 

soft music,

 and a glass of wine! 

Monday morning he had a little time to get the old tub unhooked and removed from the corner in the bathroom.  Underneath where it was located is where he needs to put down the new drain lines with proper traps and a vent (which weren't correct in the old plumbing configuration anyhow). 

There... the old tub is out! He had to leave and drive for his job later on that morning, but we carried the old tub down and set it in the garage. It was only 70 pounds and we managed that easy enough. I am going to sell it on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace because it's just fine, and only 5 years old.

Now he has the access room to put down the new drain pipe and lines and cap off the old ones.  In the meantime he set the bath tub faucet (that we are re-using) into the shower stall next to the tub to the right.  Just in case of it getting bumped, I taped the lever down.  The shower still works, as he later capped off part of the old drain that went to the tub.

We carried up the new tub together. It was a bit awkward around the three turns of our front staircase, but we made it!  It weighs 110 pounds, but between the two of us we managed to get it up there. Whew!  It's good that we are doing these projects while we are still strong and in our late 50's for me and 60 for Steve.  We won't be able to do these kind of house remodeling projects 10 or 20 years down the road.  

We set the tub into place to take measurements and figure out the drain placement.  We have an extra piece of flooring and sub floor to splice in later to cover the open older plumbing area. 

The new tub is shorter in length on the side walls (4 ft vs 5 ft) so luckily we have extra beadboards from when we updated the walls last winter.  I am glad I saved the leftovers! We pulled the boards back to remove the short ones and replaced them with the longer ones to fill in the gap.  The baseboard will go back on once we set the tub into place permanently.

Steve drilled the new drain hole using a hole saw.  Oh wow... they sure made houses strong and sturdy in 1913!  We don't hear a lot of upstairs noise and that is because there is a 3/4 inch subfloor of heavy old pine, then 3/4 of an inch of thick hardwood flooring (the bathroom had been originally wood floors!)  and then a subfloor of 1/4 inch thick wood too.  Then the wall plate was also 2 inches thick to drill through as well.  Back then in 1913 real 2x4 boards measured 2" by 4".

Steve had to go and drive again today for a while, so he had to let the project sit and percolate in his brain. What a frustrating thing for him to have to do.  He loves projects and says this is his version of "fun".  Once he got home, he couldn't even wait for me to cook supper.... he went right to work assembling the drain pieces and dry fitting and double checking the measurements. 

You know the old adage:

"Measure twice - Cut once"

It works on both wood and on plumbing. LOL

He then went down in the basement to double check where the old pipes were tying into the newer sewer pipes that were installed back 5 years ago. Now he can bypass the old cast iron sewer pipes and everything will be new plumbing, once he ties it all together. 

While he was doing that, two little Nosy Rosies came in to see what was going on.  They like to bark at the drills, saws and hammers.  I popped them both in the tub to keep them out of trouble.  Do they look like they get into trouble?? 

After supper, I decided that we should relax a bit. He put in a full day between tub removal, taking measurements, drilling holes and then working for 4 hours.  I made up some chicken stir fry and we are settled back in our comfy chairs.  He is antsy and I am thinking he is going to pop back up and go double check something. Soon I will hear a saw or a drill or something going on?

I was looking online and decided to splurge on something for my new bathtub too.... my old chrome bath caddy won't span the wider tub width, so I found this one that will go to 42 inches wide to fit the new tub. How nice is this?  It's made from bamboo to withstand moisture, and has legs if I want to use it as a bed tray too.  Happy Birthday to ME!  (even though my birthday isn't until October 31)

Hmmmm I wonder how long he will sit still in his chair?  

Our Old House Project - Corbels on Dining Room Bay Window

This morning we woke up to breezy windy conditions. That was absolutely wonderful news for us because it would blow away all of those pesky mosquitoes. We had an outside project to do and last night they were just atrocious, swarming and biting like crazy. I am not exaggerating on how bad they are this year.  After a mild winter, and lots of rain, we have a bumper crop infesting Wisconsin this summer.

When we looked out this morning and saw all of the trees bending and dipping and swaying, Steve said "Let's get out and do it" ... He had to leave for work in one hour so we hopped to it.

What did we do? 

Well, here is a little backstory:

Our beautiful 104 year old house had originally been built with wood siding and wood trim. Then over the years, it had been replaced a couple times. There were asphalt slate shingles and some wider aluminum or hardboard siding we saw in some of the old photos from the previous owners.

The most recent covering was done most probably in the 1980s or 90s with beige/tan vinyl siding. At the same time the workers tore off any wood features and wrapped all of the exterior windows with aluminum trim. Yes, it's a no maintenance exterior, but it is also devoid of any interesting architectural details. We are not sure what was originally around this bay window in our dining room.  Inside, the dining room window is pretty leaded glass, with lace curtains and a vintage lamp.  But this 18 inch wide white expanse of plain aluminum above the windows on the outside is pretty boring.

Don't you think?

We had an idea to add some trim, called corbels, around the bay window to fill in that space. We looked at various ideas on other homes, on the internet, and at the building supply store.  Here were some of the ideas we came up with.  Trying to keep to a more "Craftsman" theme than a "Victorian" style.

Hmmmmm I added a bit of blue to this one:

We needed seven of them to adequately fill in the space. If we had to add even more wood to those to make the blue sections, why buy seven little brackets at $32 each?  Well, to the tune of spending $200+ just for some trim, we decided to maybe build our own!  (we are retired on a pretty much fixed budget as well, ya know).  Time to get creative.

I kind of like this shape best, and it also mimics the curves that we cut out on the shutters that we installed two weeks ago. We didn't want things too frilly or bric-a-brac looking.  More structural and clean lines was our goal. 

We knew it needed a little bit of blue trim behind this bracket or brace, to make it stand out against the white background. So I started thinking and went to work with some drawings. Then I traced something onto a board. 

Steve cut it out for me so we would get an idea of where we were going with this...  Here is our first prototype made from scrap wood. 

Okay, we had our idea and had our prototype. But we needed to make it thicker. We didn't want to go out and buy thick planks to cut out this pattern. That can be really expensive too. Now he started to think. Steve gets a lot of thinking done while sitting in a lawn chair out in his garage. Notice the beer sitting on the lawn mower next to him to help him think???

He had an idea--- 2 years ago I bought him a nice newer metal workbench for his garage. The old bench in the garage was wooden, made with some very heavy planks. He took that old bench apart and had saved all the wood. We always save our wood. Recycling at its finest.

He took out some of those big thick planks from the old workbench and they were exactly the thickness that we would want to make corbels!!  They are about 2 and half inches thick and would be fine for some hefty trim work.

So Debbie, Laura and Paula --- your grandpa's workbench now has a new life as trim on the outside of his beloved home!!!

Steve cut out the big thick pieces from the old planks and sanded them smooth. He also had found some leftover 5" wide lumber from the garage attic to make the backing and top support boards as well.

Now it was my turn. I got out the solid colored stains and turned the corbel pieces white, and the backing and top support pieces blue. That blue matches the blue trim blocks we put on the shutters and the trim strips on the front porch and our window boxes too.

Yesterday, when Steve came home from work, he assembled the pieces all together on the work table.  He used coated screws so they won't rust or rot away over the years.  We want these to last. 

Oooh oooh oooh They look so cute!

The mosquitoes were just eating us alive last night when we were trying to measure and figure out exactly where we wanted them. We decided to retreat back inside and wait to install them.

~~~~~~~~~~

This morning it was perfect with the windy breeze is blowing the little buggers away. Now we didn't have to spray ourselves full of DEET mosquito spray just to get these things installed.

Up on the ladder and leaning over the hedges, Steve started screwing in the first one after making sure it was level and plumb.  Again, he used coated screws that won't rust or make marks on the white wood or streaks on the aluminum over the years. 

It didn't take long to get all seven of them up into place. He moved the ladder over from place to place, and the birds hiding in the hedges were upset with him. They were all a-twitter and giving him quite the chewing out.

We get a lot of birds that hang out here with our bird feeder smack dab in the middle of the hedge. We just added another feeder bracket near the window by the livingroom as well (on the left) It's nice to watch them, especially in the middle of winter.

It didn't take Steve long to get the corbels all installed. 

NOW THAT IS WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!!

From the road you can see the cute angles and curves. I think that the backing pieces in blue makes the white bracket part stand out better than if they had just been white against the span of white aluminum.

So there you have it, 

Our Old House is getting a little more trim on the outside, 

to bring out the beauty that she really is on the inside.

I really think this trimmed out window nicely adds architectural detail and interest. It harmonizes nicely with the shutters that we added. We are not sure if this is what was here originally, because the only photo we have of the house from way back then doesn't show this side bay window.

I found an interesting photo editing app on my phone that makes a "sketch" of our house!  I think this might look kinda cool to print out and frame as if someone really drew it. Neato!

Well, off to bake an apple pie this morning,
 and it feels like Autumn outside.

(on edit)

Fixing the Front Porch Door

We are working on another project on Our Old House, but I can't post about it until everything is installed.  So in the meantime I will post about something we took care of a couple weeks ago.

When you have a house that is 104 years old, things need to be fixed up from time to time. Especially when you want to keep the same things that are 104 years old as well.   The exterior front door on the porch is one of them.   Some people would just rip it out and install some fanky-swanky new aluminum insulated door.  But not us.... nope!

We know from an old 1930's era photo of our house, that the front porch door is close to original.  It gets opened multiple times a day, to put out our flag, grab packages delivered to the front steps, and take the flag back in at night.

Although we try to be gentle with things like doors and windows, (to make them last) the front door gets slammed from time to time.  Add to that the humid weather we have been having makes the wood heave and split and swell.  In the subzero winter temps it freezes and contracts too.

We noticed a pretty big split was forming along the frame on the lower edge.  Oh my!  We had to take care of that before it got any worse, for sure.

Steve sent me to the hardware store to get some long long 6 inch wood screws with a flat pan head that could lay down flat in a recessed hole in the wood (so it didn't scrape the opposite door jamb).  I searched and searched in the store and finally found some at the bottom of a bin, with other stuff piled on top. I guess they don't sell many of them, or nobody can find them?

He pre-drilled two long deep holes into the first part of the door....

(yes in his stocking feet with sawdust all over!) 

He decided this was a "sit down" job! 

Then he carefully installed the long screw into the pre-drilled hole in the first part of the wood, and then the threads pulled in snug as they dug into the second piece of wood. 

With a very careful and slow zip zip zip he let it tug in tight to the wood and draw it all together tight.  Not too tight that it stripped, but tight enough to pull the door pieces together. 

Look At That!  All Fixed! 

(don't look at his sawdusty sock)  

Then I took out my handy dandy paint brush and touched it all up again.  Good to go now for another hundred years????

Speaking of tools, did you know in the monthly newspaper from AARP (not the magazine, but the newspaper that comes folded in half in the mail) there is always a page of coupons from Harbor Freight?  They usually have something for "FREE" with additional purchase.  This month was a set of 6 magnetized screwdrivers.  Sometimes, if Steve has time to kill while his transport people are at doctor appointments in Appleton, he wanders around the nearby Harbor Freight until they are done. He has a phone on him for the transport bus that they can call him when they are ready. 

Most gals want their sweetie to bring them flowers, or candy, or sexy lingerie.... but I get a pitter pat to my heart when he brings me tools!!!  Ahhhhhh  I already have my own set of screwdrivers, wrenches, drill etc. in the house in my workroom.  Sometimes he swipes MY tools rather than go out into the garage to get his own.  I have to find them and put them back in MY drawers and cabinets. 

But I wanted a set of screwdrivers for ME for up in my sewing room.  Now I have a set!  It sure beats running downstairs to get a screwdriver when I need one. Sometimes my quilting frame needs a tweak or my loom needs to be tightened up at a joint.  Having them at hand on the second story is a good thing. Plus---- he can't swipe them.  I have a locking drawer in a file cabinet to stow them in. Tee heeee

Speaking of my sewing room, I got part of my newest quilt done on the quilting frame.  It would not stitch right on Monday when it was hot and humid. The thread kept fraying and breaking. ARGGHHH!!! I did everything, cleaned the machine, changed the needle, adjusted the tension both top and bottom, changed the thread type.  Nothing worked.  So I set it aside until Wednesday.  I walked up the machine, turned it on, and it sewed perfectly!  Gremlins, I tell ya....

This pic is a little dark, but then you can see the leaded glass suncatcher collection on the windows when I sew. This is a  Handi-quilter frame set up on two banquet tables butted up together and screwed down tight.  I set my domestic Janome machine onto a moving carriage and kinda "drive" it back and forth and around to make pretty stitching patterns.

It lets me do my own free-motion quilting on my own rolled up quilt tops, batting and backings.  I don't have the money to send them out to be done by a long-armer contract person.  This is working very well for me and the 9 or 10 quilts a year that I do manage to complete.

Here is a little video clip I made 

while working on another quilt of how it operates:

I wanted to write about our newest Our Old House project, but we are 90% done and just have to wait until tomorrow for the last 10% to finish it up... if the mosquitos are at bay?