I know I've mentioned it some... but here's the rest of the story. A few loooong weeks ago... Ok, scratch that. A few MONTHS ago, we discovered that the tub in our master bathroom had a crack in it. Not good. It couldn't just be resurfaced. It had to be replaced. So Brad decided he wanted to take on this endeavor himself. I am sure we have gotten away cheaper because of it.. but it has definitely taken a LOT longer. And its really been no fun being down to one bathroom among a household of four. But nonetheless, a few long weeks ago, he started the demolition. He figured since we had to replace the tub, might as well replace all the fixtures and stuff in the bathroom, which led to him deciding to just gut the entire bathroom (especially after finding the one cabinet had rotted near the bottom, close to the floor and towards the back). Tub (the hard part), cabinets, toilet, floors, sheetrock...everything, gone. These were the closest 'before' pictures I have. We lost a memory card in the process (he was keeping all the images on one memory card, but I snagged these off in the beginning and then the memory card died so the rest are still locked on there somewhere in never never land).
Here's the bathroom in the process of getting gutted...
We called an old plumber friend to come and look at it and he said everything looked great. No problems or anything, that it was all just about putting it back in.
Then we reached a stall. He was just going to go and buy a cheapie tub (fiberglass) from Lowe's or Home Depot. They are all a standard 60in size and sure enough the 'slot' where our tub was was 60 inches. But first, the problem lied in GETTING it to our house with no truck. So after not being able to find a loaner truck, he finally resolved to just strap it to the top of our car. Nice. Anyway, it worked. He got the tub here and somehow maneuvered it (alone) to the bathroom and in place. But, umm... it didn't fit.
Yea. The tub was 60 inches. The opening was 60 inches. But 1) the drain did not line up and 2) the studs were bowed out so in certain places it was not 60 inches.
So he took that tub back, got a different one, with a smaller drain hopeful that he can get that drain more in place and remove a stud or two in the install process. He loaded the other back in the box, back on top of the car, back into Lowe's to return it. Then picked out the smaller-drained one, bought it, loaded it up on top of our car, got it back home, unloaded it and again maneuvered it (alone) to the bathroom.
You can probably guess this part. Yea, the drain didn't line up here either. Insert lots of cussing here.
So he did the same, packed it up, back on our car, back up to Lowe's to return that one as well. And we reached a stalemate.
Eventually, he realized that we would need someone to come in to put in a (sort of, somewhat) custom bathtub. So he called out a company (later known as the most ridiculously overpriced company in town), who quoted us some crazy amount of like $4000.00. JUST for the tub and installing of it. Nothing else included. Um, no thanks.
Then we found another company (through our plumber friend's referral) who would come in and build a cultured marble tub to our bathroom's specifications, drop it in and let us (read: Brad) 'install' it or hook it up. All for the low price of $750. And...when you figure those cheapie fiberglass tubs from Lowe's or Home Depot is JUST the tub...you still have to buy the walls, it really adds up to being close to the same price for this cultured marble. And it looks way nicer!
So, first the room had to be sheetrocked back up and mudded and all.. totally prepped. So that took a couple weeks or so to get done. Remember my husband works daily and then we had Easter, birthday parties and all filling our time the last month or so. Ugh.
Well, finally, he finished the prep and called and ordered the tub. And they brought it by on Friday! He still had some issues with the drain. But figured out a fix quick enough. The company workers came in, dropped the tub in place and sealed it, then left while Brad hooked up the plumbing (drain/faucet fixtures), then they came back a couple hours later to put up the tub/shower walls.
And voila! We have.... a new bathtub!
Not working yet. But, hopefully, the rest of this process will go a little quicker now. He's already got fixtures and a cabinet and a toilet picked out...its ready to just install and hook up. He also still has to finish mudding/texturing the rest of the sheet rock before painting. And this past weekend we got some (free) ceramic tiles from his aunt to be able to do the flooring too! We are planning to paint it the same color as our bedroom since we have a lot of that paint leftover and since it is literally RIGHT off our bedroom and such a tiny bathroom anyway. Hopefully (cross your fingers, say your prayers for us!) that that was our biggest problem and now the rest will be easy peasy! :) (oh, and no, the walls are not purple...that's the color of the mildew-resitant sheet rock he used ;)
1 comment:
Yay!!
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