We've Discovered a Wormhole!

As many of you know, we bought a house that was built around 1924.  It was famous back then for having a curved green shingle roof and was the subject of many newspaper articles in the past.  The house still has the curved shingle roof, although the last owners didn't make it green (we will fix that!).  Many other parts of the house are original as well, including all the bathrooms.  We know this because spearmint green tile is ugly, and the stamp on the bottom of the bathtub says 1928 (it was in the added bathroom).

In an effort to modernize the house a little, like adding wiring that won't burn the house down, we are tackling projects one room at a time.  The focus of our zeal is currently aimed at the main floor bathroom.  This bath sits in the back of the house and was part of a late-1920s addition on the house.  The floor sags just a bit here and so removing the bathroom is part of a effort to lift and support this section of the house.  The foundation is solid all around, but the bathroom was completely lined with 3" of solid concrete, then tiled over, then a 500lb tub was added.  In total, over 3000lbs.  I'm not sure WHY the floor would sag???!!  So, we needed to remove the entire bathroom to support the floor joyces (sp?) underneath and create an oasis of calm in our new main floor bath.

Our friends, Deana and Homer, came over to help with demo which pretty much involved grabbing anything metal and heavy and slamming it into the walls and floor.  Talk therapy has nothing on renovation demo!  We were able to save some of the green tiles to add to the new bath, for sentimental purposes, and the old cast iron bathtub (which is worth about $900! Can you believe that!?) is currently for sale on craigslist.

Homer smashing tiles

The toilet and vanity were pretty easy to get out, but the tiles were directly attached to the concrete beneath it, which was attached to a thick metal mesh, which was nailed into the struts, which were lined with 2x6 wood sheets, which I think was put together with some sort of ancient mystical force field to prevent anyone from ever removing the ugly green tile.

We were hoping to find gold ring or some massive wads of cash in the walls, but we only found some vintage linoleum pieces, 2 adult diapers (unused thank Gods!), and bricks.  Seriously, who hides bricks in the walls.  Did one of carpenters think, "well, I've got these extra bricks and I have nowhere to store them, I think I'll just encase them in the wall".  Who does that?


Taking out concrete floor

Once we had everything out, even the ceiling, we could see into the center of the universe.  Or the basement crawl space, at this point it is all about equally mysterious.  After the men got creative with the saws, hacking off any pipes they found offensive, they started jacking up the floor.  It was pretty incredible to actually watch the doors we couldn't close actually move and close!  It's amazing what true perpendicular lines can create.

Of course, in the process of all this incredible workmanship and demolition, Lonnie forgot to put a cover over the hole that goes into the office.  This means our demo managed to put a huge layer of concrete and plaster dust all over my computer, school work, and pretty much everything else in the office.  Does anyone remember our last little adventure with a "fine layer of concrete dust?"  Yeah, my reaction this time was similar, hide in the corner and suck my thumb because the dust makes me crazy and I don't want to clean it again!

The beauty of this newly opened space, besides watching Lonnie clean up all his dust mess, is that we will have a level floor with heated tiles and a premier access to a wormhole that goes to Andromeda.  Can't you see it?  It's on the lower left hand side of the picture...our excavation to China can continue unnoticed.  All I need it a Tardis shower surround and all will be right with the world.

And at some point I should probably figure out the design of this bathroom, now that the dust has settled.