Bathroom update - the toilet has landed

We are more than a week in on the full bathroom remodel.  Progress is slow.  Very slow.  BUT the biggest news of the week is that we have a toilet installed.

And it flushes.  I mean, it flushes if you dump water into the bowl since the input water isn't hooked up yet (since the toilet will be coming out again to put the floor down) but the sewer is hooked up which is pretty important.  And we're a "if it's brown flush it down, if it's yellow let it mellow" kind of family anyways (tmi? sorry.)  so aren't constantly dumping buckets of water into the toilet.

Our backyard also no longer looks like this thanks to a dump run made by Matt & his nephew on Tuesday.  Strangely, our neighbors didn't speak to us the entire time we had a bathroom in the backyard.  Since then they have been asking daily (often more than once) if the bathroom is done.  No.

So what has gotten done this week?  Nothing major even though Matt's put in about 24 hours of work.  The drywall* stage isn't too many steps away (after electrical and plumbing) but those steps both take quite a bit of time.

On Tuesday Matt & his nephew worked on getting the next layer of subfloor down, on top of the sub sub floor Matt & my BIL installed a few days earlier.  The entire subfloor is installed and tile is next.  They also made the dump run which was hugely helpful so Luke & I (and the 4 kids I babysat) could play outside.  And we look a lot less white-trashy without a toilet in the backyard.

Matt worked on little things through the week, made multiple stops at Lowes.  We finally have our floor tile on order after our first choice was backordered 3 months and our second choice turned out to be for walls, not floors.  We ended up back with our first choice after Matt called the Tile Shop and they got some ordered from a store out East.  It makes it easier to find when we only need 22 square feet.  Small bathroom for the win.

Saturday Matt worked on electrical all day.  Like 10 hours.  At least 5 of those in the attic to get the shower fan & light installed.  It was about 150° degrees in the attic (not really but it was hot).  We had an asbestos scare.  Luke ended up at his grandparents for about an hour while I helped Matt clean up that mess.  I didn't take a picture but there was old insulation all over the bathroom.  It was gross.  And Matt was a sweaty gross mess after all that time in the attic laying on cardboard on top of the insulation.  You'd have to ask him for all the details of why that was so time consuming; I just know it was horrible.

electrical work in progress

After getting home from the lake on Monday Matt mostly finished the electrical.  He has 3 outlets, a future sink light, and the shower light/fan all wired.  But now he's texted and said he wants to change how the shower fan & light are turned on (different switches) so he might be working on that again tonight.  He also still has to take out the old light switch and outlet that we've still been using the past 10 days. 

see old switch and outlet hanging on the right

After that is replacing insulation on one whole wall.  Then plumbing.  If we are super lucky we'll be hanging drywall on Saturday.   

old wall of insulation to be replaced.  current view from the toilet

Right now we're planning drywall, then floor, then fixtures but everyone seems to have a different opinion on that order. 


It's slow going and I'm not even doing much of the work (I'm pretty proud when I change a lightbulb without breaking it, something I have done more than once) since he's not had any real stage yet that I can help with.  Plus, someone has to be watching Luke and I'll gladly take that option over pretty much all of what Matt is doing.

current bathroom view

It would have been so much easier to move.  Or hire this out.  I know.  It really sucks right now.  I don't always know when or where my next shower will be (I've been using two of my sisters' showers, thanks E and DD!, and Matt has been at his parents most nights around 11pm).  I've shaved my legs in the kitchen sink more than once.  Luke is bathing in the basement about every other day, depending on how dirty/sweaty he is.  BUT we have a toilet...we have a toilet.  After a few days of using a bucket, having a flushable toilet never felt so fancy.

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*I don't know exactly what type of drywall is being hung.  Some cement board, some moisture resistant drywall??  Matt knows and bought accordingly but I can never remember.  I'm calling it all drywall because it's hung like the drywall I've hung in the past.  If you are construction savvy, don't worry, Matt has researched and knows what type of boards he is supposed to be using.