Just a simple job they said. It'll be easy they said...

What a long weekend. As usual, anything involving our house was not as simple as it was supposed to be. Saturday we wanted to replace the floor and toilet in the downstairs half bath so we'd have a functional bathroom to use while we ripped apart upstairs. It started out OK. We pulled out the old blue toilet and vanity and pulled up the floor and the new floor went down easy peasey. Then when we went to put the vanity back the sink ended up being rusted out almost completely. The drain actually moved around in my hand...it was a wonder it hadn't leaked previously. So we took off the faucet...which, it turns out, wasn't actually installed with a gasket, just a bunch of putty (wtf?) so we couldn't reuse it either. AND the sink was old and blue so it was too big compared to any sink we could find in town to replace it SO we also needed a new TOP for the vanity too. Ugh. Luckily we had some plywood and left over arborite from a few years ago when we did the kitchen counters so Dad and I were able to build a new countertop and face the front of it with an oak strip. Then a friend of mine happened to have a spare sink in her basement from a reno that ended up going another way - she joked to me on friday that I could have it if I wanted, but I didn't want to bother with the sink so I'd refused....but saturday I called her and went over to pick it up so we had a sink to install. Then we harvested the older taps from the upstairs bathroom and put it all together and back into place. It only cost about $30 in materials instead of a few hundred, which I'm glad for, but what a pain in the ass. After all that we could finally we put in the new toilet. At the end of yesterday we fought with installing the new sink because the piping just wouldn't line up for some stupid reason....so this morning Dad is going to finish the sink drain and then downstairs is done done. So, yeah, we accidentally ended up with a totally new bathroom down there. I'm not gonna lie - it looks great, but it put us a bit behind a day in the main bathroom. With all the stuff we did we went to Home Depot 4 times and Rona 3 times on the weekend.
Upstairs, while we had the water off for the stuff downstairs, we ripped out the old pink toilet and got the old sink and vanity out after we harvested the faucet for downstairs. The vanity was held in place by 3 inch nails. What a PITA to get it out. The old fittings and valves (of course) all leaked so we had to replace all 6 shut off valves for both toilets and sinks with new ones. BUT at the end of the day now the upstairs is ready for some more serious renos today. Dad is hoping he can get the old tub and surround out today and the floor should come up easily so we can work on getting the new stuff in. Hopefully that will go more smoothly. I feel bad that I work today and tomorrow so Dad and J are on their own today. I hope it goes OK for them. If we can just get the tub in the rest should be pretty simple.
Tonight when I get home from work I need to start painting the bathroom ceiling and prime the vanity Dad built. I'm a little annoyed at the vanity I must say. Problem is Dad built it for us so it's free...but it's totally not what I like at all (and not what I'd asked for) with big molded trim around the doors and drawers. I don't want to seem ungrateful about it so I'm just shutting up and painting it and I hope it isn't too annoying. I suppose I can take in the drawers and doors eventually and get Dad to reface them if they drive me batty after some time, but it was a bit of a disappointment... I don't want to complain to Dad because we honestly couldn't have done this without him, especially with all the "surprises" we've had. I'm learning how to do a lot and worked with Dad all weekend.

J worked all day saturday so he was away while Dad and I worked on the house and sunday he was pretty tired since he worked until 5 AM. My brother's wife in all her annoying glory thought that last night would be a perfect time to get together with all of us at their place for supper...and Oh could I bring a salad too? Cuz I'm not actually DOING anything all weekend or anything. Ugh. Oh well supper was good, although I was exhausted by the time it was all done.

This week is bathroom renos plus I have to try and find time to sew some costumes for J and I to go to 1920's them party in Regina on friday. J really wants to go and it would really hurt his feeling if I don't go and he has a ride down there with people who want to stay all weekend...which I can't if the bathroom isn't done (how rude would that be to just leave Dad to himself all weekend?) so I am trying to figure out how to go down and then get back for the rest of the weekend to get some work done in the bathroom. The bus maybe? I'm hoping we get most of things done and the bus back would work...that would make it possible and less rude. Plus the people we'd be going down with are really great and I'd like to get to know them better...and I feel bad just sending J out on his own all the time. It's too complicated. It had to happen right in the middle of everything...but I'd like to go to a party where J doesn't work so I could actually hang out with him for a change. I just want simple please and for J to work out the details (and a beer). I'll make us look good. Hopefully.

So in the end, I am stressed...and if I'm honest more that a bit resentful. J is feeling a bit neglected and I am overworked. BUT I will just try to to enjoy this process and get everything done but I have a feeling this week is gonna be long and stressful and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm feeling like I'm doing too much and that anxiety I've been having isn't helping...
Deep breaths. Chill out Geo. Just chill out.

2 comments:

JavaChick said...

Bathroom reno blues...I feel for you! Our planned 2 week renovation took two months, and that was only one bathroom, so it sounds like you are not doing too badly. Hang in there!

solarity said...

Wow. Searching for the silver lining here: at least there were cut-off valves to replace….

Mary Anne in Kentucky