Ok, this will be painful. Well, painfully funny if you have our brand of humor... If you missed the first installment of Remodeling Time Machine, you can read about our first house bathroom remodel here. Of course, we couldn't remodel that bathroom until we had another bathroom in the house to use, right? This is the story of the little basement bathroom that could...
The previous owners of our 50-plus year old house must have had a pretty sick sense of humor as well, because this is what we were left with in the basement:
The previous owners of our 50-plus year old house must have had a pretty sick sense of humor as well, because this is what we were left with in the basement:
Images of Sweeney Todd come unbidden to my mind, You? What you wouldn't guess is that behind that brown door is the most disgusting "2nd bathroom" for which you could hope. It had a toilet on a raised concrete slab concealing the plumbing and that's it. There seemed to have been an attempt at putting in a shower, but it was just - YUCK. Notice the sewer line is above the basement floor? Yeah. We'll come to that soon enough...
First I wanted to give you a peak at why you set up an escrow when buying an older home to cover unforseen "events"...
First I wanted to give you a peak at why you set up an escrow when buying an older home to cover unforseen "events"...
Less than 2 weeks into home ownership and the drought ended that summer of 1997. Guess where all the water went?? Yep, right into many, many cracks in our poured concrete foundation. Awesome. We promptly took care of that issue with said escrow cash and had the foundation fixed. Not so promptly did we get to the basement bathroom. This next picture is February 2004. We jackhammered the concrete floor out to rough-in our bathroom plumbing (FYI - jackhammers are fun!):
Because the sewer line was above the concrete floor, we had to install a sewage ejector to defy gravity. Above you can see the sewage ejector basin at floor level. It didn't stay there willingly, hence the bags of sand and bucket of rocks. That basin had to go 30 inches below grade which is deeper than the sump pump basin. Hydrostatic pressure is a b***h. Just sayin'...
Hubby, Dad-in-Law and I worked for hours digging out that hole only to hit a boulder right in the middle of it. Trying to wrangle a jackhammer in a 30 inch hole full of water is not what you would call fun. There were many F-words uttered, including the first I ever heard from my Father-in-law! LOL! When we did finally manage to crack that boulder into enough pieces to get it out of the way, we stuck the basin in the hole, threw some heavy stuff on top of it and went out to eat dinner. We were just DONE at that point...
Well, when we returned home after a nice meal, that damn hydrostatic pressure had pushed the basin up out of the hole WITH 2 bags of sand on top of it. Many more F-words and three of us stomping on the thing later, it was back down and bolted to the concrete floor. Phew. Let me tell ya, there is nothing like bonding over an ornery sewage ejector basin! :-)
Hubby, Dad-in-Law and I worked for hours digging out that hole only to hit a boulder right in the middle of it. Trying to wrangle a jackhammer in a 30 inch hole full of water is not what you would call fun. There were many F-words uttered, including the first I ever heard from my Father-in-law! LOL! When we did finally manage to crack that boulder into enough pieces to get it out of the way, we stuck the basin in the hole, threw some heavy stuff on top of it and went out to eat dinner. We were just DONE at that point...
Well, when we returned home after a nice meal, that damn hydrostatic pressure had pushed the basin up out of the hole WITH 2 bags of sand on top of it. Many more F-words and three of us stomping on the thing later, it was back down and bolted to the concrete floor. Phew. Let me tell ya, there is nothing like bonding over an ornery sewage ejector basin! :-)
Above is just to give you an idea of the layout of the soon-to-be basement bathroom. Oh, and to showcase my awesome concrete finishing work. Apparently, I have quite an aptitude for floating concrete... ;-) Below is September 2004, studs finally going into the basement!
I am including the below pic from February 2006 just for fun. This is the final laminate flooring going into the basement and I am sitting in that chair toasting the new floor! BTW, that is NOT coffee in that travel mug... Ha!
As you can see, we completely finished the basement and it was a GREAT party space. More on that another time... Below are the last pictures of the finished basement bathroom before we sold that house. (Sorry, old pics in this post as well!) We installed a new corner shower unit, cabinetry, ceiling vent/heater/light, sconces, flooring - well, everything!
It was a wonderful bathroom to use while we gutted the one upstairs! We also installed a heated towel rack in this bathroom. It was worth all of the work (and profanity!) in the end! That bathroom saw many parties and guests and was a vast improvement over that so-called 2nd bathroom we started with... EEEWWW, it creeps me out just thinking about it!
That does it for another Remodeling Time Machine. I'll have to decide what to show you next time - does anyone enjoy bricklaying?? :-)
I hope you are having a great week!
Cheers!
M J
P.S. We just have to thank all of our family members and friends for their help with this house at various times over the years. If it wasn't for them, we may have just turned the gas on and lit a match... ;-)
That does it for another Remodeling Time Machine. I'll have to decide what to show you next time - does anyone enjoy bricklaying?? :-)
I hope you are having a great week!
Cheers!
M J
P.S. We just have to thank all of our family members and friends for their help with this house at various times over the years. If it wasn't for them, we may have just turned the gas on and lit a match... ;-)
RSS Feed
