Warm & Toasty

While we've been keeping pretty busy with our bathroom, we've jumped around a little bit and finished some other projects too - that would be easy to skim over because they aren't so thrilling.

As you might remember, when we gutted our bathroom and took down the ceiling, the insulation fell down on us. This is when it was revealed that we had 3 layers of insulation: saw dust, batts, and blown fibre glass. Too many layers. It was time to clean that all out and start fresh.  

If you're handier than we are, I know that you can rent the machine from Home Depot or other places, but we just aren't that skilled. I would rather pay to have someone else vacuum it all out and blow it back in than pay for repair on a Philip sized hole in our ceiling. Just not worth the risk, and it's a gross job. 

We got a few quotes, and ended up going with a company recommended by my cousin, Airborne Insulation. 

The journey of having our cellulose insulation blown in was a little trickier than we, and the insulation company, had anticipated. They had a crazy summer and we had a lot of delays waiting for them, but eventually it got done. The first day they came in and realized that the scope of the project was a lot larger than they thought. They had planned on spending the morning vacuuming and the afternoon blowing in, this turned into 2 and a half days vacuuming and half a day blowing back in. We were pleased to see that they didn't change the price on us though, the guy that quoted saw the attic and we didn't hide anything so it was their mistake and they took the hit on the extra labour. 

It was a gross job, the attic is messy and dusty, I felt so bad for the guy who had to be up there all day vacuum in hand. I told him he has a terrible job (was that rude? I'm not normally that blunt :S). He has done it for 25 years and he's good at it! I'm glad he can still be happy while stuck in a dingy attic.

Anyway, now hopefully our home is more energy efficient. Since we've moved in we've replaced the windows, replaced the exterior doors, the furnace, air conditioning, hot water tank, and attic insulation. I think we're well on our way to low heating bills! 

Many Steps Closer to Bathroom Launch Success

Since we haven't blogged in so long, this post has been ongoing for a month or two, it has made it hard to post because every time I have time to work on it there's more to add! We don't have a lot of pictures, blogging hasn't been top of mind and so when we were doing boring things like putting up insulation, the camera wasn't always at hand. Today I'm posting this thing, even though it isn't perfect. Our main computer is having issues, so I'm also doing this post on my super old laptop which has a faulty space bar and no photo editing software. These pictures are grainy at best. Let's call them "artsy." It's time to get you caught up on how our bathroom went from this...

To how it looks today...

We left off having our roof inspected and we've been given the go-ahead that our roof should be water-free in the future. That left us to continue making progress in the bathroom, and hopefully one day it will be usable.

Bathrooms have been a major part of life lately, with our renovation in the evenings and at work I was designing 7 bathrooms for one home. Definitely having lots of bathroomspiration, and the occasional bathroom related nightmare. I can't even imagine having a finished bathroom, but we're getting close!

Philip reinsulated our exterior wall, and it proved to be one of our best DIY projects to date, in my opinion. Everything went smoothly, it wasn't too difficult to figure out, and it made a big difference! We started out by removing the old insulation, they had actually spray foamed from the outside from what we could tell, but we didn't really know that going in so it was still good to get it freshened up. Also because the spray foam didn't extend all the way to the edges and had a lot of places for cold air to leak in. Next up we measured the width between studs and cut the insulation to size. After that it's just a matter of sliding the insulation easily into place. 

Philip also put up the vapor barrier, we weren't really sure how to do any of this but we spent the morning watching You Tube videos of people putting up insulation and vapor barriers, and then we just worked away! You Tube and Google are definitely great resources when you want to try and tackle something yourself, there are a lot of great tutorials out there that can help you get an idea of what you're doing.

Next up, the plumber came in and worked at installing our bathtub, as well as reconfiguring plumbing and improving some of the plumbing that was there before since it's all exposed anyway and we may as well do it right. We have a new stack, and a brand new bathtub. 

Our electrician came one evening and roughed in all of the wiring for 3 brand new GFCI's - in the old bathroom there was one plug, which only worked for 60s razors. He also hung our vent fan, which we ducted ourselves. We still have to drill the hole to vent it outside, but the ducting is all ready to go.

We purchased a light fixture last week online, crossing our fingers that it doesn't get back-ordered like crazy and that it looks okay in real life. It's a sleek fixture, that we hope will look great in the end. It's hard to choose these things when the room just looks like a gutted box! 

Finding flooring that met our criteria was a challenge. We didn't want tile because it's cold on the feet, hard to install yourself without some know-how, and would make a big ridge from our wood floor = stubbed toe central. We ended up with a vinyl tile from A&R Carpet Barn, they're big and rectangular and the installation sounded very user friendly. Basically each tile can be glued in place, and cut to fit with a utility knife. The tiles are a grey/white with a linear pattern. 

We've had to reframe the linen closet wall 2 times now, but hopefully we did it for the last time now. The main reason was to make the vent fan fit inside the wall, and we're actually kind of loving the wider 2 x 8 wall next to the shower giving it a more built in look. 

Once everything was framed, and electrical and plumbing were completed, we were ready for drywall. We called our friends to book it, right under the wire too as a couple days later one of them had a baby! Philip took the day off that they were coming so we could finish up with sound insulating and ducting, but a twist came when we realized the night before that the tub surround needed to go up before the drywall! 

After calling a number of friends/family who seemed handy to us, my aunt & uncle came over in the morning to give us a hand. It was terrifying drilling the holes through acrylic side walls, but it all went okay! Basically it was just a matter of putting silicone in a groove, putting each wall into the silicone, and drilling screws all along the top for extra support. 

As we were finishing up sound insulation our friends showed up and drywalled everything in an hour and a half. It looks awesome to have a bathroom with walls again!! First time since January!

Mudders & Tapers are almost done, one more coat to go, we delayed them a bit by going on vacation (we just got back from Minneapolis on Wednesday night). 

Next Steps:
- Choose paint color
- Prime
- Paint
- Install Flooring
- Casings & Trim
- Think of a Linen Closet Solution
- ....start our kitchen?

It's Raining Terribleness

That title is not far from the truth when you're experiencing the take-down of insulation. This post is going to be long, because it was an epic project that takes many words to fully describe. 

Of the projects we've tackled so far, here'd be the top 3 worst:

3. Sanding Drywall when Patching Walls - So Dusty, this is a tie with Buying Closet Supplies
2. Patching the Ceiling - So Impossible
1. Taking down insulation - Everything Evil in the World

Mind you, we haven't done that much yet, but this was terrible, awful, horrible, the pits. 

Here's the basic rundown:

We decided to tackle this one without the help of family/friends just because it was a small space which didn't allow for much more than two people. Also, we knew it was going to be a frustrating job and didn't want to lash out at loved ones. We didn't know what we were doing, but sort of hashed it out in the week leading up to it and came up with the method we ended up using.

The Gear

• Long Sleeved Shirts
• Masks
• Safety Goggles
• Pants
• Socks
• Shoes
• Hoodies (added later)
• Huge Garbage Bags
• Scissors
• Shovel & Dust Pan
• Step Ladder
• Tarp

You can't see it, but we're still smiling.

Once we were dressed and ready, we went into the bathroom with enthusiasm. This died very quickly. 

The horrors!

The Method

Team Member A would stand on ladder and gently pull vapour barrier down in chosen region. Team Member B stands with garbage bag opened, attempting to catch the majority of fallen debris. 

We also had a tarp spread across the ground to prevent grossness from falling through to the basement and provide ease of cleanup. 

This actually worked surprisingly well, most went into bags and saved us some clean up time, the rest landed in eyes and hair. We took turns being person A and person B, with myself being A for the most part because I sucked so bad at B, I'd always look down and close my eyes because I hate stuff falling at my face, which didn't provide the best catching accuracy. 

No, this is not a "Before" photo. This was AFTER we cleaned most of the wood shavings up.

The Twists

That method will hopefully run smoothly for most people, and it did for us too except for a few twists that really threw our method off track.

First: When we were about halfway through the sawdust insulation removal, we noticed a build up of white powder in the section of insulation that had been bulging below the joist when we had taken down the ceiling a while back. I was concerned about it, and so we did some research online before going on to that section. 

Our best guess is that it was sodium flouride, which has been added to sawdust insulation to help with fire protection and deter intruders of the rodent variety. It's toxic if ingested, but didn't seem too worrisome if inhaled and we were wearing masks. Taking that section down was the worst, the powder seemed to be really heavy, a cloud of dust would make it so we couldn't see at all so we'd quickly get out and close the door to wait for it to settle so we could go back in and keep going. 

The breakdown, from bottom to top: drywall (already gone), vapour barrier, wood shaving insulation (mixed with suspected sodium fluoride), batts of fiberglass insulation, blown fiberglass insulation.

Second: After the sawdust insulation, there were batts. This part was tricky, because they run perpendicular to the joists, with blown insulation on top, so it was pretty hard to gain control. We wore hoodies tightened to just allow a hole to see, which made it really hard to breath and really, really hot. We were close to giving up at this point because we'd been working for hours, were tired, and it was really hard. We made it about 3/4 of the way, and Philip finished up the second day while I dealt with strep throat (still dealing with it, but close to normal-ish today). 

Ready for action!

"Should-ing" On Ourselves

Our pre-marital counselor taught us this term, and it's cleverness has stuck with us. (Read it out loud if it doesn't make sense.) There are a couple of things that we should have done during this project, having 20/20 hindsight. We'll share them here so that you can implement them if you ever do a similar project.

1. Wear closed goggles. Sawdust is not fun to get in your eyes, we both put eye drops in the next two days and had swollen eyes from dust getting behind our glasses.
2. Wrap your hair (or cut it all off first). If you have more hair than Philip's buzz cut, wrap it with a plastic bag. I had to shampoo three times and still had saw dust in my hair. I probably had over 100 pieces tangled in my pony-tailed hair - doesn't make for a refreshing after hard work shower. 
3. Have a good imagination. The only way to get through the blown insulation shower that comes with taking down insulation is to be Team Member B and imagine that it's non-edible cotton candy falling, it makes the experience almost gleeful. Philip was up on the ladder disgusted by how much fluff was falling down and under my mask I had a huge smile just because of how much pink was falling all around me. 
4. Be prepared for mystery substances. Wear a respirator or check ahead of time if there are any questionable things, or give yourself enough time to back away and get a professional when there is a weird white dust that might kill you. We probably could have seen that white dust ahead and looked into it, instead of having a last minute panic attack that could lead to a spousal dispute. 
5. Wallpaper something before tackling this project. That, or pre-schedule a marital counselling session. You'll need to be as strong as ever with your spouse before showering your marriage in toxic substances, sawdust, and fiberglass. 

What's Next

Now that we've got our insulation out, here are the next couple of things that need to happen:

1. Put up new vapour barrier
2. Drywall the ceiling
3. Have new insulation blown in

Have you taken down insulation recently? Did you love it as much as we did?

Demolition Man Redux

It's time for your weekly dose of Philip. Please note side effects may include nausea, drowning, and Dutch Elm Disease.

Before we get too far, just wanted to point out that we're on top of our banner switch! It's March now which, in Winnipeg, means that spring is here! winter will occasionally tease us with some above-freezing temperatures, but we'll still realistically have snow on the ground when April hits. Which is why our banner is featuring Concetta, our once-busty snowwoman, and our biggest March point of progress, our new blinds (showing off their cool top-down/bottom-up capabilities).

But on to the topic at hand.

If you read regularly, you've heard a lot about our bathroom renovation, and more specifically how it's been stalled. But we haven't taken the time to detail the work that has been done. That changes today!

I titled this post "Demolition Man Redux" in honour of the inaugural Friday Phil, because gutting a bathroom is a lot like gutting a basement.
Well, not quite. I mean, it's close to the same thing, except everywhere you look there's:

• a pipe you shouldn't dent,
• a wire you shouldn't nick,
• a new window you shouldn't crack
• or a wall you have to tear out carefully so you don't put a hole in the spare bedroom wall next door.

Oh, and when you're working in there with even just two people, it feels like you're working inside a room the size of a milk crate. (Note from editor, some of us young folk don't understand this analogy)
But, apart from those 200 words, it's just like gutting a basement. It comes apart in 6 easy medium-difficulty you're-still-not-done-after-completing-them steps.

Step 1: Getting the water shut off

But seriously; step one was getting the water shut off. Our plumber came by, had a look, and in relatively short order had created a detour so water could be shut off to the upstairs bathroom and not the downstairs as this bathroom didn't have a shut off valve (hooray for not having to pee in a bucket!).

Step 2: Remove the vanity, tub, and toilet

Of these three, the most difficult was the tub. The vanity popped off with only a few nails holding it back. Once the toilet was empty and shut off, it too came off with only a couple screws holding it down. (Pro tip? No matter how much you try, there will always be a little water left in the toilet somewhere, so put it down on a tarp or towel and have some tags ready for drips during transit.) But the tub was a different story. A big metal tub bolted to the studs for 30 or so years does not come easily. With my dad's help, we were able to unhook all the pipe connections (in some cases cutting right through them), pry it off the studs, and haul the thing out our front door. (Thankfully the detached tub wasn't too heavy; definitely manageable for a team of two.) I'm pretty sure all the prying, bracing against the studs took a bit of a toll on our house; since that time a large crack has appeared in the plaster on the other side of the bathtub wall (in our side door landing).

Step 3: Remove the plaster/drywall, deconstruct the linen closet

This was dusty work, made more difficult since the broken plaster/drywall had to be hauled through the house to get it out. Plus, the walls hide these metal corner meshes that they use to put up plaster. They hide and are hard to remove, but when they finally let go, it's satisfying like getting all the glue off a granola bar wrapper. (What, that's just me? Okay, moving on...) Fortunately, taking out the linen closet was simpler, just requiring some elbow grease and a wrecking bar for leverage. Oh, and a hard hat would've helped when the one 2x4 broke and 4 feet of its nail-embedded length caught the top of my head. Escaped without a scratch, but those were a few terrifying seconds.

This is where we were at during this step...and nothing has changed. 

See ya, bathtub. 

Step 4: Replace the ceiling, a.k.a. $#!@*%

If you're asking me why the bathroom isn't
done yet, this right here is why.

So we want to put up a ventilation fan and pot light over the shower. Plus, it looked like there might be some discoloration or even mould in one corner. "Let's just re-drywall the ceiling!" We thought. "Muahahaha," our house laughed evilly.
With the help of my good friend Alan, we started carefully pulling back the drywall, trying not to puncture the vapour barrier behind it. Immediately upon discovering wood-shaving insulation and old, thin (2mm) vapour barrier, he recommended we climb up into the attic and sweep the area above the bathroom clear of insulation. In retrospect, this would have been a real pain (especially working in an uninsulated attic in Winnipeg in January), but would have probably been a faster pain than what we've ended up with.
I decided to try to preserve the existing setup, and lo and behold the wood shaving insulation (and the blown insulation our home inspection has led us to assume is on top of it) collected in the lowest spots, dragging those down further and causing the vapour barrier to pop of the joists in a few spots. Of course, now the shavings have really collected below the joist, and there's no hope of ever reattaching that vapour barrier to the joists.

Step 5: Have your wife sprain her foot and write/direct a feature-length stage production

I didn't quite fall into a burning ring o' fire, but when I write
and direct, I walk the line... Okay, I'll stop.

Just kidding. Don't do this if you want to get your bathroom done quickly and efficiently. (Though I'd fully recommend writing and directing for the stage. It's been a 2 weeks since our production wrapped and I'm experiencing withdrawal. Not quite chain-me-to-the-radiator-June-Carter levels, but close.)

Step 6: Figure out a solution to our ceiling/attic insulation issue

This is the step we're in right now.

What's the solution to our current woes? We're trying to find that out from a few experts, but I you have expertise/input/ideas, we'd love to hear them in the comments below! Of course we'll be updating you as we go, so stay tuned!