No Longer In Athens: Plumbing Report

Okay, as of last weekend the upstairs bathroom was completely replumbed with PEX. The adventure was not without its tribulations, mostly occurring right at the end, when Michael was unable to get leverage enough to tighten the connections to the fixtures to the bathtub (it is a very tight space and he couldn't physically get close enough.) A mishap transpired involving turning on the cold line while the hot line was disconnected, forgetting that the tub has the lines mix, so that cold water came pouring out of the disconnected hot line and into the ceiling below (which was, happily already slated to be further removed.) That made for a seriously no fun 10pm on a Saturday night, let me tell you.

The solution to the bath fixtures was replacing them, which worked out just fine. So as of Sunday a week ago, we had an upstairs bathroom again! And a big hole in the bedroom wall (for access to the sink lines) and a rather damp ceiling in the downstairs bathroom (still.)

This weekend we got the bedroom wall closed up. Michael found the newfangled drywall tape they make (mesh and self-adhesive!) to be really easy. The wall needs to be sanded, and another coat of mud, and then sanding again, primer and paint, but it's closed up and looking good.

Michael spent an arduous and dirty 7 hours deconstructing inside the bathroom ceiling yesterday. Among other things, he discovered that we still have knob-and-tube wiring in the house, that is live and supplying current to things. Who knew? The next step in this area requires a little more talk and planning; I think we'll seal up the ceiling with plastic for a few weeks (we have some busy weekends coming up) and think about what's next.

Photos:
Michael threaded the new PEX 3/4 inch lines up from the basement through an existing chase next to the back chimney. (The old lines were all willy-nilly in the ceiling.)