The Eve of Destruction...the rest of it

We started the bathroom remodel today.   Nothing like company coming to force you to clean house or fix holes in the floor.  This is, of course, part two of the bathroom remodel from a year ago where William S. Ashley, an alleged builder here in Oxford, remodeled the house we bought.  When the floor fell out of the hall way, we suspected a problem.  It seems that this guy actually built a shower by putting mortar directly onto a wooden floor with no shower pan or liner.  Needless to say, after 3 years of use with water seeping through the tile grout and mortar and directly onto said wooden floor, the entire floor, sub floor, and joists had to be replaced.  The damage from that spread into the hall way and the hall bathroom and we replaced part of the hall and hall bath floor.  When the ceramic tile totally cracked near the hall tub, we pulled it up to discover the rest of the floor and under the hall bath tub is also rotted through.  What a surprise, but he did not install the unit correctly and water was seeping down the edge of the tub and onto the wooden floor from the improper installation. 

Finally, since Rando's father is coming to visit and I could not chance his falling through the bathroom floor, we began the process of ripping it all out.  Actually, the wall behind the tub is not bad, but then, only the top part is off.  The damage is going to be where the tub is, as that is where the leaks from the improper installation let the water run down the back of the wall and onto the floor.  If it is anything like the master shower, we will have to replace studs in addition to the floor.

Rando took the hammer and beat a giant hole in the shower unit--allegedly to make him feel better, but I am the one who put all the labor into ripping into the sheetrock to get it off the lip of the unit so I could take it down.  Whew--too much work for someone my age.  Tomorrow out comes the tub--in pieces as there is no way to get it out the door in one piece anyway.  It is so brittle that it breaks apart pretty easily anyway, so I am hoping the floor will not fall through until I get the tub out!  J helped me carry the large unit out, and asked if he could stomp on it.  I said sure, why not?  He did, thinking it would break, but it did not.  He said he thought it would feel a lot more satisfying than that. :)