We're lucky we have two full bathrooms. While destroying one, we can use the other. But since we only had a clawfoot tub upstairs, we had to put in a shower, so we created an "English Shower" with a new faucet, riser, shower curtain rod, & 360 degrees of curtain. I had a lot of fun wrangling with the old plumbing, which seems to have expanded a bit over time. New copper fittings would not fit over the old ones. Some more experienced people and old timers tell me the pipes expand a little over time. It was fun trying my hand at sweating copper again, too.
Being nearly 6' tall I can barely fit under the shower head...but it should only be for a few months. Let's start the clock now and see.
We began destruction downstairs this morning. I've forgotten how quickly debris piles up and how many garbage bags it fills up. I'm not keen on hiring a dumpster this time so we're gonna throw it out week by week, or I will have to go to the dump.
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| Getting rid of a week's worth of frustrations makes Jennifer smile. |
The fun part is the things we find out about the house. Not much shoddy construction discovered this time, but newspapers in the wall from the original construction and messages we left for ourselves over ten years ago are there. The original builders, sometime between 1910 & 1920, lined the walls with paper as was the custom. When we renovated the dining room on the other side of the wall, about ten years ago, we wrote a few messages ourselves.
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| Wish I could read what department store it is. |
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| August 26th, 1918. Remember when there were morning and evening papers? |
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| Cara was dating a guy named Steve back then. I know better than to call my wife "Jenn" now, too. |
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| Glenham is a hamlet just a mile away. |
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| Must have been a rockin' band. |
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| I did not know the Bull Moose Party had such a local reach...or lasted into the 1910s. |
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| Notes scribbled on the wall from a very long and combative call with Sprint in November, 2007, trying to add my friend Ken to my phone plan. |
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We filled up five or six demolition bags and called it a day. Next up we have to cut off some water lines, destroy the rest, and plan the new look.
Stay tuned.
