Days 5 and 6: Walls and a Floor!

Two more days of hard work (8 to 5 every day!) but we're still not to the particularly exciting updates. On Thursday, we came closer to having walls up. They seamed and plastered the water-resistant board for the non-shower walls and cement board for the shower walls. They removed our old insulation and stuffed the exterior wall with new stuff. We noticed that we may have made a misstep here--the old stuff they removed was labeled R-19 and the new stuff they put in was R-13...Hmmm.... Our contract stipulated that they put in the insulation with the highest R-value that would fit appropriately, between R-13 and R-19, so we're going on faith that they know what they're doing. It certainly looks in better shape than the crud they pulled out. But then I guess 60 years behind a wall is bound to result in some wear and tear.

The floors in this picture, from Thursday, is still our original plywood. You can see they've sealed up all the seams in the wall.

Friday we came home to cement board on the floors and, more exciting (because it means we might get a working toilet soon), a new toilet flange.

The flange is the part that seals the toilet in place to the floor and the sewer pipe. We knew our previous one was going to need replacing because it was old and cracked and didn't seal well and because the height of our floor will be a little lower than before.

Photo courtesy of Monkey River Town

Finally, Friday the last of the wall was sealed up. Monday or Tuesday, the tile work begins!

Yesterday I came to to the annoying realization that all our Christmas storage boxes are hidden in the spare room behind the plastic that the contractors put up. So in addition to having a living room cluttered with tile, a vanity, and a toilet and fine layer of grime in the hallway landing, we are going to have Christmas decorations up until the end of the remodel. Bad planning on my part--Oops!

Have a Happy New Year! See you in 2012!