My fiancee Janie is here! She came in late (or early, depending on how you look at it) Saturday night / Sunday morning, around 4am. We've had a good time hanging out and spending time together. Yes, we are still madly crazy in love, still engaged. We both needed some rest so Sunday was mostly downtime. We saw "Sucker Punch" and then came home and went to bed Sunday night. I worked on Monday and she came and bought me lunch at Subway. My day was really stressful at work, then it got more stressful at Lowe's. 

I went after work to pick up an additional 3/4" thick, 8'x4' sheet of subfloor from Lowe's, because I figured that the floor square footage wouldn't quite be covered by what I had bought already. I called home to Janie to check on the thickness of the subfloor because I wanted to be sure it was 3/4" before I bought the wrong thing. Those sheets are really awkward and heavy and splintery to move around more than you need to do so. It turns out Joe was there to stop by to say hi, and there was some confusion and difficulties with a) me being in Lowe's with not great signal and b) Janie and Joe having crap signal at my house. I couldn't find any boards that were labeled 3/4" that were as cheap as I had remembered. I spent less than $40 on my lumber last time I was there, and the cheapest 3/4" there was $35 and I didn't bring that much cash. 

I got two guys that worked there to help me figure it out, apparently they're changing all the measurement standards for how they sell the wood, and trying to list everything in 32nds, like 23/32" for 3/4 inch. Now, if you are good at math like I tend to believe I am (I have my sister to thank for that) - you know that 23/32 is not 3/4, 24/32 is equal to 3/4. Apparently, they run through the same settings on the cutter, and the pieces labeled 23/32 were completely compatible with my 3/4" sheet without worrying about it being uneven. It does not make a lick of sense to me, but if they tell me that's how it is, then I will go with it. The sheet I bought was about $12.50, and the 2x6x16 plank I bought was another $8. It was fun loading all that into the truck and driving from Sylva to Whittier with a 16 foot piece of wood out the back of my truck. I've got to get some of those flags so people will stop tailgating me and scaring me. 

Janie helped me out by pulling up some flooring while I was at work, but some of the joists are worse off than I thought. Joe showed me when I got there which joists were load-bearing, and they look fine, but several non-load-bearing are too rotted to leave alone. Parts of one came up with the wood Janie was prying, another one she stepped onto broke completley, another that I knew about already wasn't even fully attached anymore because the last person to do this exact same job, did a horrible job of toenailing. Joe recommended getting some U brackets instead of just toe-nailing the replacement boards in, so I will likely do that. I looked them up online at Lowe's and they're pretty cheap, like $1 a piece. 

Redoing the joists gives me better peace of mind about this whole thing - no guesswork about if it's going to last much longer or if reinforcements were going to hold. This is just better. I should have been planning to do this anyway, and I think it's great Joe was there to show me stuff and give me advice. Right now it's kind of funny, you open the bathroom door and pretty much there's a weak step and then you're on dirt. Not much to do at this point before pay day, but tear out the very last two planks that touch water supply and drain line with a Sawz-all. After that I can replace the joists and sure them up with some cross-support, mark locations on the bottom of the wall so I can find the joists after the flooring is down, and then put the flooring down and secure it with 2 inch deck screws. Putting the vinyl flooring sheet down after that, then the toilet. If I can get that done this week I'll be in really good shape. 

Left to do after that: install new tub drain, then put in shower PEX and fixtures, run the wiring and install the above-shower light, drill holes in durarock and then put that up. Bring in the tub and secure that in place and connect the drain. That technically should work as a functional but ugly shower or regular tub at that point. I'm going to frame up the tub up to about 1/4 inch above the deck, then tile up the surround. Using greenboard for the ceiling in the shower and the rest of the bathroom. Then I'll go and greenboard up the rest of the walls in the bathroom, probably replace the window, spackle and paint the ceiling, then I'll paint and install the molding. I may put in an additional electrical outlet while I have the walls down. Probably the very last thing I do will be to install a new vanity and light fixture. Then I am washing my hands of the bathroom remodel and focus on doing some landscaping or something easier. The next project will probably be the bedroom or the office that will become a library. Since the wood paneling is down in the bedroom, I'm probably going there first. 

The "work paralysis" as I mentioned in my last post, well - I may have understated it some. Sometimes, it's that feeling like you get procrastinating as a student, and you just have to kick your own butt and get stuff done. There is a very real thing I didn't understand until I experienced it myself later in life with my depression, where your brain can be in such a feverish state of emotional distress (even worse when there's no tangible reason for it) that it's just crippling, and you can't get anything done because the only thing you want to do is ball up in a corner somewhere and be alone doing nothing. 

These are the hardest things to work through. I am sharing this because I have recently added some people back to my Facebook for the first time in a long time, and they may not have known for sure (though I'm sure they've had their suspicions) that I deal with clinical depression. 

I've been stuck for a few days knowing I have a lot of stuff to do, so tonight I'm skipping Game Night to be responsible and get some of that stuff done. I should have a bathroom floor sometime this weekend, and then hopefully vinyl flooring, and then a toilet put back in. Depending on how productive I can be with my beautiful fiancee in town for a week, I may have most of a bathroom back before you know it! :-)

I tend to get "work paralysis," which basically looks just like procrastination - in fact, in practice, that's all it is really. I will do everything but what actually needs to be done when I get locked up like that. I know there's a big project, and almost like a fear, I'll keep putting it off like I'm not ready for it. I find the best way to get past it is to trick myself by starting to do it anyway before I realize I'm back in the groove of working on it again.

That's how the bathroom remodel has been for me lately. If you'd asked me when the hole was just a hole that I was dealing with I would have had no idea I'd be getting myself into a complete remodel. One thing leads to another...and here I am.

This weekend I mowed the lawn, did dishes, some laundry, cleaned up a little around the house, and was pretty frakking exhausted by the time I was done yesterday. I dreaded the idea of doing any work today. My body was sore and I quit out early around 11pm. (That's early for me on a Saturday night). Today I woke up around 11am, got some breakfast made, relaxed on the couch and watched some Battlestar Galactica for probably two hours. I went into town to get the puppy some more food and some soda for me.

Before I got wrapped up in Netflix more, I decided to try out the new Sawzall blades I picked up at Lowe's with a freshly charged battery, and I was able to cut right through the cabinet frame in the bathroom corner. I cut a few more places, pried here and there with the pry bar, and before I knew it the cabinet left no trace. At this point there was literally nothing holding me back from prying up the subfloor, so I did that. It broke in half as I worked from the side around the door. It made it a hell of a lot easier to carry out, I'll tell you what.

So, subfloor's gone now - but guess what was lurking underneath? Another layer of floor. I am not frakking kidding here. It's only about half the length of the subfloor, the rest has broken and rotten away, so the remaining half should be easy to pry up and dispose of it. The joists actually look fine, none of it looks rotted at all. I'll take the huge piece of subfloor in my livingroom waiting to go in and I'll cut it to fit exactly, and pre-cut the holes for the plumbing so all I should have to do is go in there and mark along the walls where the joists are (makes it easier to find them for securing the flooring) and then screw in the flooring with 2" deck screws. They're made for exterior applications, but that means they won't rust or have other problems from moisture. This subfloor is about 3/4" thick premium grade underlayment, and should withstand normal wear and tear.

Once the subfloor is down, I can apply adhesive and throw down the vinyl (again, cutting the holes for the plumbing) and then re-install the toilet. I won't have a sink or walls yet, but that's cool. The rest of the bathroom is mostly going to be tiling up the shower once the bath tub is in place with durarock around it. I can't decide if I want to build a small seat at the end of the tub where the cabinet was, or frame it up again and run a second shower head in there. The advantage there is you could stand in the middle and get rinsed from both sides.

Ceiling and rest of the bathroom are going to be covered up in greenboard again - I've got to install that ceiling light in the shower and run the electrical wiring over to the light light switch, which will probably become a two-gang box. While the walls are down, I also want to install a new outlet by the sink.

Gah, I can't wait for this thing to be done. It's going to look sweet, but I'm doing to be dead and broke! Although if you consider all the hours I've put into it and the money I saved doing it myself, it really will probably be the cheapest bathroom remodel in history.

So the plumber (Lee English, out in Bryson City) came today with his helper, Sam. They were awesome! They cut the supply lines to the shower even lower, then attached proper connectors to PEX and capped it off with my gatorbite ball valves so the water could be turned back on. Also, it turns out the drain pipe was basically rotted / rusted out or some other kinda damage. It basically was barely connected. So they took that out too, and in the process they pulled out my tub and ripped up about half the floor on that side.So there's about 1/4 of my remaining demo work done already.

I want to still run a new light in the shower and redo the ceiling in that room with greenboard. I won't be able to afford a new vanity this month, but maybe next month when I get the new toilet for Brad's bathroom I'll pick that up. That could also change if I pick up some side work between now and then. I can hopefully at least get a floor down and maybe (*crossing fingers*) the vinyl, then the back wall of greenboard and the toilet put back in. 

Get the tub back in with the drain kit I bought off the plumber today (new drain has a good stopper on top for when you want to take a bath), then the durarock goes up and the holes get drilled for faucets and shower head. Plumbing connected up and then finally, TILE! Hopefully when the tile goes in and the greenboard is installed everywhere and I have the light connected, it's all gonna be done for a long while.

Normal rooms are hopefully going to be a lot simpler than this has been. 

I was beating myself up because I was *so* sure I was right that all I needed was a hacksaw and gatorBITE ball valve (with the water cut off at the main) to fix my plumbing to run PEX from copper and have a good cut-off so the whole house's water could be left on while I worked. I put one on, then turned the main back on - and of course, flooding. Turned out, I forgot to put the fitting on inside the pipe. Hacked it off, put a new one on... flooding. Forgot to push hard on it and twist it into place. That worked and held.

I got three more to put in today, hoping to get them done quickly and without event. I'm kind of counting my blessings right now because I didn't end up having to call the plumber.

I've been watching more videos lately on how to do stuff. It turns out I am likely to need a tool called a "tub shoe wrench" to free my tub from it's drain captivity, and then I just pry around the edges to free the skirt, and it should come right out once it's free.

I am going to Lowe's tonight after work to get a hacksaw, some PEX tubing, some Gatorbite connectors and two Gatorbite ball valves so I have a good water supply cut-off to the shower so I can keep working with the rest of the house's water turned on. I am also going to get a key wrench so I can turn the water on and off by myself at the main.

I will replace the piping to my shower later when the floor is done and I can put the tub back in (or a new or new-to-me tub, going to check the Habitat for Humanity Home Supply Store first). I want to switch the plumbing from a three valve setup to just a one lever setup for controlling the water flow and temperature. I also have to repair a leak on the sink supply line. 

This remodel may end up being the cheapest in history - most of the work being done by me and buying all the supplies and stuff myself. It's not cheap, but man I am saving a lot of money. I am hoping that while the walls are down I can go ahead and get any electrical changes done that I might need. I want an outlet by the sink for using electric trimmers, or for someone to use a hair curler or blow dryer, etc. I want to put in a recessed light in the shower with a separate light switch control, so I will need to upgrade the 1-gang box to a 2-gang box. 

With the tub out of the way, I will pull up all the rotted flooring, clean everything up, call John (my friend Jame's brother, who is a contractor that specializes in framing) and having him come check and either instruct or do the actual repairs on the joists and such for me. There's no avoiding that, I need it to be good and up to code and safe. Once that's done, I can put the new subflooring in, finish the plumbing and electrical work, reinstall the tub or new tub, durarock the shower frame, put up greenboard for the rest of the walls and ceiling, install the new light fixture over the vanity spot, put in the new vanity and vanity top, lay down the vinyl flooring, install a panel in front of the tub to make it look fancy, caulk all the seals, reinstall the toilet, spackle the seams and screw holes, paint, and then probably last - tile the shower. 

It's a lot of work, but I think it'll look great when I'm done. I am thinking of tiling with white tile, since the tub is white, and I am going to get a white vanity and vanity top ($88 at Lowe's), and the toilet is white, and the vinyl flooring is white with blue shapes on it... octagons maybe? I forget. I want to paint the walls a darker blue color, and paint the window trim white. I may be able to re-finish my medicine cabinet in white and just reuse the same one. There is also a possibility of doing some built-in shelving on the wall behind the toilet before I put the drywall/greenboard stuff in. 

I can't wait to get my truck back - I need to haul off a ton of the demolished materials, go get moisture-treated subflooring just to make sure I *never* have to do this again, and haul off the garbage that's been collecting. I have more to talk about, but I have a meeting in 5 minutes. 

Been working hard on my bathroom. I posted the pics on Facebook here. Finished the last wall last night, and now pretty much I either don't have the tools or the strength or know-how to do any more on it. I have to wait on my refund (which as of right this second I don't think it's hit today) and then get John the contractor back in to help me get the rest of it done up to the floor at least. I probably also need to get the plumber in to fix a few things with the plumbing in there before I build it all back up.