What Lies Beneath

[darkemeralds]

When Ed pulled up the subfloor of the bathroom, he discovered one of those "oops" things that I hear are inevitable in a remodel: there wasn't all that much holding up the floor.

So he took out the wimpy and too-few joists he found, and today my bathroom was the bottomless pit.




Meet Ed.


These are the days when you begin to wonder what the hell you were thinking. Moving would have been easier and cheaper.


The view from the basement.



Ed's going to put new joists in across the new, reinforced sill he added. He's then going to straighten the wall and add some missing studs.

In short, he's tearing down my bathroom and building a whole new one.

He assures me that it's all going to be wonderful in the end. Right now, it looks like the pit of doom. The very, very expensive pit of doom.

Comments

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think your slashfic sins are catching up with you ...

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hey! My fics all have enough joists.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Indeed they do. I was referring to that spectacular view of hell.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Fic hell isn't so dank. Not as many spiderwebs. Fic hell is warm and toasty.

[sffan.livejournal.com]

Is there a house on the planet that's been renovated that didn't have an "oops" or a "holy shit look at all that [insert something horrible]"?

But, yay! new bathroom. Right?

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Ed assures me of the eventual "yay," yes. It shouldd all be very pretty, and stable, and done right, when he's finished.

I wish I could reonvate myself the same way!

[str8ontilmornin.livejournal.com]

Hey Ed!!

Although you will feel so much better knowing what's under there now and what you won't have to worry about, right?

Awesome what a little drywall will do later on.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love thinking of this as "a little drywall."

It sounds so much more affordable that way!

[wedjateye.livejournal.com]

Yay, bathroom update! With pictures.

I'm back from the land of no net. Catching up. Wondering how you are and when the big evacuation is/was. And I hear disturbing news about a passport???

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Hey! Welcome back to the land of internet.

I moved out on Wednesday and am living in a hotel till this Wednesday. My emergency passport application is in the hands of FedEx now, so if you believe in any higher power, pray to it for the quick and efficient processing and return of this precious document, okay?

I think it'll all end up just fine, but "someday you'll look back at all this and laugh" feels very unlikely. OMG the trauma! I'm a basket case.

[wedjateye.livejournal.com]

I'll cross a few body parts for you. :)

Flight on Thursday?

At least you looked for your passport a little in advance - if you weren't moving out you may have left it until the last day...

I'm glad you have net at the hotel. And while you are away??? (I want the jealousy that contemporaneous updates will provide)

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

The convention hotel is reputed to have internet access, but I'm not sure how good or all-pervasive it will be.

And I travel on Wednesday afternoon. This is known as cutting it very, very close.

Well Crap!!!

[owzers.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I laugh disdainfully at those home improvement shows, where everything is plumb and square and things go together like Legos. You poor baby! It's amazing what the original builders of our houses got away with! When I tore the roof off of my block house, and looked down inside the blocks making up the walls? Hollow! Yup - no rebar, no concrete, nothin'! Why my house was still standing is a great mystery. So, I had to buy a shitload of rebar and drop it down inside each cell, and then pay for a concrete pump to come and fill in the blocks. Now when my yooooge eucalyptus tree drops a massive branch on my roof? I just chuckle and pat the tree and say, nice try hon, but my house ain't gonna squish now! Ha!!! The good news? You'll feel so much more secure after it's all done. Great pictures, by the way. *waves howdy to Ed!*

Re: Well Crap!!!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, those home improvement shows are all sponsored by Home Depot, who want you to come in and buy ten-thousand bits and parts and tools on the off-chance that you'll be able to Do It Yourself before you call in the pros, who also buy all their bits and parts at Home Depot.

Actually, I wasn't surprised. What was wrought in a western American city in 1906 had nothing to do with building codes, and the concept of "major earthquake" didn't exist up here. And this was, after all, just a back porch. The house itself, to which the porch is appended, is pretty stout.

I expect to feel very warm, snug, and secure in my new bathroom once it's done. For the astonishing per-square-foot cost, I'd better.

[janeeyre17.livejournal.com]

When my parents remodeled our bathroom the biggest problem was that no one knew that there was actually a giant pipe where all the plans had had the medicine cabinet.

Considering our house (there's an uneven square of wall in my room where someone cut out a window in a completely wrong place years and years ago) it was probably a minor miracle.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Old houses are chock full of fun mysteries. Happily for my bathroom project, now that Ed has stripped it down to its shell, no more surprises are forthcoming.

In fact, before I left for London this morning, he'd made good progress toward reinstalling the floor. Maybe by the time I get home I'll have plumbing again.