DISASTER!

		So the last week started out well. We were going great guns on the upstairs bathroom! The tiles were all in place and we have the ceiling wallpapered.
It looks great. All that's left is the shower walls, finishing the plumbing and the vanity... ok and the trim!
		Really those should have been quick but noooooOOooOOOoooo..... Instead it decided to rain over 40mm in a few hours which with our sump pump setup it was totally overwhelmed and our basement flooded. Not like a few inches... not a foot no; no it had to flood over 3 feet! It was so deep I couldn't touch the bottom with my toes in my gumboots.
We had to go to town (and sat in front of the home hardware doors waiting for them to open; omg at least it wasn't Sunday) and buy a new pump which took all day to drain the water enough for me to get down there and drill a hole through the wall so we could stick the sump pump hose out and run it across the front yard. There was literally a small creek flowing into the basement from several spots in the basement walls.
		So we had to take a few days to clean out the few things that were down there (The pressure washer, dehumidifier, and space heater thankfully not plugged in... I wonder if any of it will survive when it's dried out?) And then shovel out 4 wheelbarrows worth the dirt off the floor. It's still a mess down there but at least with a few buckets of gravel the sump pump is sorted out and *hopefully* it'll keep the flooding under control. The big thing now is when the ground warms up enough for me to dig a trench for us to install a weeping tile and dry well near the ditch downhill from the house.

We're in Shellburn right now where mum is showing off her wares to a shop that might consign her jewelry.

Tomorrow it's back to finish installing the shower...

Shower time!

With the shower base installed we moved on to tiling. It's taken us a full week of cleaning up the walls and floor ooooh and I did some more plumbing getting the shower taps ready. I still need to attach the lines to the bath lines but PEX pipes are super easy to work with and it'll take no time at all to detach the bath and intercept the existing lines (Which reminds me I forgot to label which is hot and which is cold at the other end... oops!).

 

 Meanwhile we started with the backer board for behind the shower. 

Mum cutting a circle into one of the tiles. She ended up breaking the side off but it was good practice. 

You can see the grey lines coming out from the back of the tub. They aren't disconnected yet but it's bringing me much closer to a working shower; omg I can't wait! The tub is fine but god I miss having a shower. 

There's the rounded cut to fit around the toilet. That's some pro tile work mum performed right there. 

And with the help of a diamond tipped drill bit the shower lines fit and are ready to go.

Tomorrow is grouting day... If either one of us can move tomorrow. It doesn't seem like that hard of a job but man alive both mum and I are stiff and sore!

Till next week...

New water heater!

It seems like this week hasn't really been productive but, well, there's been a few things including shoveling snow! We had a dump of over a foot in one day followed by a few more inches the next night. 

Furgs is still there hangin out in the snow

In other news been, slowly, working on the upstairs bathroom. Dug out the floor to find the plumbing. You can see the old broken copper lines. Having looked now I probably should have trashed the ceiling in the dining room below but the hole is there now....

Getting the drain to align with the new shower base drain hole was a bit of an adventure but, of course, I got there. so the drain is installed and I just need to re-fill the hole in the floor!

Meanwhile the really big exciting thing to happen this week was today's installation of a new hot water tank. I finally had to cave and buy a new one as the hot water started to come out a very rusty colour. We tried to drain the old one which helped for a while but it was obvious that the tank insides were rusting, badly. So today the new tank arrived... and I spent the whole day, draining and replacing the old tank with the new one. It took ages! I'm not really sure why but whatever. Oh but a rando thing I found when I removed the cold water intake line was a small bead. It looks like it must have fallen into the well and was slowly working its way through the water system until it got stuck.  

Till next time, please, enjoy a newly installed closet door knob!

The downstairs bathroom

We've been busy the last two months... wait... weeks! 

The downstairs is almost done... The laundry and the fixtures are all installed. Just need to install a divider with an exit for the dryer hose. Mum did an amazing job rebuilding the vanity. She took it apart refinished all the bits and applied a few decoupage jellyfish to the side and the door. It's a tiny little space so pictures don't really do it justice...

There's Sam checking his laundry... meanwhile below is mum going for the first walk down our new basement steps. 

Omg those old steps were treacherous. But they're all better now! Meanwhile a few random shots of Carl inspecting the steps before installation, a lamp under the hot water tank to keep the lines from freezing (A new cold weather problem), and a sneak peak of the new shower base upstairs.

Meanwhile our pensive Carl thinking about the work left to be done...

Brrrr! It's cold outside!

I've been putting off adding another post (sorry everyone) in the hopes that I'd have a completed room for you but noooOooooOOOOOooo! So here's an update of where we're at. It's been 10 months and I'm starting to freak out a little about our schedule but we're not into panic mode yet... We've been working on the downstairs bathroom and have it almost all ready for the furnishings to be installed. I'm just waiting for the taps to arrive so I can finish pluming in the laundry.

"Before"

The downstairs bathroom as it is right now. 

We had to cut the door frame out and install a larger door so that we can get the laundry unit into the room.

Mum dry-walling the downstairs bathroom. 

We had to lay a new sub floor which meant ripping up the old one and we replaced the ceiling tiles with pine slats to match the mudroom and kitchen. And floored it with our laminate. Heh flooring the bathroom meant flooring the dining room (which is now our living room as the living room is now a workshop).

The sub floor  at the foyer between the dining and living room and the front door that nobody uses. 

The foyer floor finished. 

The dining room with all our furniture moved to one side and then the other as we laid the laminate. 

In other news the cat has found a new home with the dirty dishes!

Another project we have done is install the back splash along the kitchen cabinets.

You can see the white panel on the table in the back. The door of the vanity waiting for an acrylic pour as well. We did up the vanity a little differently but that'll be another post.

Mum hand-washing a load of laundry after the laundry p-trap under the house froze and our laundry machine spewed water all over the back workroom. 

Rounding back to cold weather mum built a storm door using those pine slats and plywood to make a very nice looking storm door on the back of the house. What a difference! we;re thinking about building two more storm doors for the other doors on the house.

Our new homemade storm door 

Closeup of storm door.

Speaking of doors here's the back room door we installed yesterday. 

It's an older door we took from upstairs and installed added a frame for the latch and hinges. What a difference it's made as the overall temperature in the house has risen over 3 degrees since installing that door.

January

Mum going for a *short* walk in the snow

Well... You know it's cold outside when the ocean starts to freeze!

Our view this morning.

It's so cold I've had to get up at 2:30 am to add wood to the fire to help keep the temperature up. Our electric bill for Nov-Dec was... insane... like we might as well close the house down and travel south in the RV for the winter because it's cheaper insane. It's not really the cold that's killing us it's the wind. Holy molly why everyone doesn't have a personal wind power station!? It's been a steady 40+ kph with gusts upwards of 70+. Ooooh and then windstorms bringing up up to 115+ kph!

Well that's my rant for the day... off to town for more supplies before the next storm hits tomorrow.