The Day We Removed Our Bathtub
We certainly debated our decision on that cool March morning. Dermot and I had both had our last showers, the baby had his last bath. “Are you sure we should do this now?” Dermot asked me. I had spoken to our carpenter and plumber already. Had starting piling up our new tiles and fixtures all in preparation of the quick turnaround renovation we were planning. It’ll take 3-4 weeks, tops! Totally doable. We naively agreed together. Our carpenter was hesitant, but I was persistent.
I hear smashing and crashing upstairs, and suddenly Dermot appears, sliding the old bathtub down the stairs and out the front door, a trail of plaster and dust following him. No turning back now!
Did I forget to mention?
When we purchased our old house, it came with three bathrooms. Sadly, only of the toilets properly worked. The other leaked whenever you flushed it, and the we were told by our plumber not to go near the third (it was extremely old). However, strangely there was only one bathtub/shower in the entire house. This was the upstairs bathroom. So you can imagine what is coming next. My husband just pulled our one and only bathtub out the front door. Now what…?
Weeks turned into months
Of COURSE the renovation took longer than we expected. This is sadly an extremely common issue with renovations, especially when you’re not working with tradespeople you know well. Dermot and I did a chunk of the work ourselves, through Youtube tutorials and different DIY websites we found. We always finished our work on schedule though, and we pulled some very late nights to ensure our work wasn’t holding up any trades!
After we both worked through the demolition, ripping down plaster, 100 year old wallpaper and the original 1x4 interior walls, we insulated and put up the vapour barrier. (Fun fact - this is now the only room on our top two floors that has any insulation.) The renovation had begun, yet we had many more hurdles to face before we’d be bathing ourselves in that room anytime soon…
Stay tuned for Part 2!
x
Natalie