The 1868 House Loses its Loo

Of all the rooms in the icky house, as I so lovingly refer to it, I hated the bathroom the most. The roof was in terrible shape up above it and it was obvious it was a cheap mid-century add on. Over the last several years rain has leaked inside this area and further rotted the walls and floors. I always worried that due to its decay, it would just simply fall off the rest of the house. Keith assured me it was more stable than that, but promised not to store anything in there.

He was right. It didn't simply fall away and in fact when we started tearing that area down this weekend, the old loo gave us quite the fight.

Keith worked hard to gut the inside gutted, tearing out several layers of old plaster board and insulation, plus the tub and rotten ceiling. 

My main job was dumping the tractor bucket when full, into the dumpster and hauling the bad wood via wheelbarrow to the wood pile. 

I do love burning useless things.

We did enjoy uncovering the original door and window frames which had been boarded over and covered with asphalt and then aluminum siding, telling us this was probably a mudroom or storage room before it became the indoor bathroom.

We will be recycling all the aluminum and copper from the house for cash, which is a good since we're thinking we'll need to rent another dumpster later this fall.  The current one is getting full. 

When the room was gutted and all the siding removed, Keith wrapped large chains around the remaining posts and window openings, in the hopes that one backwards tractor pull would send the room tumbling to the ground. 

The wall did come away but the roof portion, clung to life. So he tried knocking the roof down with the tractor bucket but the ceiling was better secured than we thought and only part of it succumbed.

So Keith pulled, sawed, yanked the rest of it apart by hand. Son Jason dropped by to visit and of course his dad put him to work. 

You'd think that poor kid would learn.

Keep in mind the floor beneath my husband was in terrible shape and I worried he'd fall through while finishing the demo on the bathroom roof, but he had no concerns since it was just a shallow space under him about 18 inches deep. Still, I worried and suggested a hard hat. A suggestion that was ignored.

You'd think this poor wife would learn. 

By the end of Sunday (we took a break to visit with relatives from out of state) the back porch turned bathroom, was a distant memory. The snakes nest of copper pipe, aluminum drains and PVC pipe all under the floor however, will remain burned in our memories. What a mess!