The danger zone

When we were writing the contract for the remodel, we asked that the ceiling of the second floor bathroom be repaired. The tub never fell through, and neither did we, but the damage from the steady ooze from the shower was an aesthetic irritant, and I wanted it gone.

Had everything gone as planned,  I might at some point have taken a picture so I could show the peeling before and the smooth, tidy after.

Would that things were so simple.

Instead, we got to experience one of the traditional moments of remodelling: the one where the contractor announces that they found something bad when they opened up the walls. And the floor.

In our case, the various design innovations of previous owners not only gave us an ugly bathroom, they weakened the floor.

This is the floor underneath the bathtub. Note the missing slats -- rotted away.

 

The area under the tub is damaged. Those holes in the joists aren't helping anything, either.

So past owners carved up the joists. Moving the toilet, which was part of our plan, meant running the pipes underneath the joists. And doing that meant lowering the ceiling in the bathroom below. Now our big problem wasn’t a peeling paint job — it was a ceiling that was going to run into a window frame.

  

That big white pipe in the upper left corner hangs down pretty low

 

The first suggestion was that the ceiling be lowered so that it came down to the top of the crown molding on the window. I was not enthusiastic. I was also not enthusiastic about boxing in only the pipes. Finally, Yuri suggested narrowing the wide part of the horizontal trim so there’d be an inch or so above the top of the trim. That I could live with. As a bonus, the new ceiling will leave room for an exhaust fan, which will be a nice change from propping open the window with an old tub of Vaseline.

Plumbing problem solved!

Well, except that as a bonus, we got word they’d found pinhole leaks when they opened the walls. The before photo is from a set Yuri sent as illustrations to his e-mail.

 

See those rust spots? Be glad they aren't on your pipes.

The after photo is one I took.

What's orange and shiny and doesn't leak?

If you wish you could see more of the lovely copper pipes, be sure to visit when the remodel is over, because I will invite you in, offer you a drink, and then drag you upstairs to stand in a closet and look at the new pipes. (Yuri offered to box them in, but they’re in a closet, and besides, how could our guests admire them if they’re all boxed up? What kind of hosts would we be, forcing people to look at the boxes containing the pipes? Where’s the fun in that?)

It wasn’t a surprise to me that the galvanized pipe needed to be replaced after 80 years, and I’m glad we found out it was failing now, before it gave out and leaked all over. Plus, it deteriorates from the inside out.

Having a space the size of a drinking straw doesn't do much for water pressure.

 

The funny part about this — there’s always a funny part — was that Yuri seemed most concerned about the unexpected cost of replacing the pipes. I figured we were lucky to know to do it when we did, and it wasn’t going to get any less expensive or messy if we waited. But I was very unhappy about the potentially ugly bathroom ceiling, because having something look worse after remodelling just seems so very wrong.

My priorities are, in general, first function, then aesthetics, then saving money. George once dubbed me “Miss Yankee Thrift” (not accurate, because I’m from the Middle Atlantic, not New England), but I’m willing to pony up if I think I’m getting something for it. Sure, I may want a little validation from my friends that I did get something for it, but I think they’ll enjoy standing in my son’s room, looking at the new pipes. Or at least they’ll say they do, if only so I’ll let them out of the closet.