2 Bathrooms, 0 Available

My remodel will produce an additional bathroom, right off the master bedroom. Sweet, huh? Except that it’s not ready yet. And yesterday they started taking down the ceiling of the old bathroom, my only bathroom, to install the new skylight, making the bathroom unusable. It’s Starbucks time! Every day.

Why do four men have to bring four trucks? Can’t they carpool? Dan Martinez’ construction crew is very industrious, they know what they’re doing, and they seem to have great leadership. I mean, it’s only two weeks into the project, but despite all the daily problems, things are coming along nicely.

So, in week #3, where are we? The bathroom is framed, the electrical and plumbing connections visible. Today the shower pan appeared, and fit in perfectly. There are two lights in the passageway, between the bathroom and the walk-in closet – they’re already there – and I can see the wires which will lead to the two lights in the bathroom. As of this afternoon, the closet has a back, so there is now no need to apply plywood every night to the opening.



In my old bathroom, there is a big ‘ol hole in the ceiling. This doesn’t look pretty. The foreman hasn’t talked about it, so I assume this is a natural look for a skylight, or the beginning of one. This grand old tile that was in the bathroom has been torn up, which bothers me a bit. As the foreman and I have discussed, there will be no way they can match it, but we’ll see how it goes. He’ll show me samples tomorrow. I believe what will happen is that I will make the decision to leave all the tile on this re-created wall white without the blue triangular pieces that make up the band. I think that will be best.

I did get some bad news today. The electrical inspector pointed out that we will have to upgrade my electrical system from 60 watts to 100 watts. I actually don’t view this as bad news. I am probably using close to that now, and I’d like to be able to ramp up my usage if necessary. And it seems like a safer choice. The electrician is around, I have a contractor – just do it. Extra expense, to be sure, and an added couple of days onto the end of the project. But necessary.

So there’s a lot going on. I’m sleeping in the living room. I can’t use the bathroom between 8 am – 5 pm. I’m not sure how the electrical upgrade is going to affect the electricity throughout the house – meaning, will I lose electricity on some nights during construction? We progress one step, we fall back two…