Land of Leaks

All I am going to say is that a modern day toilet is not all that it's cracked up to be...we will come back to this in a little!

John's cousin, Mark, came back out this week and worked with John to get some key items knocked off the list. They installed a can light above the tub in the upstairs hall bath, 2 can lights in the stairway to the basement and 3 can lights in my office! The lights in my office make all the difference and I love them. They also worked on cutting the hole for the vent hood above the kitchen stove. There are some things where it just makes sense to use a professional for...and cutting a hole in our brick was one of the things we were not comfortable with just winging! Mark and John were able to get this knocked out and know we have an actual fan that vents to the outdoors which is big for John and I as we absolutely love to cook so it will make life easier!

(A fun photo opportunity from cutting the hole in the brick wall! John on the inside, Mark on the outside)

Mark also helped John move an outlet from the pony wall to the main wall in the bathroom as it's previous placement just did not make sense. Mark was able to cut a couple of holes in the drywall and get this process taken care of in a fraction of the time that John and I would have been able to. The last thing that they had on the docket was lowering the toilet flange in the upstairs hall bath so that it was flush with the newly tiled floor. When they started the process, they barely applied pressure to the pipe and the pipe cracked...as it was the end of the day, this was going to be something that John and I looked at on the weekend! Mark was a great help and helped us keep the project moving along.

On Saturday, John and I cut a hole in our ceiling to address the cracked toilet pipe...we are no longer able to cut a hole in the subfloor as we just laid the penny tile so cutting a hole in the ceiling above the kitchen nook was out only option.

When we cut the hole and started looking at the work ahead, John and I collectively made the decision to call a plumber, this was a big task for us to tackle and we would rather have it done correctly than have an issue with a sewage drain line over our kitchen...makes complete sense to me! A few minutes after we made this decision, my dad stopped in to see the upstairs hall bath. He was very complimentary with how everything looks and was impressed! I continued to show him around and since I wasn't sure he had seen the laundry room, we went there next. When we entered the laundry room, I noticed that the mirror sitting on top of the washer was soaked and the room was very humid...dad looked up and noticed that there was a drip coming from one of the lights in the ceiling and the light had water staining around it. I called out for John and we were able to determine to that the leak was coming from the master bath toilet...John removed the light and water poured out and we realized that we had a leak...once again from a toilet...just like day 1 at Wallpaper Acres!

Luckily, the leak was contained and was not a steady flow from the drain, it was just a steady drip. Remember when we broke the flange and thought we had found a part to fix it...yeah, I guess that fix was not the answer! So we shut the water off to the toilet and drained and removed it from it's fitting. Good thing the plumber is already coming out this week because now there are 2 things that they can work on! We also had not painted the ceiling yet so not an issue there. Very frustrating, but work must go on. I am not sure if modern day plumbing is all that it is cracked up to be...pretty sure outhouses never had these issues...

Next, John turned his attention to the drywall and patching the wall that he had cut back on the shower fixture side in the upstairs hall bath. It was getting better with each layer of drywall mud and he also was patching the holes that were cut with Mark to move the outlet. To say the least, John has become very good at drywall repair and by the end of the weekend, the wall looks almost perfect and looks like it has been this way all along! I also do not regret taking the wall back the 3 inches as it opens up the walkway in the upstairs hall bathroom and it just makes sense with how it is now.

(This is the wall segment of wall that John has been working on and it is looking great!)

We called it a day at this point as we had an HOA meeting to go to and if we run into each other this week, ask me about it...it was definitely an interesting time!

Sunday, we started working on installing the shower fixtures, shower niche, and using the silicone grout to finish the tile in the shower. The shower niche was a fun one as we had to cut thin green tiles to fill in the gap to butt up against the penny tile...ultimately, I decided that the grout line would be too thick if we did nothing so John cut the pieces down on the tile saw. We also cut some rows of penny tile in half to fill in the gaps on the sides of the niche...were these necessary, probably not as they were covered by the thin slice of tile but it was done correctly! While I was doing the tile, John was trying to figure out how to remove the 2 PVC plugs that were in the drop ears where our shower head and tub faucet were going to be. Normally, you would install the brass nipples (a threaded piece of brass to attach the fixture on) prior to cement board and tiling and go around it as you tile. We did not do that...and our fingers did not fit in the holes to unscrew them. We ultimately ended up drilling a hole through the center and jamming a screwdriver in there and turning them loose. Was this the correct way, no. But it did accomplish the task and now we know the correct process for the next time.

The fixtures went in pretty easily and we were able to get them in easily. Saturday, we had set the drain using plumber's putty and it was pretty difficult to screw in but ultimately it stopped turning so it was in, right? We turned the water on and I looked through the access hatch we had made previously and we had a leak...this week, the house had been a Land of Leaks. With plumbing, there is very little margarine of error and a leak is not good! Turns out the drain was not seated properly and the drain pipe was not 100% level so once we got the drain pipe level and the gasket situated, we were able to get the drain screwed back in with another round of plumber's putty. John turned the water back on and I placed a new, dry paper towel below the drain...and there still was a consistent drip...now we were getting frustrated...the slip joint nut (for the non-plumbers...the thing that you twist to connect to lengths of PVC pipe with a compression ring) was leaking but I physically could not turn it anymore...

John switched places with me and it turns out that it the nut was hitting the subfloor and the joist so we could not tighten it properly...John used the oscillating saw to cut a little bit of the joist and subfloor back so that we could completely tighten the nut...30 minutes later in a confined space, John had tightened the nut! Water test number 3 was under way and the drip was still there but not as fierce as prior...at this point, I was feeling very defeated. John's solution was that we needed to use plumber's tape to tape the threads and that should hopefully solve our issue. The space was so tight that it was nearly impossible to wrap the tape around the threads but I was able to get it around the threads 2.5 times and John then tightened the nut. Water test number 4...and we were good! No more leaks! We ran the water for 10 minutes to make sure and we were good. We also filled the tub and then drained it and no leaks popped up! That was a good feeling!

As you all know, we are not plumbers by trade. I have stated this across multiple blogs. I am very happy with how John was able to troubleshoot and solve the issues that arose throughout the day with the plumbing. Yes, it was frustrating, but we got it done at the end of the day! Next we chose a very simple project to close out the day, installing the transition strip over the carpet and tile. We chose a $10 transition strip and were worried that it would look cheap, but it turned out being exactly what we needed, was simple to install, and looks great!

The upstairs hall bathroom is very close to being finished and we should see some good progress throughout the week and into next weekend! Thanks for reading another Wallpaper Acres blog!