Over the past few weeks, we've taken massive leaps and bounds in getting our new upstairs bathroom ready for inspections.

We ran a new 3 inch drain stack all the way up through the library/sm bedroom downstairs and under the floor of the new bathroom.
We plumbed new supply pipes up to the toilet and shower stall.
We installed our new toilet (on the subfloor, for the time being). No leaks, and it's being used already!
We have installed ALL the lighting for the bathroom. The only electrical left is connecting the outlets to the breaker box, and installing the extractor fan.

Enough talk, here are some photos!

Our washing machine is upstairs, and we got our new dryer!

The men delivered the new dryer on Saturday the 13th!
The delivery men also moved our washing machine from the basement all the way up to the second floor, and removed a very old, broken dryer we had down there.
We didn't get the chance yet to run a gas line run upstairs, so we can't dry any laundry in the new machine, but the washing machine works well up there and isn't nearly as loud as we thought it would be.

Until we get a reasonable quote to do the gas work, we'll continue drying our laundry on the drying racks downstairs.

I'll try to get some photos up one of these days. Due to a recent illness and business with work and other things, I haven't gotten a chance to take or post any photos of the recent work.

Well, we had another productive weekend at the Neverending Two Story.

Much of our wiring in the house was cloth-covered 100 year old knob & tube wiring. For various reasons I won't get into, it all needs to go. Last weekend, I shut off all the electrical upstairs and this weekend, I made some significant progress in removing the old knob & tube.

Yesterday, I ran new wires to all the lighting upstairs.
The light in the hallway was quite easy to do because we had previously upgraded all the wiring for that room and installed two 3-way switches. I simply had to remove the old cloth feed wire and replace it with the new 14 guage line from the basement.

Next, I did the master bedroom light/ceiling fan. This was a little trickier, because in order to get the electrical to the fixture, I had to remove the 'floor' in the attic. After fiddling about with a jigsaw until the blade snapped off, I grabbed my circular saw. Setting the depth to just under the thickness of the flooring made quick work of it, and soon I had a 3 inch wide strip removed in a direct line to the fixture. From there, I used a 90-degree drill with a half-inch spade bit to bore through the 2x4 joists and run my new wire.

For the second bedroom (Office), I used the same trick and made quick work of it.

Once the wiring in the attic was done, I just had to take the ceiling fans down and rewire them on the new cables.

This morning, I picked up where I left off yesterday and was able to switch on the lighting circuit with no trouble.

Then, I wired in all new outlets in the master bedroom - I had previously run the wires for these and plastered up the channel in which they ran. I still have quite a bit of work to do with sanding and smoothing the plaster, but the outlets are all hooked up and ready to use!

Finally, I cleaned up some of the hideous mess that had accrued in the hallway - tools everywhere, old wiring, new wiring, extension cords, wood bits, plaster bits, bags of cable staples, more tools, etc. I emptied out and moved a small set of drawers into the new bathroom area to hold the tools that seem to always end up on the floor...

I'm going to go now and see what else I can do up there before the week starts. I still need to install the outlet for the washer/dryer and close up the floor. Then, we're ready for our new dryer next weekend!!

Update...
I kept on working and ended up also wiring up the 20 amp outlet for the washer/dryer. I also drilled a hole from the basement into the stud bay that we'll need to run electrical to the bathroom!! I wasn't entirely sure where the stud bay was from the basement, but I'm happy to say I hit it right in the center of the bay on the first try!!
We have at least two more circuits for the bathroom, so gaining access to this chase is an important step toward inspection day!!

Tuesday night (Feb 2nd), I attached the hardware to our new plywood attic hatch, and then screwed it into the attic rough opening. For now, it's held closed with a 2x4 wedged up against it. The latch will be installed some other time, but for now it allows much easier access to the attic, and keeps the warm air in the house much better.

Wednesday night (Feb 3rd), I made some more progress with the master bedroom - I started closing up the hole I made in the wall to run the electrical wiring. I went through two more 5 pound buckets of joint compound to fill up the strip I cut out of the plaster, and also stuffed more fiberglass insulation into the wall cavities. I have more plaster work to fill, and will need another bucket of joint compound. Joint compound probably isn't the best thing to use for this, but it does work, and should sand up nicely.

There's more to do on the bedroom - sand the filler smooth, add more to places that need it, etc. It takes at least two applications of filler, and probably 3 in all. I could probably use a belt sander... Hmm.

Wood Paneling.
There's no quicker way to darken a room than wood paneling.
It will instantly transform a bright, cheery room into a 1978 TV den.
Wood Paneling, in our opinion, is like orange shag carpet for your walls.

Dark, dingy cupboards and paneling in an already small space. Combine that with a nasty hollow-core door and a cheap ceiling fan and you've got the makings of a very depressing corner of the house. Our word for this type of cheap tackiness is 'rental' - as in "That bathroom lamp is just a board with lightbulbs on it! Rental!"

Even light-colored wood can be incredibly dreary - here, it just makes the room feel cramped.

This long, dark room, would feel much more spacious with white walls and ceiling, and a floor lamp or two. Darkness in a restaurant is 'atmosphere', but in the home, 'atmosphere' should be optional.

It's a wetbar! Note the obviously fake front on the fridge, the ridiculous cast metal cabinet hardware, the dark brown switch plate cover, and the cheap particle board countertop.

In our own house, the entire stairway to the second floor, and the back hallway were covered with cheap nasty paneling, almost exactly like the stuff behind the wetbar pictured above. Someone obviously thought it was too dark, because then they painted the paneling white.
We've since removed all the paneling from the house.

Some time ago, we bought and installed our new attic ladder. It's great, but not very useful since we have no attic hatch.

Well, after cutting off all power to the upstairs lighting, I figured I'll need to get into the attic to run the new wiring for the lights, so I can see my way from one end of the house to the other...

As with everything in this house, one thing leads to another.

Move the washer/dryer upstairs
leads to... Why not replace the outlets in the master bedroom next to it?
leads to... Why not disconnect/replace ALL knob & tube wiring in the upstairs, while I have access?
leads to... We'll need frequent and convenient access to the attic to do the wiring, and stapling plastic over the attic opening is a real pain in the arse.
leads to... Let's build a REAL attic hatch!

So last night, I started building an attic hatch. It's just a piece of 1/2 inch plywood with some hardware that came with the ladder. I cut out a piece of plywood in the back hallway and drilled some holes into it for the hinges.

Yesterday, I starting replacing the old wiring in the upstairs. I shut off the upstairs circuit (yes, the entire upstairs was fed by a single circuit), and started ripping out electrical boxes.
Today, I worked primarily on replacing all the outlets in the master bedroom.

I realized the other day that I could remove one lath in a narrow strip at the bottom of the walls, thus connecting all the outlets, drill a 1/2 inch hole through each of the studs and fish a cable right around the room.
Quick, easy, minimal disruption to the higher up areas of the walls. The biggest advantage though is that I can add new outlets at any point on the walls! Seeing as the master bedroom had only three outlets, I'll be adding at least two more. We were constantly fighting with extension cords when we had the bed up there, so it'll be nice to get rid of them finally.
It's also really great not to have to go into the attic to fish wires down through the walls. I've been up there to do electrical work more times than I care to remember, and it's a real pain in the butt to work in an itchy, dirty, dark, cold attic, when you can't even see where the tops of the walls are that you're supposed to be drilling into.

For the bedroom, I'm running 12 gauge/20 amp wire, which is kind of a pain to fish and wire up compared to it's thinner 14 gauge/15 amp counterpart, but the extra load carrying capacity makes it (theoretically) run cooler, and thus safer. Plus, we have a lot left over from the bathroom work, so why not use it.

Yesterday, I removed one of the three outlets. Today, I removed the other two, and removed a strip of lath right around the room. I drilled all the studs, fished the 12 gauge, and put one box/outlet back in.
Z had to get to sleep, and complained about the hammering and stapling (party pooper), so I switched to filling in the strip with joint compound. My method for patching holes is basically to throw whatever I have at hand into the wall as bulk/filler, then butter on a liberal amount of joint compound. I had all the old lath that I had just pulled out, so that made up a lot of the bulk. I also used cedar builder's shims, and in the case of a couple of larger holes, I cut some bits of drywall to fit, then screwed them to the studs or lath before spackling all around.

It'll also be nice to get the lights hooked back up again. I used a floor lamp to actually work, but moving around upstairs with a flashlight is testing my patience even after one day.

I accomplished quite a lot today!

• I fished, pulled, routed and crimped the 1/2 inch pex for hot and cold water to the washing machine upstairs. It's DONE!
  
• I fished one more 14 gauge wire up through the chase, alongside the three 12 gauge wires I fished the other day.
  
• I built some little 2-by supports to hold the drain pipe at the correct pitch and also to secure the water supply pipes as they are routed around the basement.
  
• I replaced a 220v breaker (for the old dryer) with two new breakers, a 20 amp and a 15 amp.
  
• I took out the old computer/office outlet and the wire feeding it.
  
• I hooked up 3 new outlets - one for the office, one on the other side of the office wall for the hallway and one for the front bedroom.
  
• Disconnected all the knob & tube wiring feeding the upstairs. I will not be hooking it back up again - hurray!

At this point, the ONLY original wiring left in the house feeds the overhead light in the kitchen and most of the outlets in the living, bed and dining rooms downstairs.

The office and hallway outlets have their own circuit, as does the front bedroom. I plan on replacing all the outlets in the upstairs by removing one row of lath and drilling small holes in all the studs. This will keep the vertical fishing to a minimum and allow me to stay mostly out of the attic. I can also add additional outlets at any point around the rooms, as the number of outlets upstairs is very inadequate.

Tomorrow, I'll need to clean up the upstairs, as it looks like a tornado blew through, then I'll concentrate on building a door/hatch for access to the attic, and try to get all the upstairs lighting hooked back up.

This morning, I would have said we were only 25% ready to move our washing machine upstairs, and being nearly 2 weeks into our 4 week timeline, I would have said that we were way behind schedule.

Well, today, in just a few hours, I have completed the drain plumbing for the washing machine!
On Tuesday, we stopped by Menards and picked up a 2 inch air admittance valve. What this means is that we do not need to run a sewer vent stack out the roof yet. By not having to go through the roof, I basically have eliminated a large (and dreaded) task in this project!
Once I connected and glued up the trap and the air admittance valve in the attic, it was simply a matter of measuring the 2 remaining pipes in the basement and cementing them in place. The last piece in the basement was tricky because I had to glue both ends simultaneously! One end is slightly crooked in the fitting, so I slopped a bit of extra cement onto it - it should be OK.

Since I finished the drain plumbing today, I estimate we are nearly HALF done! It being only Thursday of the second week, I'd say we are ahead of schedule by a couple of days! Not too bad considering I did NOTHING on this project since the weekend... (work projects take precedence, I'm afraid)

The tasks that remain:

• Get professional plumber in to install a new gas line to upstairs.
• Run supply plumbing (hot and cold) to upstairs
• Wire up electrical for washer/dryer
• Close up the washer/dryer closet

And of course we haven't even started to work on the bathroom plumbing yet. Once the washer is upstairs, the bathroom will once again become a priority.

I took a couple of photos of the snazzy new drain plumbing, but they're still on the camera. You'll just have to check back later.

WOW - what a day!

We got up a bit late, sat around, had breakfast, wondered what to do. When I finally got ready to work on the house, it was noon.

Today was the day to get rid of ALL the old pipes - an amalgamation of galvanized steel pipe and copper of various sorts.
The worst plumbing offences were committed in one corner of the basement - the 'corner of horrors', as we dubbed it when we moved in. In the same corner, the water supply enters the house, and the drain exits. The water comes in on some sort of brass pipe, then into a 1 inch shutoff valve, through the meter and to the rest of the system.
It appears that only the first connection past the meter was brass - the rest of it was ancient galvanized steel pipe. If you're not familiar with it, google 'galvanic action' to see why copper/brass and steel pipe should never be mixed without proper isolation.

The old pipes were alternately colored brown/rust and green, and if we could see that much rust on the outside, I wasn't thrilled about what was lurking inside.

Anyway, so I unscrewed the fitting from the meter to let the system drain

and then had to run back to the hardware store! I didn't have the part that would connect to the meter! Back from the hardware store, I then... went BACK to the hardware store - the part I had gotten was too small. I decided to also get a reducer with a 90 degree turn in it so that I wouldn't have to use a 3/4 PEX elbow. Just the three new bits to connect to the meter were over $20 - ouch.

With the right parts in hand, I connected the main 3/4 inch line to the meter

Then moved to the water heater. I removed the old top pipes

from it and installed the new copper PEX-compatible items. A couple of crimps later and I was able to pressurize the manifolds with hot and cold water!

On to the individual supply lines - The lines were already crimped to the manifolds, but I had to connect the kitchen and bathroom to the new lines.

The kitchen was dead simple, since I had already plumbed it with PEX when we put the new sink in. Cut the new supplies to length and crimp in a couple of unions.

The downstairs bathroom was nothing but headaches!
The supply for the toilet was not well supported and kept moving around as I tried to unscrew the pipes - I gave up and finally soldered on a PEX adapter to the existing copper line - I'll rip it out when I finally get sick of the gross, rusty flange next to the toilet.
The shower wasn't that hard, but took longer than it should. Again, I cut the existing copper pipes behind the shower, soldered in a couple of adapters and made the crimps. I actually did this one in stages and came back to it repeatedly when I got frustrated with other things.

The bathroom sink was a HUGE pain in the ass. First, I couldn't see where the pipes went so I had to jig-saw holes both in the back wall under the sink and in the cabinet floor. Once I could see what was back there, I discovered a second pair of shutoff valves, boxed into the wall!! Ridiculous! The shutoffs were just reachable if I stuck my arm in the wall, but there was no way I could unscrew the pipes connected to them, or cut them off and remove the old valves. They will stay in the wall until we next remodel! I did disconnect the old valves (all 4 of them...) and ran new valves on some sturdy copper stub-outs.

Once I got the 1/2 inch copper stubouts under the sink, I soldered on a couple of new valves and then my problems really began.

One valve (on the right) soldered perfectly the first time, but I had to solder the left one 3 times before it held with no leaks! I think my propane torch wasn't hot enough or I didn't wait long enough before applying the solder. I ended up pre-tinning the copper pipe before I slid the valve on, then adding more solder until it ran all over the place.
The cramped quarters upstairs under the sink, and in the basement above the foundation made it difficult to get anything done easily or without expletives, but it did eventually all come together.

I'm very proud of our new color-coded PEX pipes.
Maybe I can recycle some of the old stuff to make up for the ridiculous expense of everything.

I never thought I could spend $500 in a week on nothing but plumbing supplies. Ugh..

That's one week down and three to go before our new dryer arrives and our washing machine moves upstairs for good.
I think we're just on schedule - We've already built the washer/dryer enclosure, converted all the supply plumbing in the house, added about 25% of the washer drain. We still have to run water upstairs, replace all the gas lines including a new one for the dryer upstairs, finish the drain including adding a sewer vent through the roof, and connect the electrical circuits.

I'll keep you updated.

It never ends.

Last night, I finally got the right part to connect the 2 inch drain line for the washing machine into the old 2 inch cast iron hub in the main drain. It's a fernco 'donut' connector. It's a tight fit, so it takes a bit of work to get it onto the PVC pipe. I stole some canola oil from the kitchen and it slid right on!

Finally having a solid and proper connection to the drain allowed me to mark all the pipe fittings with their final orientations and then glue them together using PVC cement. We don't have enough pipe to finish the job, but we do have about 25% of the pipes glued together! YAY! I realized after I had everything glued that I had forgotten to put in a cleanout, a waste tee for the washing machine, and a drain for the basement wash tub. D'oh!
At least cutting a length out of the pipe and gluing in another fitting is dead simple. :D

I also cut to length some of the new PEX runs for the downstairs kitchen and bathroom, and added tees and elbows to direct them to their proper new locations.

I might wait to connect the kitchen and bathroom PEX until the old gas pipes are removed. Removing them with new PEX in place would be a terribly tricky task.

For the fourth consecutive day, I'll be making a stop at Menards to pick up 30 or 40 feet of pipe and a list of other bits.

It never ends.

Well, it was indeed over 100 bucks at Menards this evening... Part of that was a new $60 Black & Decker reciprocating saw to replace my Chicago Electric piece of junk.

The first task for my new saw was to cut through a 2 inch cast iron drain pipe that was in the way. I used a 'fire & rescue' blade, which is twice as thick as a regular blade, and I still burned the blade out after only 2 cuts. It was an older blade though...

Once I had the overhead cast pipe cut, I had to bang it out with a hammer because it was CEMENTED IN PLACE. I mean with concrete. Nothing like swinging a hammer as hard as possible within 1/2 inch of a gas line to make you nervous. Said gas line was just one of the reasons the pipe had to come out - most of the rusty gas pipe will be replaced before our new dryer arrives in 3 1/2 weeks!

With dryer deadline looming, I then turned my attention to the PVC drain line. Yesterday I had done some figgerin' and counted all the fittings I would need, so after Menards tonight I was prepared for the dry fit. I layed about 20 feet of pipe with 6 fittings and verified it was all at the correct pitch. (water flows down, ya know) I still have maybe another 30-40 feet of pipe to lay including vent lines, so we're not even close to done, but we're making lots of progress, and that's all that really matters.

It turns out that I'm going through more 45 degree fittings than anything else. They're so handy!

Maybe tomorrow I'll shut the water off.

This evening, I ran 4 water lines... in 30 minutes. PEX tubing is a dream come true.
Our new PEX Manifolds are installed but not connected to the system, so I've started running 1/2 inch lines off of them to the various parts of the house. I ran two lines for the downstairs bathroom (hot and cold), then pulled two more for the kitchen.

I also was able to lay out some 2 inch PVC drain pipe that will drain the washing machine upstairs. Lots more pipe is needed to get the drain to the main stack and to build the venting system.

We'll have to head to the home center tonight for various PVC and PEX goodies. We spent $150 yesterday on this stuff, and it'll probably be another $100 tonight. :P

Yesterday, we ordered a dryer online, to be delivered in 4 weeks. When they deliver the dryer, they will also move our washer upstairs, so this gives us a hard deadline to get the water supply, drain, electrical and gas run to the upstairs.

We set out to get as much done as possible, and were able to locate a suitable stud bay, clear from the 2nd floor to the basement. The wall on the 1st floor is actually directly beneath the washer enclosure, so we had to take the 'floor' off and route the lines to the side to get them into the upstairs wall. Once we had access to the wall below, we cut holes into the stud bay from the 2nd floor, then up from the basement, and removed two outlet boxes that were in the wall downstairs. The wiring for these outlet boxes made it very easy to locate the stud bay from the basement.

To disconnect the wiring, we had to shut off one breaker, which also turned off the outlets in most of the downstairs, including an often-used outlet in the kitchen. Our tea kettle is in the bathroom for the time being.

Once the stud bay was clear and open from top to bottom, we installed a 2 inch PVC pipe and glued up some fittings to route it into the wall next to the enclosure. The stud bay is easily large enough to hold all of the services.

The next to go in will be the electrical and water supply, followed by the gas line (for which we'll hire a pro) It'll be a busy few weeks.

Tricky items to think about in the month we have to get this project finished:

• Sewer vent through the roof
• Dryer vent ducting either through the roof or exterior wall
• Transition water lines in basement to our new Pex manifolds
• Run drain line through basement in a rather tricky location

We used to have one of those crummy wooden folding stairs to get into the attic. They require a massive hole in the ceiling, and an equally massive amount of floor space when opened. With the new bathroom closed off with a wall, there is less space than there used to be, and the old stairs were just too big. In addition, the old ladder didn't support much weight - it was old and just felt flimsy. Time for an upgrade!

Enter the Werner AA10 Attic Ladder.

I knew that SOMEONE had to make these things, as I'd seen one in England, but it was actually somewhat tricky to find one here in the states! After doing extensive research online, we found the Werner brand attic ladders, and because our ceilings are a bit higher than modern homes, we had to get the AA10 instead of the basic AA8 model.

It wasn't cheap. We paid $262, but once it came, I found out why. This is a very high quality ladder, and NOTHING like the old wooden folding ladder we had before. The ladder is made of 10 sets of extruded aluminum rail sections that fit together beautifully and slide up into a compact unit. It's solidly built and will support up to 250 pounds. Once the ladder is retracted, it rotates up and out of the hole, allowing you to close the hatch below it. Looking at how well it is built, I can understand the price tag and actually think it's quite a good deal.

We don't even have drywall up, so we certainly don't have a hatch built to cover it yet, but the hatch will be insulated, and I'll also be building a box out of thick foam to cover it on the attic side.

The ladder we bought can be installed in a hole as small as 22x22 inches (though you'd have trouble fitting through a hole that size!) Our rough opening is 25 inches wide and will probably be around 42 inches long. The old ladder required a massive 54 inch long opening!

It was quite a snap to install as well - much easier than I had anticipated. All I needed was a small drill bit, a 7/16 inch socket driver, phillips screwdriver and two wrenches. The ladder is somewhat heavy to lift onto it's mount when installing, but I managed by myself OK.

It's good to see the solutions finally coming together on this long project - we've been working on this off and on (mostly off) for more than 2 years now, and we both want to see our new bathroom finished!

Until the next project...