(More than) Fourinarow.net

Not to the upstairs bathroom, mind you.  Ours.  The first floor bathroom.  This is the bathroom that is tiny and pretty ugly and needs serious updating.  This is also the bathroom we’ve all been relying on while the upstairs toilet was replaced and while we find a solution to the rusted out bathtub (which I refuse to discuss anymore until I have some good news).

So, we’ve been using the first floor tub for showers (Dan and I) and baths (Jack, Maria, Luke and Sam). Despite the stopper not working, we’ve been able to give baths using a make-shift drain plug.  It’ll do until the plumber comes back with the correct parts.  One day.

This is the same tub I’ve complained about due to excessive water on the floor.  It was driving us crazy.  We tried everything to stop it or divert it.  All to no avail.  Then we discovered the problem.  The previous owner (loathe to do anything right) “repaired” the failing caulk line around the tub with this.  In case you’re wondering… it doesn’t work.  Actually, as one bathtub guy told us, it makes the problem worse.  Water runs down the wet tile walls, gets under this strip and then is channeled around the tub and onto the floor.

Obviously, it does not provide a good seal.  Which means: WATER DAMAGE.

We found the WATER DAMAGE not long after I peeled the strip off.  We figured (since it was ineffective and terribly ugly) that we’d peel it off and then caulk around the tub properly.

Despite Dan having suggested that we wait until the upstairs tub was in good working order, I took the bull by the horns and got to work.  (After all, waiting until that tub is fixed could be… forever.)  I chose last night to start the project.  At 10 p.m.

Lo and behold, the strip was easy to pull off.  I mean, it’s not like there was a good seal there or anything.  So far, so good.  I brought the strip to show Dan, who wondered aloud what the heck I was doing peeling that stuff off that late at night, especially when we only had one working tub.

Ummmmm…?

It didn’t look too bad, really.  We just needed to remove the old caulk and put down new.  Dan and I got out our window scrapers and putty knives and went to work pulling up the old, very icky caulk.  It was very easy to pull up, as it was all rotted.

Unfortunately, once the caulk at the front of the tub was removed, it was easy to see that there were some  very loose tiles.  And rot.  I pulled out one little piece of tile at the edge of the tub.  Behind that tile was rotted backer board.  Black, rotted, useless.  Dan stuck his finger in there (ewwwwww) and pulled out black and gray, wet, crumbly cement stuff.

Due to my brilliant, go-getter attitude we now had NO working tub or shower.  And, it was 11 p.m. at night.  And, we both needed showers.

Here’s what it looked like:

And, here’s a nice, gross close-up for you:

We started talking about putting our new fence on hold, buying tile, going to the Home Depot tile clinic and what it would take to repair our bathroom.  We wondered how bad it was behind all that tile.  And, we wondered, what the heck were we going to do for a shower/bathtub? Like right now?

We decided to chance using the upstairs tub for quick showers last night and committed to finding a way to patch things up enough to use the downstairs tub until the upstairs one is permanently fixed.  Once that happens, we’ll get back to the downstairs tub and work on it in earnest.

So… after mass this morning, we worked on the tub some more.  We pulled out the rest of the little tiles along the front of the tub where the problem is.  Dan (oh, so brave) cleaned out all the rotted gunk.  Now we had a whole strip about an inch tall that needed to be filled in.  Then the whole tub needed to be caulked.

Off to Home Depot Dan and Jack went while I served lunch to the youngest three and put Sam down for a much-needed nap.

The boys returned home triumphant.  Dan had been able to find a strip of “never rot” that was just the right width.  He just had to cut the length down a bit to fit.  And fit it did.  Perfectly.  Whew!

My hero then caulked around the entire tub, rendering it water tight.

I figure by the time we get everything done around this house, Dan and I will be experienced enough to get into the flipping industry and make millions.  Look for us on HGTV.

An unexpected working weekend.  But, at least we weren’t bucketing water out our basement windows like the neighbor down the street.  They’re also new to the neighborhood, God bless them.