(Sorry for the weird editing - I tried to fix it for a while, but at this moment I'd rather go to bed. So live with it, but accept my apologies, or something like that.)
So, having previously decided to go with the mini-bathroom remodel, and with the floor guys scheduled to come on Thursday morning (the 12th), Heidi and I decided it would be most logical to wait till that Tuesday to tear out my bathroom. Wednesday was out, with school and Young Women, plus allowing an emergency day in case we couldn't handle something. But with everything torn out we were also going to have to share the one bathroom, so it seemed reasonable to put it off as long as possible.
We knew we needed to take out the toilet and the vanity for the floor guys, and in looking at things realized the mirror was going to have to come down as well. It was resting right on top of the backsplash, in front of the caulking sealing the countertop, so there was no realistic way to get the sink/vanity out without first removing the mirror. I'd been split on replacing the mirror - mine is just a plain hunk of glass glued to the wall, but mirrors are also expensive. But if it had to come down, I figured there was no point in gluing something I don't care for back to the wall, right!
So we read up on how to remove a glued-on mirror online, and pretty much every diy site said the mirror was highly likely to break no matter what, that the best precaution was to tape the entire front with duct tape, and to be sure to wear protective goggles and gloves to protect against glass chip injuries. Here's Heidi decked out in her eyeware. One of the suggestions was to use picture-hanging wire to sort of saw through the glue, so that's what she's holding. That didn't seem to work for us though.Since it sounded like we had no hope of getting the mirror down in tact, we thought maybe we'd just go ahead and break it first, so at least the pieces would be smaller. (Hey, we are the people who lit a toilet on fire, and that worked out well!) So this next picture is me, in my goggles and work gloves, trying to break part of my mirror off with a hammer. (Notice Heidi's outstanding duct
tape job!) Only it wouldn't break! I was whacking at it, and the hammer just kept bouncing off. So after a bit of this - a short bit, since I was irritated that the one time I wanted to break something I couldn't - I just pulled on the corner of the mirror. And wouldn't you know it? The whole thing came down in one lovely piece, not even marred by my hammer wielding efforts. (This turned out to be a good thing, because a family in my ward is trying to fix up a little cabin for the grandparents to move here and they were thrilled to get a free mirror.)And here is the lovely spot where the mirror was glued to the wall. It would be nice if there were a less messy way of doing this, but I suppose builders are in it for the cheapest reasonable solution and not to make my remodeling life easier.
As it turns out, in spite of the advice to the contrary from the diy-ers, getting the mirror down turned out to be the easiest step of all. I'm bereft of photos for a while here, because we were so busy trying to pull stuff out we didn't think to take any. The sink we were having such a hard time getting through the caulking, and that was frustrating - only it turned out the problem was that the short end had been glued to the wall just like the mirror. And then we had a frozen bolt on one of the connections for the sink that we just could not get loose. So we thought we'd get the toilet out, give ourselves a break and a feeling of actual success and accomplishment. Only it turned out there was a stuck bolt on the toilet as well. We have really hard water out here, and both bolts had gotten damp enough to corrode a lot.
We were able to free the one on the toilet by soaking it
with Diet Coke - and doesn't that make you think twice about drinking the stuff! The only other problem with the toilet was detaching it from the vinyl flooring. Not the floor, mind you - the vinyl was in such bad shape from the leaking/molding that it pulled off the floor when we tried to pull the toilet up. So then we sort of took turns supporting the toilet while cutting through the 
floor. The water had just disintegrated the wax ring as well (the source of this whole project, if you'll remember), so it was really quite the disgusting job in the end. But we prevailed, and hands do wash, and here is the toilet safely stored in the bathtub, and the floor where it used to be.
So all that was left was getting the vanity cabinet out. Heidi called her brother to see if he could suggest a better tool to use, and we also checked online for any suggestions. And then we were off to Walmart to pick up the tool, where we just happened to see a can of the recommended stuff from online - PB Blaster. The stuff recommends you test it to see how powerful it is by watching it eat through a styrofoam cup in under 2 minutes, but we decided to just try it directly on the bolt in question. ;) Only when we got home, it was time for the basketball game to start, and I got totally distracted by that. Poor Heidi basically finished un-installing the vanity on her own, with the help of our new fun chemicals and recommended tool. Somewhere in the middle of the game she informed me that it worked, and I said something like "Yeah, OK, I'll come help as soon as the game is over." Aren't I just the grand prize to work with?
So demolition turned into a full day's project, but we got it done - or should I say "we" got it done? All was ready for the tile guys to come, and I still pretty much have an empty whole where my bathroom used to be (but with an absolutely gorgeous floor!) I want to paint before we install anything since it will be so much easier, so that is a project for the Thanksgiving break.
One other interesting story out of this - Heidi was telling this whole story to one of my younger Young Women, and Sydney looks over at me with this totally baffled expression and asks: "If your toilet is in your shower, do you have to go to the bathroom there?" So Heidi, being something of a smart alec (such a surprise we're friends....) throws in: "Oh, no - there's still the whole in the floor." Sydney looked positively disgusted in the split second before I reminded her that I have two bathrooms in my house, so there's still a functioning toilet!
As it turns out, in spite of the advice to the contrary from the diy-ers, getting the mirror down turned out to be the easiest step of all. I'm bereft of photos for a while here, because we were so busy trying to pull stuff out we didn't think to take any. The sink we were having such a hard time getting through the caulking, and that was frustrating - only it turned out the problem was that the short end had been glued to the wall just like the mirror. And then we had a frozen bolt on one of the connections for the sink that we just could not get loose. So we thought we'd get the toilet out, give ourselves a break and a feeling of actual success and accomplishment. Only it turned out there was a stuck bolt on the toilet as well. We have really hard water out here, and both bolts had gotten damp enough to corrode a lot.
We were able to free the one on the toilet by soaking it
with Diet Coke - and doesn't that make you think twice about drinking the stuff! The only other problem with the toilet was detaching it from the vinyl flooring. Not the floor, mind you - the vinyl was in such bad shape from the leaking/molding that it pulled off the floor when we tried to pull the toilet up. So then we sort of took turns supporting the toilet while cutting through the 
floor. The water had just disintegrated the wax ring as well (the source of this whole project, if you'll remember), so it was really quite the disgusting job in the end. But we prevailed, and hands do wash, and here is the toilet safely stored in the bathtub, and the floor where it used to be.So all that was left was getting the vanity cabinet out. Heidi called her brother to see if he could suggest a better tool to use, and we also checked online for any suggestions. And then we were off to Walmart to pick up the tool, where we just happened to see a can of the recommended stuff from online - PB Blaster. The stuff recommends you test it to see how powerful it is by watching it eat through a styrofoam cup in under 2 minutes, but we decided to just try it directly on the bolt in question. ;) Only when we got home, it was time for the basketball game to start, and I got totally distracted by that. Poor Heidi basically finished un-installing the vanity on her own, with the help of our new fun chemicals and recommended tool. Somewhere in the middle of the game she informed me that it worked, and I said something like "Yeah, OK, I'll come help as soon as the game is over." Aren't I just the grand prize to work with?
So demolition turned into a full day's project, but we got it done - or should I say "we" got it done? All was ready for the tile guys to come, and I still pretty much have an empty whole where my bathroom used to be (but with an absolutely gorgeous floor!) I want to paint before we install anything since it will be so much easier, so that is a project for the Thanksgiving break.
One other interesting story out of this - Heidi was telling this whole story to one of my younger Young Women, and Sydney looks over at me with this totally baffled expression and asks: "If your toilet is in your shower, do you have to go to the bathroom there?" So Heidi, being something of a smart alec (such a surprise we're friends....) throws in: "Oh, no - there's still the whole in the floor." Sydney looked positively disgusted in the split second before I reminded her that I have two bathrooms in my house, so there's still a functioning toilet!
1 comment:
You really do have adventures, no kidding! I'm eager to see pictures of the finished project. I'm glad you were able to set the YW straight.
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