chouchoot: (paon)
[personal profile] chouchoot
since it began on monday morning, my bathroom renovation is 90% done, which, if you're half-assed like i am, means it's DONE. for now.

the biggest obstacle was moving the antique cast-iron clawfoot tub. research on teh internetz gave me no real answer as to whether or not this was the craziest house project of the year, or totally par for the course. the linoleum floor was one of the first things i knew had to go; the clawfoot tub, on the other hand, was a selling point of buying la plantation in the first place.

getting the tub out was simply cumbersome and heavy. getting it back in: another story.

the demo and the tile itself was done by the contractor who did my checkerboard kitchen floor. i picked a vintage octagonal black and white mosaic tile. yesterday while the bathroom was still empty, i biked out and got m'self some paint, slapped on a couple coats, and did the grouting of the tile myself. there is something really...soothing? gratifying? about this kind of rote physical labor; it is the same satisfaction i used to experience mowing the lawns of my FL houses (the action, motion, motion, and patterns as the grass was cut) somehow blocked out the physical discomfort of the heat. yesterday, i didn't realize how hard on the body the painting and grouting really was, but today my muscles tell a different story.

putting the clawfoot tub back in the bathroom was tragic and stressful. things never go back as easily as they come out, this is a universal truth. the wrong angle, over and over again. the door frame. the sheer weight of it.

the feet fell off of the tub, only able to be clicked back into place as two bright red boys held 400+ lbs of awkwardly-shaped cast-iron, hovered above my outstretched limbs. setting the tub back, one foot kept constantly dislodging. then, a tile broke, causing the tub to sit unevenly. we wrecked a piece of plumbing, cracked another tile, and chipped the paint off the feet. we wore out our hands. i wasn't sure if it would ever go back to the way it was, but it did, and with a few final finesses and a shim, we were able to secure the tub in place. let me tell you: there was no greater reward than a long hot shower after 3 days without indoor plumbing.
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