Well, hello there my amazing all capable Steemians. How is everybody doing? I hope your life is going the exact way you planned it, and it brings that beautiful smile of yours out every day. We can change the world one smile at the time. So do me a favor my friends, smile MORE.
So what has been happening with me and my house bathroom renovations? It has been 14 days since I updated you guys. I know it is a long time, but it was for a reason. For the past 20 days or little more, I have been basically working my butt off working on it from about 9 am to 7 pm every single day. I kid you not guys. I joke around with my friends how my basketball season finished but my house renovations season started and that is basically all I have been doing since I got home. I did not even jump in the beautiful Adriatic sea jet here in Croatia. You guys know how much I love the sea so it tells you everything on how much time I invested into this renovation. There is a piece of my soul left in there, and in the next couple posts, I will try to explain to you why I said that?
For those of you who missed Part 1 of this story you can catch up by clicking here
Tearing It Down
Just like in life when you need to make a big change or change yourself, you have to tear everything up, or down in order to do so. You have to tear down every single old "tile", and you have to dig out and pull out every single piece of old "plumbing." That is the only way you can TRULY make the change. If a piece of old you is left, it is going to be always stopping you from making the complete change you want to make. So just like in life, we had done the same to our bathroom. Everything had to go. I mean EVERYTHING.
The old tiles, the old sink, bathtub, and the old plumbing all had to go. In order to do this the right away, it simply needed to be done the RIGHT way. If you know me by now I am a very detailed guy, so you can picture what this meant for me. It meant literally everything had to go. Well, to be fair to people who just joined me and getting to know me I will try to explain what that means exactly?
Starting Over From Scratch
My father and I got up bright and early that morning. Excited to start working really. As this bathroom was a torn in our eyes for a long time. It just looked terrible as you can see from the first post I wrote about it. And, after our morning routines, we just went to work. His job was to take down anything which can be unscrewed and set it aside. The old shower, boiler, sink... And my job was to pick a hammer and pick to start removing the old tiles.
It really seemed easy to do. It only took a couple of swings of the hammer to remove those tiles guys. A piece of cake really. There was water damage under them so they were basically falling down by themselves with little push. I honestly thought we will be done in no-time without breaking a sweat. It sure felt like it. We were moving quickly along. Removed most of the tiles around the sink so my dad can take it down and I moved on to the other side.
This all took about 20 min. But, that was with water damaged tiles guys. lol The ones were the glue was still sticking strong was another story. Those took some effort and way more hammer swings to get off. It is crazy how strong some of them were still sticking to the wall. I guess in the old days they were building stuff to last. Because after 40 years some of these tiles would not budge at all. No matter how hard I hit with the hammer. So we had to bring in the "big gun." lol
I know those protective glasses make me look cool.. lolol
My father brought in a pneumatic drill to help out. And, I was wondering where was this the whole time, dad? What in the heck was I doing with a hammer while you have a drill? And, his answer is awesome really? I am sorry son, I forgot I had to BRAND NEW DRILL which can help you tremendously.. lol
Anway's guys COOL protective glass are not there to make me look COOL. I almost learned the hard way as when you work with a drill you break some of the tiles up in the tiny piece which fly with high speed everywhere and you can seriously hurt yourself. As one of the pieces which broke off flew straight into my eye. I kid you not guys, these broke tiles are razor sharp and can do some damage. So if you ever decide to renovate your bathroom by yourself make sure you grab one of these glasses with you. I am lucky my eyelid closed before it hit my eye. Learn from my mistakes guys. Anyways with the drill, we moved along quickly. In just a couple of hours, we did a lot of work as you can see below.
This is one of my favorite pictures I caught in this whole restoration. My father was just sitting there probably reminiscing how he built this bathroom 40 years ago with his hands, and now using the same hands to tear it down and built it again. Or he is probably cursing the day I was born for making him do this. One of those two.lololol
I am giving you a speed through all of this process, but I am going to give you a little detail. All the waste from tearing down I had to carry to a disposal about 200 m walk up-hill. So basically I was carrying it all in two plastic buckets which when filled are about 20-30kg(40-60lbs) each. 200 m uphill with 60kg in my hands. Get the picture? Well, if you did then imagine me doing about 60-70 times just this first day. My dad can't carry heavy stuff so I had to buckle up and carry it all by myself. O well, at least I did not have to pay for the gym membership. I had it right at home. My own brick and tile carrying personal weight room.. lol
This is how it actually looks before I clean it out. We had to stop 5-6 times so I can clean or we would literally be buried under the ruble of old tiles and bricks. While I am cleaning my dad is taking rest and beer breaks. lol This is the leftover just from drilling around the tub which was standing on some concrete and other blocks. Basically, my dad like pretty much everything else in this bathroom used what he had at the moment. We did not have the money to buy new stuff after the war so anything went in there to keep the 200kg cast iron tub in place. He did his best and this bathroom served us for 40 years. Not bad at all considering it was made from scraps. Not bad at all.
The Heavy Bathub Issue
This bathtub was basically taking half of the space in our already small bathroom. So it had to go. But, as I mentioned above. It is about 200kg(400lbs) bathtub made out of cast iron. And, it is just my dad and me. So basically just me. lol As no way in my right mind I would let my dad even try to lift this with me. The only LOGICAL(SPOCK VOICE) thing to do was to break it into pieces. So we borrowed a 10kg(20lbs) hammer to try and break into manageable carrying pieces to take it out of our bathroom. I wanted to do it of course, but my dad insisted he takes the first crack at it.
After those couple of blows, my father was already breathing hard so I asked him to let me do the rest of breaking. I want to have some fun as well. lol It took me about 15-20 min to break it all down. But, another learning experience for you guys. Learn from my mistakes. Basically what happened is I saw one piece what it looked barely hanging to the other piece of the tub. I thought it needed just a soft hit to break off. So I swung the hammer holding it only with one hand. What a mistake. Not only the piece did not break off, but the hammer bounced off the piece real hard almost dislocating my elbow. I kid you not guys my elbow hurt for 3-4 days after. Always hold a heavy hammer with two hands. ALWAYS. Anyways, this what was left over from our tub after my father and I were done with it.
We gave the scraps to my father's friend as they can be sold for about 150$ of value back.
Done For Today
So basically after the bathtub was out we decided to be done for today. At least it is what my common sense was telling me. Sometimes I don't listen to it. lol It was 5 PM and guys we literally stopped only for lunch for 30 min and worked basically from 9 am until now. But, I just wanted to do more. My dad took a well-deserved rest. He overdid it already. But, I decided to keep going. He showed me where the old lead plumbing is and how to dig it out and where the new plumbing should go so I could dig out the canals for it. Not the smartest decision I made that day but I wanted to get ahead and prepare it so the plumber can come and lay down new plastic plumbing.
I continued for another 3 hours. Even with a drill, it was the hardest work so far. As I needed to break through hard cement to drill those canals for the new plumbing. The drill was shaking so hard and it takes basically all my strength to control it. If some of you worked with similar drills you know what I am talking about. My entire body was shaking from it. lol I would imagine this is how it feels to ride a wild bull at the rodeo.. lol Plus this is the first time in my life doing something like this. This is all new learning experience for me. But I managed to drill it all out on the same day and prepare it for a plumber.
The REAL DONE FOR TODAY
I finished about 9 pm at night with drilling the canals and cleaning it all. O yes and taking it all the dumpster. lol I remember I looked at myself at the mirror. My face covered with dust, and my hair basically white from it. lol I would honestly take a picture for you guys, but at the moment I was so tired I could not lift a phone from the desk to do it. I was exhausted, but happy at the same time. And guess what? I got to do it all over tomorrow... YAY.. lol And, similar work for about more than 20 days now. We are still now finished guys. lol But, it is really turning out great, and I will share the complete process with you guys here. So maybe you can do it yourself someday...Or be smart and hire somebody to do it for you. I come, cheap guys.. lolol
Thank you all for tunning into part 2 of my bathroom renovations. I tried to keep it short, but like I said I am a detailed guy so my post resembles me. I hope I did keep it interesting for you guys, and it made you laugh a bit. As Kevin Hart stand-up LAUGH AT MY PAIN. lol I will try to write progress posts now as soon as possible. I have much more to share with you guys, and as you can see we are just at the beginning...
Have a great day all, much love,
dbjegovic 💕 💞 💓
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STOPCan't wait to see how it turns out in the end ...
Hi awakentolife,
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Oh my goodness my friend I am so so sorry but I laughed when you hit the bath with the hammer and it bounced back, I can just picture it omg I was crying reading that part im so sorry hope your arm is ok now.
:)
He will get experience in time! I believe it's his first time destroying things.
A great deal work that is for sure. I bet your house will be beautiful when you are finished. If I had the money I would come and help. I am very good at carrying things as I have assisted in renovations before.
Not a builder myself, more of a helper.
I also think that was my favorite picture. The one of your father sitting there - thinking. Wow. He was probably just thinking back over a lifetime of memories. It's making me nostalgic too now :).
you learned so many lessons during this! hehehe you kept saying "learn from my mistakes"... LOL just think - you'll be doing something like this with your son someday! :)
I can't believe you didn't get a picture with your white hair!!! aghhhhhhhhh come on Duro!!!!! you know we needed to see this! hahahahha
If I ever need ANY work done with a bathroom.... i know exactly who I'm going to be calling hehehehe
YOU!!!! :)
I love the heart that you have for your family and your home.
AND CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR CURIE MY DEAR AMAZING FRIEND!!!!!!!! <3
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TrufflePigOh wow @awakentolife congrats on the curie!!! You're right you do look cool in the safety glasses lol. You sure had a lot of work to do but you must feel quite pleased with the progress afterwards.. Can't wait to see the finished bathroom :)
So much work! Keep at it. :) It's rewarding in the end.
wow, hope you get to eat in between the renovations, I mean we still need you strong and fit enough for next season bro.
ALl these tile near-eye misses and hammer dislocations have me sort of uncomfy.
All the same, you are doing an awesome work, and the pictures are simply awesome.