Whatcha doin????

Preparing to measure stuff up in the two rooms that I've been working in. A stud wall needs to move to make room for a shower cubicle big enough to be usable. Previously the bath had end walls that stuck out into the room. A hideous mess but presumably easier than moving the other wall. It's not supporting so it's not like it needs anything major to make it happen.

The wall on the other side of the bathroom gave me confirmation of what I thought. Based on what I can see in the attic I believed it was a supporting stud wall. Having removed a couple of electrical outlets and the associated Very Nasty Wiring I can confirm it's definitely a supporting wall - it's made of concrete blocks. So any plans of tweaking the space between it and the adjacent room just went away - I know it can be done but it's way above my pay grade and I don't feel like dealing with permits, inspections etc for the sake of making a closet a little bit bigger.

The next bit is where get irritated. I'm going to need drywall, wall studs etc. I can only carry so much in my car - studs can go on the roof bars but I can't carry any sheets of drywall. That means delivery fees, and also means figuring out where to have stuff put when the delivery shows up, how long it can stay there before it really starts to get in the way, and so on. While I'm building wall frames the drywall is just another thing that's in the way but I really don't want to incur more delivery fees than needed, and certainly don't want to deal with the repeated annoyance of waiting in for an entire day because apparently it's too hard to tell me, even on the day of delivery, whether my delivery is near the beginning or the end of the route.

First of all I need to figure out which shower cubicle I want, so I know how far I need to move that internal wall.

 

If you are doing a shower, especially upstairs, I strongly recommend the Kerdi system by Schluter/ Kerdi.

Basically, lightwieght poly foam boards with a waterproof membrane integral to manufacture. Even have pre-sloped shower pans that you can custom cut. We made a custom walk-in without a door, and it worked perfectly.

A little pricey, but easy to install, lightweight for transport purposes, and installation according to instructions makes a perfect waterproof set up.

 

Depending on what "a little pricey" means it sounds promising. I'm not sure I'd go for "without a door" given that users of the shower will include future guests who may not be careful with splashing everywhere, although the idea of a general wet room where the entire floor is sloped certainly has some appeal.

 

We have a clawfoot tub in the bathroom but it's not very big. Personally I don't care for wrap-around curtains, they always give me the feeling I'm spending more time pulling the curtain off my skin than actually washing.

I rather like the idea of a wet room with no particular partitions other than the door into the room, with everything slightly sloped in towards the middle where all the water can just drain away. I'm just not sure how practical it is to do that in this room, given space constraints and the high probability the floor already has a slope that might make it difficult to work with. This particular room is small - I'm not quite sure why a full bath was ever put in there because it's really not big enough for a bath, toilet and basin. My plan is to give it a shower cubicle, toilet and basin and save the space that the bath took up. It will still be a bit snug in there but if I can get rid of the chimney that will help.

 

Ours is roughly 4' x 4' (exterior, with 2" x 4" framing), so inside dims are roughly 3'8" square. Opening on side perpendicular to shower head, which was located approx 12 inches from "rear" wall. Opening is 24", with a 6" curb. All tiled, slopes from opening toward back. Has a lateral drain 2 inches from the rear wall.

All I do is put a towel on the floor outside the shower, and there is very little -- I mean, just a few drops -- of splatter. You could easily put up a rod and shower curtain or a glass door.

 

For those that don't use celcius that is -9°F

 

Anything with a (-) in front of it is too cold.

 

That doesn't sound much different to what I've got in mind. The shower cubicle we currently have is something like 32x34" and I'd look to make something that's slightly bigger. The one we have is useable but a little extra space never hurt. I'm thinking we'll end up with a cubicle that's something like 36" square of actual space.

Using a shower curtain rather than a door becomes appealing, not least because it's easier to change and easier to clean.

I still like the idea of a wet room where the entire floor is effectively the shower pan but struggle to see how that might work in this particular space. The adjacent bathroom is much bigger, so it may be a more workable idea in that space.

 

Out here having five bedrooms still doesn't mean a high list price, unless you fall into some random category where the price spikes. The market here makes no sense, a couple of friends of ours sold their house (three bedrooms, small yard which backs right onto a heavy business that operates seven days a week) for just a few thousand less than a realtor friend said we should expect if we listed ours once it's fixed up (ours is five bedrooms, three bathrooms, mud room, multiple reception rooms etc). If we moved a mile away we could use the proceeds from this house to buy a house less than half the size and with higher property taxes. It makes no sense at all.

Just thinking about something in a shower cubicle that would let an older person sit down. At present I'm not expecting any older people to be using it but sooner or later I'll be an older person and might be thankful for it.

 

That's why they make aluminum shower seats that can be taken in and out of the shower.

 

Our rental home in a Vancouver suburb is a 70 year old 3 bedroom split level on a standard city lot. It was assessed at just over $1.2 million. The value is only in the land.

 

We hit -31 this morning.

 

The one thing I am glad of here. Not much wind.

 

It's all in the location. If you could drop our current house on the street we used to live the value would rise immensely. I first thought you'd have to add an extra zero on the end of the price but I think that hugely understates the difference. Big city, small village.... makes a lot of difference!

 

The location ain't even that great. But the Vancouver market has been crazy for years now. Our house is less than 500m from an industrial rail line that does most work at night. The assessment is based on subdividing the lot with potential for two homes.

 

Reading the RZIM report on Zacharias https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rzimmedia.rzim.org/assets/downloads/Report-of-Investigation.pdf. As one commentator put it, "Ravi Zacharias was a liar, sexual pervert and wolf in sheep's clothing".

 

Read it yesterday.

sad.

demonstrates that even wise Christians can struggle mightily with sin