Forced Bathroom Demo

You know how it goes....putting some major repair off in hopes that you can save enough to pay for it or come up with some miraculous fix that does not involve pain in the budget!!! But does disaster ever seem to wait for you to be prepared-I think not!! We bought our first home almost 5 years ago. It is a pretty modest ranch from the sixties with the fixtures to prove it! Of course, we still gets tingles every once in awhile when we remember what it was like to drive up that first time after closing on the house-or those nights sitting out on our front steps when the weather began to warm up, looking at our street and being so thankful! We, in many ways, thought that we would never own a home being in ministry, so this was a pretty big surprise from the Lord! But, yes, the reality set in pretty quickly as the repairs began to come. Can't we call the landlord for this-oh yeah, I am the Landlord!

About a year and a half ago, the plumbing decided to begin to bid it's farewell. One day we noticed that the water in the kitchen was barely coming out. So Matt learned how to put in a new faucet-no biggie-we can do this! Then the same thing happened in the bathroom-OK-we can fix that. We still didn't really get it. When the kitchen faucet went in a week-we actually thought it was a faulty faucet-duh!!! It wasn't although I think we actually did change it out again with a more exspensive one-because I guess if you buy cheap, it is cheap-right?! What we finally realized was that our pipes were so clogged with rust from our water, it was effecting the flow, and every time we turned the water off to fix a problem, turning it back on just made it even worse!! I found that out when my laundry would take 5 hours to get through a load! Not good when you have 5 kids! So... Matt learned how to install a water softener. Do you know that they actually built this house with only one shutoff valve-not the brightest idea! We had to have the city come out to turn the water off until we installed the water softener and install proper shut off valves. We actually learned how to survive without water quite well!

This was the first major redo in the bathroom over a year ago. We happily ripped the sixties vanity out and put in an antique dresser vanity in it's place. I had found the dresser at a thrift shop a year before that knowing we eventually would need to put a vanity in the bathroom. Someone had already used it as a vanity but the wood on the top had been warped by water. We decided to put a marble top on it instead of refinishing it and having it warp again. How exactly would I keep the kids from getting water on the counter? Remember, it is the one and only bathroom! I don't think so!





















We have known that the tub and shower had major work needed on it, but coordinating the time and the money never seemed to be on our side. We have faithfully been nursing a slow drip...drip...drip...in the basement for quite some time. Matt has replaced the fixtures in our shower multiple times in an attempt tom prolong the inevitable for as long as we could. Well-it finally began to rain in the basement this week, forcing us to face our fears. Thursday afternoon and evening Matt worked on replacing the pipes and fixtures within the wall with our friend Bill's incredible help and guidance! Yeah, for such selfless friends who sacrifice time, rest, and precious time with family to help! Our suspicions were confirmed unfortunately that there was no cement board behind the tile-meaning mushy drywall and a complete makeover needed. They finished work around 11pm Thursday and we had a partially functioning shower for the time being.






















Now, comes the really tricky part! Today, we are having a plumber come in to try and save the bathtub, as ugly as it is!! The pipes are so old, Matt fears not being able to fix them by himself and we would really like not to have to replace the entire tub!!! Before the work on the pipes begin, Matt has some wonderful little helpers on demo duty! They are working on ripping the tile out so that we can put in a new surround. While we would love to have some beautiful tile work in there, time, funds, and commen sense just seem on opposing sides. With five little ones right now, simple to clean and maintain seem best.






















Yes! I think Matt is actually enjoying this!!!








So hopefully we will all be showered and clean for church tomorrow! But if not, be kind :)

I will keep you updated on the Drietz bathroom redo!!! Pray hard!!!