Say What??

Today the plan was to rip out all the old sheet rock around the tubs in both bathrooms and whatever else it took to get those rooms ready for tile backer board, put up the backer board, put green board where ever it was needed and tape and mud with the first coat.

When the shower surround came down it was discovered that some previous owner had hidden two switch boxes behind the shower wall.  Uh, oh.  So, after all the sheet rock dust settled, CW started working on moving it to a spot that would not be inside the wall with no access and out of the way.  There is no rhyme or reason for the way it was connected, and to turn off the power to the bathroom light, two different breaker switches had to be turned off.  At one point they had three different switches involved.

Meanwhile, here is a photo or two of the "progress" so far...

 Ornery standing over the new tub in the hall bathroom removing tiles from above the surround.  They had been grouted with caulk, not regular grout.

 Here Ornery is happily hammering away with his little sledge hammer and a pry-bar getting the old tile off the wall.

Here is a view looking from the master bathroom doorway through the wall to the hall bathroom. Notice the rat's nest of wires that was hidden in the wall. A new blank plate will be above the door with both sets of switches inside one double old work box.

The project with the electricity was increased in duration when it was discovered that the master bathroom did not have any outlets in the whole room except for the light above the sink, which we are taking out!  So, that required a run to Lowe's.  When they finally put that task to bed, they started looking at the walls, which are all completely crooked and every other kind of uneven you can imagine.  SO, they brought home a piece of plywood to cut into strips to "enhance" some of the areas on the studs to make the surface more level.

I had Ornery take me home early in the afternoon.  I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open and my back was screaming at me so I was not really much help at all.  So I took a delightful nap and cruised around on Amazon taking care of a few purchases.  Did you know it is cheaper to purchase a CD than the mp3 of certain albums and that they include the mp3 with the CD purchase?  Isn't that crazy??

On another topic, I had called a plumber to come out because we kept smelling what we thought was natural gas.  It was particularly strong in the garage, so we thought it was around the water heater.  He couldn't find anything, but the odor persisted.  The first thing CW said when he walked into the garage yesterday morning was, "You need to put something in that washing machine drain hole so that sewer gas doesn't come in here."    So I stuck a plastic bag down the pipe a little way and voila!  No more sewer smell!

You would think a plumber would have known what sewer gas smelled like...