The Bathroom Project at No 8

Construction is now halted in Victoria because the compliance with COVID restrictions in the industry hasn't been as good as it should be.  DAMN! Chris, doing exactly the right thing, calls us to say he can't come to finish up, but will need to come to retrieve his tools, which he left behind on Monday night (yesterday). This could be the last post for some time....

We thought we were going to have a work-free day, but Chris comes in the afternoon and works to true the stud walls ready for plastering. He'll come back to finish in the morning.

 We spend a lot of time looking at taps and basins on-line. We are leaning towards a Therm-Oz shower tap system, and Caroma basins. All available at Bunnings if we're ever allowed to shop there again.

With no builders present, we are able to go into the house, move the wall panels into the light and look at the tile samples that we picked up from National Tiles on Friday.

It's beginning to look like a room, not a hole in the ground. Chris has done an amazing job attaching the new bearers to the old ones that still go under the floor in the hallway, all supported by a kind of laminated beam sitting on new concrete stumps. Should last another 100 years. See the spliced bearers on the beam, on the stumps. See how big the new shower is going to be. And the new window has been fitted.

 New stumps are in, new bearers.

 Chris rips up the old floor, discovers that there is not much holding up the bearers, most of which are rotten any way. He starts the process of restoration, digging out holes for new concrete stumps and cutting out the old rotten wood. The old floor... ...is no more

 Asbestos man cometh this afternoon, and we believe it has all been removed. We aren't game to go and look at the results yet, in case the dust hasn't settled.

 Asbestos man has to have a COVID test and isolate, as he's been at an exposure site. We do make some progress - we make contact with Classic Ceramics and we're allowed to pick up some sample tiles. Of the three samples, she quite likes one, he is not so sure. We may get some more samples from National Tiles before we make a decision. And the new window arrives, joining all the other stuff stacked in the middle room.

The asbestos removal man is supposed to come Thursday, but doesn't. Next date is Monday.

 At least we don't have to get up at an ungodly hour. No action until the asbestos man cometh.

 Asbestos man comes, but doesn't do anything. Says he will quote and return Thursday. Chris continues to remove what he can and generally make the place look as tidy as possible. Now very bare. Look left (where the washing machine was) Look ahead left (where the bath was) Look ahead right, where the vanity was Look right, where the loo and shower were

 It's at the end of the first day that you realise you should have taken a "before" shot. By the time I think of it, Chris and Fraser have moved the washing machine and dryer, removed bath, shower screens, all the cabinetry. During the demolition they realise that there is asbestos sheet behind the wall tiles and under the floor tiles. This requires a specialist to remove it. Damn.

We've been planning this one for years. It's the finally step in future-proofing our little one-storey terrace so that we can keep living here for as long as possible, even if we become decrepit (or more decrepit) as we age. For a year or so we've had an agreement with our builders, who did our most recent reno here at no 8 Finlay Street and the complete make-over of 1A Little O'Grady Street, that if they found themselves with a 2-3 week gap in their schedule, we'd like a bathroom makeover. And it's TIME. Tony gave us a call last week to say they could start Monday 5 September. That's tomorrow. Under current lockdown rules, builders can't work on a site that's occupied, so we are moving next door to 1A for the duration. We can return to the "big house" in the evenings to cook dinner and watch TV, but we need to be out by the time they start work in the morning. Given our attitude to early rising, it's no surprise that we've decided ...