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Feeling hot & grumpy? Take it out on the house.

It was really hot and humid in Chicago today. 90 degrees hot. With almost 100 percent humidity.

Yuck.

We decided to take it out on the house. We were curious about what was behind the drywall in the bathroom. We need to run a few conduits for new electrical wiring up the center of the house and since that wall has to come down anyway...welllllll....we wanted to see if we could run it behind something there.

We had not planned on taking the wall down when we had the bathtub refinished. (Take note of this LESSON LEARNED. Electrical work and plumbing BEFORE tub refinishing.) So, working so fast that I am a BLUR, I swath the tub with old towels that were left behind by the Previous Owner. And then cover the whole thing with an old WWII Army Tent that was used by the local Boy Scout troup in the 40's, 50's and 60's.

If you are bummed out about the tent...um...don't be. We have about 6 of them. Along with the U.S. Army regulation tent backpacks. That weigh a kazillion pounds. Unless you are REALLY into nostalgia of the painful hiking sort (or maybe you are in training for an Olmpic event and want to carry a heavy thing), these tents are probably just for show.

Then, I make the first surgical cut.

Wow. It isn't often that you are trying to take DOWN a wall. Usually you are trying to think of a million ways to keep a wall UP. At first, this is stressful. For the first 30 seconds. Then you just begin tearing through drywall (carefully) until a panel is off and you feel very VERY good.

No major plumbing problems back here currently. It looks like some time ago a bad caulking job around the fixtures created problems with water seeping behind the tiles, but a little rip down just got rid of some old mold.

We left the exterior wall intact for now and took two more panels off to the right of the tub. We were rewarded with a nice surprise :)

Behind panel number three, the stack for the plumbing extends from the basement to the attic (with steel wool packed around the pipes on each floor. Not sure if that was the PO's way of discouraging the possible spread of fire up the stack in case of a house fire. But when we moved that aside and shined a flashlight up and down, that lovely balloon framing was doing its job...all clear, straight shot. Enough room for 2 conduits to run from the basement to the attic. Just like Boris advised us to do..some space for wire now and cable/telephone later. NOW if we can get an electrician who is not afraid to take on working around some plaster walls, we are in business.

Whew. I feel better. Not cooler. But better.

Posted by jeanne on August 16, 2003 at 11:58 PM

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