Old house and ancient plumbing

While remodeling the spare bathroom, we have found that they no longer sell the bath and shower fixtures that will fit our ancient bathtub. The tub is small and is made out of molded cast iron. It’s also on an outside wall. To replace the tub, we would have to totally knock out the whole wall, somehow cut the tub into pieces and then haul that away, put a new tub and plumbing in and also new walls. This means we’d also have to replace the outside wall and siding. What a job.

What makes things worse, is on the other side of the adjacent wall where all the pipes are, is my son’s bedroom. That wall would also have to be knocked out and it is going to be one heck of a major project. The hot water was leaking and we tried to find the right parts to get it at least semi fixed, until we could go a head and do this improvement but my husband had to rig one up, since the hardware stores don’t carry the part.

I had to laugh when we took the parts in, because the man who was to help us looked at the  part, then at us with the most odd look. Like we were asking for something that was from the moon or whatever. He said he hadn’t seen one of these parts since the 40’s and even then they were nearly obsolete. Great. For now, we’ve decided to hold off on this project as long as we can, as we honestly don’t have the funds right at the minute to do a total remodel job. We have just finished the main bathroom. In the mean time, I am going to pick out tile and flooring, paint and at other items I may want to use once that darn tub is out and the plumbing in there is fixed. I can always look shop and get a idea of various prices.

One track thinking

While enjoying my quiet evening, I decided to take a nice hot bubble bath, then get into the cozy jammies I had laid out. I love bubble baths since they relax me and also help my neck and back. It’s a quick fix for both for a little while anyway.

While I was lounging in the bathtub, I got to thinking about the faucet and handles. They are old and I don’t like them at all. Unfortunately, we’ve been putting off changing them or getting a new tub, for that matter, because it is going to be a major remodeling job to replace all of those. What makes it so bad, is that this house is 140 years old, if not more. The bathtub is sort of built in the wall and floor and it is cast iron. THICK cast iron. HEAVY cast iron…I’m sure ya’ll get my point. It is also flush to an outside wall on the west side of the house.  The pipes go up through the wall and also run into the bathtub somehow. I’m not sure how, but it was once explained to me, and basically what I got out of the explanation was, that it was “rigged.”

My relaxing bubble bath turned into another thinking project about a project. A big project. Heck, I’m not going to mince words, we (?) are going to have to totally gut the bathroom and take the wall out, in order to get the tub out. But before we get it out, since it’s so heavy, we are going to have to find someone who will literally break it apart or somehow saw it apart. Even though this has been in the back of my mind all along, when I thought about it tonight, I realized the enormity of this and all it would take for me to have my nice bathroom. (deep sigh)