Remodeling

Our house was built in 1957.  I don't think any kind of remodeling has been done since that day, except sometime in the 70s when a blasphemy occured.  Some infidel put shag carpet in two rooms over oak hardwood floors.  I know.  It burned my fingertips to even write it.  The sum total of my work since the day we moved in is the removal of said disgrace, and Sisters and I put wallpaper in the front bedroom.  I loved it.  I know I wouldn't have with dirty, worn out, bright blue shag carpet in it.

The outside of the house is a thing of beauty.  It is neat as a pin and looks lovely.  The inside doesn't.  Worse, it has not only cosmetic, but electrical and plumbing problems.  The toilet in the upstairs bathroom is scabbed together with mismatched pieces, and the downstairs throne isn't even attached to the floor.  If you hit it running, it will rock from side to side.

Son-in-law didn't have enough to keep himself occupied with working full time, pampering his wife, helping take care of the four children, cooking and cleaning, so he agreed to replace the toilets.  He took Grandpa with him to the home store and they bought two toilets extrordinaire. They are extra tall to help us old farts who don't go down and back up as easily as we once did.  

They are crappers from heaven.  The only problem is that now when I sit down on inferior crappers I feel like I'm falling into doom and flail about like a baby bird on it's first flight.  Thank goodness for booths. They are the only thing that preserves my dignity.

Having achieved success with the toilet replacements, and not having any  more time on his hands, Son-in-law agreed to do a complete makeover on the downstairs bathroom.  Around the new toilet, of course.  He knocked out the old shower to make room for a new one.  Keep in mind here that the bathrooms in this house are approximately 16 square feet.  

After much work, more cursing, lots of hammering, outright swearing, and a tad bit of throwing things, he was ready for the tub.  Voting cancelled a shower in favor of a Jacuzi tub. It only seemed logical.

The tub was in, but not hooked up.  Naturally, Son-in-law had to make sure there were no leaks in the plumbing, so he hauled buckets of water to fill it.  Who's going to pass up a chance like that?  Since the wall is out, and there was sure to be onlookers, the swim suits seemed appropriate.  After these two got out, the other two got in to play for a while in the bubbles.  Success! So far.

Like I said earlier, there are still problems with the electric, and much work to be done, but I'm feeling pretty good about this.  We'll have to count our shekels and see what he can do next -- in his spare time.