It’s been awhile since I have been able ride on my horses, but for a very good reason. I thought I’d take a few minutes to let my followers know what has been going on.

Over the past year, I spent a lot of time traveling to visit my parents and kids (read grandkids) in other states. Incident to the travel, it seems, I also spent several weeks being sick at home. I finally came down with COVID last fall, as well as a couple bouts with the flu and the common cold. Then it began to snow…and snow and snow.

All in all, I spent nearly half of last year either sick or on the road, or the weather was too bad for riding. Which made it difficult for me to earn my little bits of supplemental income from training horses for, and teaching horsemanship to, a few individual clients and families, that allow me to pay for my horse trips and hay.

So, the result of it all was that last year I was able to take only one major horse pack trip. That was in July, when I went with a couple friends for a short trip into the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho (I thought I had written a post on that trip, but I see I never published it. I’ll get one up soon).

The first week of this year I was treated to a couple rides in Arizona by a friend who wanted me to check out a horse he was considering purchasing in Apache Junction.

Since then, though, I haven’t even sat on a horse.  Here’s why.

During October last year, my best friend passed away while I was away from home. Once I returned, I visited his family in Ogden, Utah. Dan had been in poor health for some time, so much of the general maintenance that would normally have been done in his home had been put aside for many years.  His widow, Jackie, who is also one of my life-long friends (I introduced the two of them to each other in high school) was still working full-time, but nearing retirement. I will withhold their last name, to leave them some privacy. Jackie gave me permission to post the included photos.

I have been a do-it-yourself handyman for most of my life. I have done major remodeling projects on almost every house my wife and I have lived in since we were married and before that I helped my father do custom remodeling and even helped him build the home in which he and my mother still live. So, over the years I have garnered good experience and acquired most of the tools necessary for even major home remodeling projects. After looking around the house, I volunteered to take care of a couple of the most urgent needs in the house.

There were two projects that I deemed to be of the highest priority: Repair some broken floor boards (shortly before he passed, Dan asked if I would repair those floorboards for Jackie, once he was gone) and a major remodel of the house’s only bathroom.

The home was built in 1944 and overall is in solid condition, however the bathroom needed serious attention. The bathtub surround was literally peeling off the wall and appeared to have black mold growing behind the panels. The cast iron bathtub was stained and dingy, the fixtures were in need of replacement, and half the floor had been reinforced with plywood and stick-on tiles, which were peeling off.  While there are other matters needing to be addressed in the home, this was the most serious. The other issues can be address one at a time in the future and are of no emergent nature.

After some conversations, Jackie happily agreed to pay for the building supplies while I provided the labor for the bathroom remodel and the repairs to the floors (Dan had set aside an amount of money for the express purpose of making repairs to the house after his passing).  In my exuberance and optimism at the opportunity to do the remodeling for her, I greatly underestimated the amount of work to be done and the time it would take. However, even with the current elevated cost of building supplies, we were able to keep it well within her budget.

I figured the entire project would take me a matter of 5 or 6 days and the plan was for me to stay at her house while I was working, going home for the weekend and returning for another several days to finish. I started the project on January 10 and am still working on it four weeks later! I hope to finish next week (February 13). I have discovered that age is quickly catching up with me and I cannot accomplish nearly as much as I thought I could in a day and at the end of a long workday, Ibuprofen is my best friend!

The first day was evaluation and tear-out, which went pretty well…until we got to the bathtub. Now most contractors would take a sledge hammer to the bathtub and take it out in pieces, but I wanted to keep it whole, as I thought Jackie might be able to re-sell it to recoup some costs.

I mean to tell you that was a real cast iron tub, not one of the more modern light weights! That tub must have weighed more than 300 pounds! With the help of her son, we got it out of there without damaging the tub, the house, or ourselves, but it was pretty dicey! Luckily, I had thought to bring a furniture dolly, which we used to good advantage. As it turns out, the bathtub will become a planter in the back yard.

With the tear-out completed, I discovered a couple unanticipated problems. Firstly, the house was built as a modular design, the walls being made of 1X3 lumber configured as a lattice of about 16″ squares with 1/4″ plywood glued and nailed to both sides. Drywall was then installed over the plywood. These walls were straight , plumb, and strong, but did not lend themselves well to changes in design. The plywood behind the tub surround, while not rotten, had begun to delaminate in places from water damage. Lower down, behind the tub itself, it was pretty well deteriorated. Surprisingly, there was little mold or rot in it, due to a laminate covering on the plywood that was the original tub surround, which protected the plywood. Some black mold had grown between the old laminate and a newer tub surround that had been poorly applied at a later date by a previous owner, however this was easily cleaned off with household cleaners, once the later panels were removed.

Secondly, I discovered that the water supply plumbing for the tub, sink, and toilet was the original galvanized pipe and the drain plumbing was the original cast iron. The cast iron was in good condition, despite its age, but I was hesitant to leave the galvanized pipe, though it appeared to be in reasonable condition as well.  I discovered that at some point the water supply lines leading up to the bathroom from the basement had been replaced by copper, so I decided I would complete the supply lines in copper. I have plumbed with PEX, PVC, and copper and continue to believe that copper plumbing, done right, is the best insurance against future problems.

It took me some time to figure out the correct spacing of everything, as I needed to replace the tub controls and move the location of the pedestal sink several inches. It took me a lot longer to get the plumbing done than it should have; I am an amateur who needs to think everything out, test, rethink, measure again, test again, then solder. In addition, the entire wet wall (the wall with the plumbing behind it) had to be entirely re-framed, which was an adventure as well. I also reinforced the wood floor (oak tongue and groove), which was in surprisingly good condition, with 1/2″ plywood, to bring the floor under the tub level with repairs previously done to reinforce the floor under the toilet area.

When we went to shop for a new bathtub, Jackie asked if it would be possible to install a 32″ wide tub, rather than the standard 30″ tub. Of course I said, “Yes.” However, we discovered that recent supply issues had increased the prices astronomically! At Home Depot, a good standard 60X30 tub was in the $450 range, while the same tub in 60X32 was close to $1,200! In our surprise, we were astonished to find they had an American Standard (good brand name) jetted whirlpool tub in 60X32 alcove size on sale for $750 (regularly about $1,400). The decision was an easy one.

The installation was a little more difficult. But, with the help of one of Dan and Jackie’s sons, we got it set into place on a bed of mortar, as per installation instructions. From there the plumbing was finalized, as it needed a few adjustments to fit the taller tub, then up went the cement backer board and green board drywall.

The electrical work turned out to be fairly simple and easy, as the power supply and updated breaker box is on the outside of the house, directly behind the right end of the tub. There was already a through-wall fitting, resulting from a previous electrical upgrade to the house. I increased the size of the through-wall conduit from 1/2″ to 3/4″, to accommodate several more wires, installed the necessary GFI breakers, and ran the lines. I gave them a GFI outlet near the sink and added a ceiling vent fan as well.

After the tub was installed, the plumbing finished, and the drywall up and taped, one night I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I needed to correct something I had done with the plumbing. I had decided no to move the sink drain from the original location, because I was afraid that in trying to move it I might break the old  galvanized pipe and run into BIG problems. I had intended to use adapters to connect the sink drain lines to the original wall location. However, as I said, in the middle of the night I recognized that not moving the drain location would later introduce problems with the installation of the sink and would be absolutely obvious and UGLY in what I hoped would turn out to be a nice bathroom.

So, when I arrived on my next trip up to Ogden to work on the bathroom, I opened the wall over the bathroom sink drain and supply lines. I am glad I did, because I discovered that the vent pipe coming out of the top of the cast iron drain plumbing was broken off right at the joint with the cast iron!

It appeared to me that the original plumbers, after setting the the 1-1/4″ vent pipe into place in the cast iron joint with molten lead, broke the vent pipe off at the joint while trying to tighten the next fitting above it. They had wrapped the broken joint with what appeared to be some kind of natural fiber, such as oakum, rather than make a proper repair.  I considered what I might be able to do to repair the joint, but could only come up with the idea of cleaning the joint as well as possible and sealing it with epoxy. I called a friend of mine who has extensive experience in remodeling and asked his opinion.

Being that it is a vent pipe, which is not under pressure, and that it is installed in such a way that it is held firmly in place despite the break, we agreed that the epoxy was likely the best option and that even licensed plumbers would probably opt for it, rather than trying to remove the broken stub from the cast iron to replace the vent pipe. The epoxy would seal the break, not allowing sewer gas to fill the wall void and would also not allow water to leak, should the plumbing get backed up enough to reach that point. So, that’s what I did. I cleaned the joint as well as possible with a wire brush and emory cloth, then used an epoxy clay formulated for adhering to metal surfaces to create a thick filet around the broken joint.

As for moving the sink drain, I heated the cast iron pipe with a propane torch (being very cautious not to catch anything on fire) and was able to break free the galvanized nipple and twist it out without complication. I replaced it with PVC pipe to relocate the sink drain plumbing about 4-1/4″ to the right of the original location. I also moved the cold water supply 4-1/4″ to the right. Now everything looks right with the sink installed and all the cut-and-paste work is hidden behind the wall. Whew!

So, there was another day’s worth of unexpected work, but I was pleased with the end result.

For a water barrier behind the wall tile, I used Red Guard, purchased at The Home Depot. It has good reviews and after painting the barrier onto the cement board, I am satisfied it will prevent moisture migration into the walls. I am very pleased with the product.

During this period, I also did the needed repairs to the wood floors. Try as I might, I could not locate any reclaimed oak floor boards, so I made my own with some red oak I had at home that I had been hauling around for years, just waiting for the right project. I milled the rough lumber to the proper dimensions and added a groove to one edge. On the other edge, I made a rabbet, rather than a tongue, to allow the repair piece to slip into place (the piece shown is a scrap test piece). I removed the damaged piece of floor board by cutting it with a chisel and oscillating multi-tool, so that the ends of the repair pieces would land over a floor joist. I cleaned out the groove on the adjacent floor board, then glued a piece of 1/2″ X 1/4″ oak strip into the groove. I inserted the repair piece by sliding the grooved edge into place on the tongue of the existing adjacent floor board and laying the rabbeted edge onto the strip I glued in the groove in the opposite floor board. I then fixed the repair in place with one 16 gauge brad nail in each end on the rabbeted side into the supporting joist. I then used a hand plane and a palm sander to level the repair piece with the old floor boards. I used a combination of stains and boiled linseed oil to attempt to match the old finish. I like my repairs to look unobtrusive when finished.

Back to the bathroom.

The tiling was a new adventure as well, as I had never before worked with large format (12X12) floor tile as a wall tile. In doing a bit of homework, I discovered that large format tile is pretty much all that is being used nowadays and that special metal trim has been developed (Schluter System) to give finished edges to the large tile, for which there is no edge trim tile manufactured. I spoke to a representative at Floor and Decor, Riverside, Utah, who provided a lot of good information as to how things are done with the large floor tiles on walls. That gave me the confidence to know I could do it.

The tub surround and integrated sink backsplash took me two days to complete, again, due to my think, measure, test, think some more, measure again, etc. work style as an amateur DIYer. However, though there are some imperfections, I am pleased with the outcome. I found it difficult to get the large tiles exactly flush with each other. With small tiles, errors are small. With large tiles, errors are large. I guess that’s what separates a guy like me from the real pros.  Also, I found my tile cutter, which is a good one, was not cutting accurately, commonly off as much as 1/16″. With 1/8″ grout lines, that little bit is noticeable. Luckily, it was not an expensive tile and a few wasted tiles did not amount to more than a couple dollars overall.

I added an accent strip of broken rock tiles, which I cut on my wet saw to 5-1/4″ width. These are 11X11″ tiles with a total overall width of 12″, made to fit together like puzzle pieces, so I had to cut each tile in half, then re-cut each half to get straight edges, so that I would have better grout lines.I found the trick to making straight cuts on these tiles was to leave them in the plastic cover while running them through the tile saw. The plastic helped keep the individual stones in place during the cut.

Setting the accent tiles in place was easier than expected. I decided to use Schluter metal edging trim between the wall tiles and the accent tiles to provide a break between them. I think it turned out to be a good detail choice.

The tile tub surround turned out well enough that Jackie decided to go with tile on the floor as well. I used thinset to level the floor and cover the joints between the new plywood and the old. I used a water barrier (Red Guard again) over the plywood floor and under the tile. This will not only provide a water barrier, but will inhibit tile and grout cracking.

I textured the drywall (green board) by using a rag method I learned long ago. I dipped a wadded-up rag into the joint compound bucket and dabbed it all over the walls and ceiling, working in small sections, following with a steel cement trowel to just knock the tops off the dabs of compound, creating a nice textured effect that not only covers small imperfections in the walls and ceiling, but also takes paint very well and gives the appearance of a plaster finish. This was my first attempt at texturing a large area in this way (I have done it for small wall repairs in the past) and I was very pleased with how easy it was to do and how well it turned out.

Once the texture had cured, I gave it a light sanding, to knock down the high spots, then rolled on primer and paint.

Next was tiling the floor, which didn’t take very long, as the bathroom is a small one, only about 25 square feet of floor space.  I then used a sanded caulk the same color as the grout I intended to use (pewter gray) to caulk the tub surround corners and all around the tub, including the floor.  This has been recommended to me and it seems to make sense. The tub, being made of fiberglass and acrylic, will expand and contract differently than the ceramic tiles, so grout in these areas will eventually crack and allow water penetration behind the tiles. The caulk takes 24 hours to cure.

The following day, I grouted both the tub surround and the floor with a pewter gray modified grout by Custom, labeled Polyblend Plus, also purchased at The Home Depot. I had originally intended to use a light tan grout that coordinates with the earth tones of the tile, but after seeing the tile in place with the dark thinset behind it, I liked the darker grout lines and went that direction.

The final touches were a new wall air vent cover, and the final installation of the new light fixture, medicine cabinet, pedestal sink, and new toilet.

Well, not quite final touches. I will go back on Monday to install the baseboards, finish the sink plumbing (found I was missing one piece) and caulk around the sink and toilet and baseboards, then paint the baseboards.  Then, it will be done!

So, just for kicks, one more shot of the bathroom before the remodel:

Now the remodeled version of the same bathroom:

While this project turned out to be much more involved than I expected, I am pleased with the result and very pleased to have had the opportunity to help my dear friend Jackie. I think she is going to enjoy relaxing in her new heated jet tub in her new custom bathroom.

Happy Retirement, Jackie!

Now to get back to my horses!

TH