Many apologies, dear readers, that I haven’t posted anything more recently. Between work and the remodel, I’ve been a busy bee. But that doesn’t mean stuff wasn’t happening.

Like, for instance, putting up the rest of the walls.

The extra piece of OSB you see there is to raise the shower floor up sufficiently to allow enough room for the drain that goes with my shower pan. If you look closely, you’ll see some edging around it. That’s how much I need to level it out, but I haven’t gotten around to it.

J did this wall entirely solo while I was at work. Note the new framing. And the lack of plaster on the cinder block walls.

Remember when I said that the doorway here was created out of a window? And that the original remodel left the old window in? Well, J cut the whole area out to reframe it.

The original door was on the far left side, but that entrance was cramped by the tub that stuck out past the doorway. Now the doorway pretty much lines up with the galley space between the tub/shower and the vanity/toilet.

Of course, creating the frame required a much better surface area, since the sides were now often empty block. So, J learned how to be a mason and smoothed out the edges.

Lesson: do not do this kind of work when it’s super cold. Going outside to wash off your tools in freezing weather is not fun.

Before he could do that, he removed all the plaster off the cinder block like he had done on the side of the shower next to the window. This was, apparently, a very messy job, with the aim of gaining an extra inch or so by attaching the drywall directly to the cinder block.

But, hey! Now the walls were all done, and we were finally ready for Inspection #2: Framing (to include drywall).

We had some minor things to do, but got the pass. And then the bad news. The electrical inspection I was told by the City we didn’t need? Well, we would need it, or we weren’t going to pass final inspection. And on top of that, final inspection would require we update all the smoke detectors and CO2 detectors throughout the house to a networked system. (No, the City doesn’t tell you that.)

So, we get an electrical permit added to the building permit (an easy process that didn’t cost anything extra). And call in for an inspection.

No pass.

The inspector was really nice, and walked us through what was likely wrong (remember, we have drywall up now).

So, Gorbachev, tear down that wall! (Actually, carefully remove the wall. But not without accidentally kicking on the faucet line and spraying water all over everything.)

Did you know that bathroom outlets must be on their own circuit? (Separate from lights or other rooms.) Neither did we. And that they must be on 20 amp breakers (requiring 12 gauge wire)? Well, now you know.

I think the inspector was kind because we bothered getting a permit in the first place. Apparently, lots of people don’t, even though if they get caught, they’ll get fined and have to permit the work anyway. And why don’t they? FEAR OF SCOPE CREEP. (And probably also not wanting the government poking around in their house, but mostly people worried the inspectors will note stuff out of the scope not meeting code — like fire alarms.)

Because guess what’s happening now? A lot of rewiring. Since, you know, we have to fix the bathroom outlet issue, may as well make things make sense. But the wires are all underneath 12-18″ of blown-in insulation.

So, we’ve been (mostly J) painstakenly removing the insulation (into these giant bags made for the work) as well as the old batting that the installers had left in so we can see where the wires go and where they junction, etc.

Meanwhile, J wants to take down the drywall around the doorway and put in furring strips because, as he says, he just doesn’t like the way it looks.

And that, my friends, is what we’ve been up to lately.