Can I make a mess or what??

A couple of days overdue on the hall bathroom demo as I pulled a muscle in my back really bad. I wanted to get it feeling better as fast as possible, so I took a couple of days easy to let it rest. It's amazing how bad a person sleeps when every time they roll over they wake up in agony.

But after copious amounts of pain and popping aspirin like M&Ms, here it is.

This is the before.

Yep, pretty boring. Lot's of beige (gag) and outdated fixtures. Easily recognizable as being right out of the mid-80s.

So, we begin with operation 'Un-Beige & Update'!

First step, demo. Now it may seem that it was a complete destroy mission, when in fact it wasn't supposed to be. I was going to leave anything that was salvageable. Unfortunately, there wasn't much. In fact, almost nothing. As predicted, the only thing left original in the room is the tub.

As you can see, it was a total gut-out as I thought.

That's ok, this is the very bottom of the project. From here on out it's all moving forward. Tomorrow is all new insulation for the walls and blocking for the ceiling. If there's time, I'll start the rough-in for the recessed lighting and the exhaust fan. I'll be moving the A/C vent as it was right next to the bathroom door. Not very efficient for cooling down the room as the cooler air would go right back out the door to return and the rest of the room stayed warm. Just more fine craftsmanship from the builders.

I'm hoping that I can start installing the Dur-Rock around the tub on Monday/Tuesday and possibly start installing the ceiling green board on Wednesday. With luck, I can actually start installing drywall by the end of the week.

I still have a TON of floor scraping yet to do and a lot of cleaning around the outside edges of the tub. I also need to find someone who can come in and re-glaze the tub itself.

The part that has got me worried is picking out tub surround tile/flooring, and wall colors. Back to that slight problem of my not having ANY artistic ability.

So as you can see, no shortage of work to be done here.

On a totally different topic, I had a window company come out and go over the house for window efficiency and meeting current code. As I expected, it was a bust on both fronts. The guy tried his very best to be nice and I'll give him props for that, but it was almost laughable.

I'm supposed to get the formal quote on Monday or Tuesday and I fully expect it to be shocking to say the least. That very well may slow down progress on the interior as the current windows are just not even close to what is needed. The hits just keep on comin'.  I swear, this house is going to sink me.

Because of all the extra cost in the bathroom and the upcoming windows, I've scrapped my plans for a trip up north to tour the RV factory. I really wanted to do it and wonder if this is a good decision, but the house renovation costs are just getting too high. There's a very good chance that this bathroom fit-out may have to get put on hold for a couple of months until some other financial obligations unfold.

I may even have to push my full timing jump-off & retirement plans back a full year just to keep the financial cushion that I want/need. I didn't realize just how behind the times this house had gotten. I will say that there had better be one helluva payback when this house sells. I'm not doing all this work and spending this amount of money for the fun of it. I damn sure had better see something come of it.