Sauna Project - Drywall Demo

Last week I managed to pull up all of the old floor tiles. It took an entire day longer than I'd hoped. The 2nd layer wasn't bad, but the first one was stuck on with a sort of asphalt based glue that contains asbestos. The only way to get it up is to scrub it with mineral spirits then scrape it up with a razor blade. So it' time consuming and smells horrific... even with my Darth Vadar mask... er respirator. So I'm still working on that bit by bit.

My friend Melissa came over Friday evening and we pulled down the drywall on the closet surrounding the water heater. I used the saws-all to cut down the studs yesterday. There was a bit of mold on the wall behind the washer. We wondered if the pipes there might be leaking.

We planned to just cut a hole in the drywall there to take a look, but unfortunately the people who owned the house before must have put drywall directly over wood paneling, so it will be very difficult to get to. We can't use a regular drywall saw, and we don't want to use the saws-all because we could accidentally cut through pipes or electrical wires. So, we'll have to figure out what to do about that.

Next I'll cut out the drywall in the ceiling along the joist bay where the plumbing for the water heater will go.

Sauna Project - Nasty Floor Removal

You probably couldn't tell much from the previous pictures, but the vinyl floor tiles in the laundry room were peeling up, and not laid well. There were gaps between them and all kinds of dirt caught between.

Since we're taking down the closet and moving the water heater, we figured we might as well take the old floor up and put down a new one (currently there is only concrete below the water heater).

Things seemed easy at first. Look at that nice clean corner! But as I figured it was too good to be true. The rest of the room (I think) has an older vinyl floor and nasty adhesive under it. I've got my work cut out for me today. At least it's a job I can do (mostly) sitting down. My ankle is much better today, but I'm still supposed to stay off it as much as possible.

Sauna Project Begins!

Since we decided the hot tub would be too difficult to fix, Sami decided it was time to get a sauna.

We discussed putting one in the backyard, but Sami decided the best place would be in our laundry room. There is a bathroom with a shower just next to the laundry.

We measured the room and figured out that we couldn't fit the sauna into the current configuration. The water heater closet is in a very inconvenient location. The closet in in the middle of the wall and leaves two awkward corners.

Sami got very depressed.

I was still pretty sure we could work something out, so I did a nice scale drawing of the room. I figured the washer and dryer had to stay in their current location and the hot water heater would have to be relocated.

I started putting boxes the sizes of various sauna kits in different places on the drawing and figured out a fairly reasonable solution.

First, this built in counter for folding laundry would have to go. Later we can move the water heater to this corner.

After I took these photos, I disassembled the counter and put it on the street with a sign saying "FREE". Less than 15 minutes later a car came by and they took it. Very convenient.

Previously we had my sewing machine in front of the window. This corner to the left of the water heater closet was completely useless. We had boxes of craft materials and other stuff stacked here.

Aside from removing the folding counter, I didn't get any other work done in the room today. After I took it to the street, I ran downstairs to get the camera and sprained my ankle again...

It was pretty bad this time. (I also sprained it two weeks ago hiking, but I'd stayed off of it most of this time and thought I was nearly healed).

Anyway, I had X-rays today. There's a sprain and maybe a small fracture, the picture didn't come out very well because of all the swelling so I have to get another one on Friday. I've been told to stay off my feet for the next few days, so I'm a little disappointed. I really wanted to get going on the sauna project.

Sad Leaky Hot Tub

A month or so ago, I cleaned the mud out of the bottom of our hot tub. I tried to fill it up and get it working and realized it was very very leaky. We were finally able to find a repair company out here to check it out. I was supposed to put water in the hot tub so they guy could see the leak, but unfortunately they came an hour early and I wasn't ready. I had planned on putting the water in only 20 minutes before the guy came because it was leaking so fast. Anyway, he left without seeing the leak, so I took a short video showing it. Well, as much as I could show since it's about 6 inches from the ground and like trying to look up at your bathtub faucet while your face is directly under it.

Oh, yeah, we have a serious bamboo problem too... apparently the bamboo has grown all around the pipes and stuff under the hottub. I spent about an hour cutting it out enough to see the leak.

Grapes!

We knew we had a grape vine, but we didn't expect much from it. We didn't even know what color the fruit would be. Anyway, they're ripe now and very tasty. And seedless!