Day Seven--Bathrooms Get Power!!!

After church, I made another quick run to Menard’s.  I swear I live there!  After Mom’s homemade lunch, Dad and I headed to the house.  We started out the day by retrieving his pliers behind the walls of the bathroom. He had rigged up a magnet on a string wrapped around an air freshener bottle. I had the pliers in about a minute. Nice job, Pa!

Our goal for the day was completely finishing the bathrooms.  We would then be nearly complete (outside of a few outlets we removed from circuits) with that ENTIRE section of the house, allowing my flooring guy to get in there…and my paint guy to get in there!

Dad started off by telling me he thought the main bathroom fan could probably be wired from INSIDE the fan. He said he thought about it while trying to sleep. I pulled off the fan to find that was the case! It's amazing what just stepping away from a project can do for a brain. So I started to wire the main bathroom fan while Dad worked in the master bathroom.

Sure enough, after testing the circuits in the attic, we confirmed that both bathrooms were wired off of the Master Bedroom closet junction box. We decided to put each bathroom onto its own circuit. The electrical re-wiring was again fairly simple but slow-going. Both Dad and I were ecstatic to have found the wires easily accessible behind the mirror yesterday, and we worked today to tie everything together.

Dad worked on tying up the electrical in the Master Bathroom, while I decided to tackle my never-ending water problem. I installed 1/4-turn valves underneath the main bathroom sink only to find that one leaked. One of the supply lines from the wall was so flush with the wall that I couldn't get a good wrap of teflon tape on the threads.  Agh, it’s so frustrating!!!

The original valves.

Replaced with 1/4-turn shut-off valves.  Unfortunately the left one leaks...  :(  The pipe is too far in the wall!!!

 

We're pretty good at creating a mess when we work.  Notice the bathroom fan, the old two-prong receptacle, and the faucet handles and aerator removed!  Numerous projects going on today!

So after two weeks, the water was FINALLY on...again. Except that I found a leak. ANOTHER leak! sigh. This time my main bathroom tub was leaking. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it to stop from the minor but constant trickle. I needed a new cartridge. Agh!!! What's crazy is that it didn't use to leak on Day One, but now it was. Oh the joys! So before we left for the day, I had to turn the water back off...AGAIN!

While I was working on the water, though, I decided to see if I needed a new cartridge in my main bathroom sink faucet.  Both the hot and cold just trickle out.  I opened up the cold cartridge only to find that it was clean!  So I had a hunch.  I took off the aerator and quickly realized why water wasn’t flowing!  I had tons and tons of hard water deposits!  Gross!!!  I cleaned all of them out, and the faucet works flawless!

The reason the sink wasn't working!!!  Soooooooo many water deposits!!!  Ewwww!

Dad was able to get the main bathroom AND master bathroom wired up. Unfortunately the circuit breakers I had purchased did not match the breaker panel, so the project isn't officially complete, but it's as close as you can get. I'm hoping I can find a replacement breaker!!!

The bathroom with the new light fixture!  Looks great!

But we did what we set out to do. We now have two working bathrooms!!! We were both thrilled with today’s results in terms of electrical.  Getting both bathrooms completed in a weekend is so satisfying.  Tomorrow's goal is to finish up all of the receptacles that we have been removing from each circuit and tie them all together on their own circuit.

We are getting there! Today was a huge jump in the right direction!

Of course, my water woes continue…the water is back off.

I made a quick trip to Menard’s before it closed this evening and picked up some linoleum.  With the bathrooms now completed, my flooring guy can come this week!  WOO HOO!!!