A glimpse into the next months

Last week, I shared some of what we found about the history of the house, specifically the basement powder room. Today, the plumber is here to dig up the concrete that someone poured on top of the toilet flange some time ago. When he came to give us an estimate, he told us that the owners just before us had removed the sink and capped off the faucet fixtures (he was the plumber that did that work) and that the concrete was already in place. He didn’t know why the owners would remove a working sink.

They arrived late in the morning and are still digging up concrete two hours later. Since the pandemic, we have bunches of N-95 masks around so the circulating concrete dust is less horrible. The dog is beside herself barking and only settles down on occasion. We can only imagine what life will be like when our general project begins–with ripping out the back wall of the house!

But we are pleased that we are bringing back both functionality and a little honor to those who may have been relegated only to using the basement bathroom back in the 1930s and 40s. It may be ready by Friday!

One big downside to having work done without a general contractor as most of our renovation will? The individual workers don’t do a lot of cleanup. (This doesn’t cut on them; they didn’t promise to!)Poor Dan has to sweep up the residual concrete dust and wash the floor. Applause for him!