HGTV may be Reality TV but it is not Real!

Over the summer I have watched many DIY shows on HGTV. I especially like the show where the woman gets the owners out of their house then comes in with a crew and completely renovates the kitchen/living room/family room in the time it takes for the owners to have dinner and see a movie. Where is she when we need her?

Currently Meg and I are renovating the downstairs bathroom and laundry room at the kids' house. We planned on a simple demolition, adjusting the walls to accommodate a larger bathroom/smaller laundry room, leaving the construction of the new and improved shower area until later. 

Demolition is the part I like.  In most reno episodes on TV, I believe that the deconstruction portion generally show happy, smiling home-owners swinging heavy tools through walls and cupboards.  There is a certain satisfaction that comes from punching through drywall, ripping it off, wielding the BIG crowbar and tearing out studs! What isn't shown all that much on TV (except, maybe, on 'Love It or List It') are the surprises that arise once the walls are punched out. This is when the unorthodox patterns of wiring and plumbing appear, when past water seepage and critter trails are exposed, and when dubious prior construction projects leave you gobsmacked.

       

We have seen them all on this bathroom reno. Everything can be remedied but each remedy takes way more time than planned. Case in point - stripping the vinyl flooring from the concrete. It was really easy to strip it where the water seeped out of the shower but in the dry areas it is taking hours and hours (possibly days and days!) to scrape it off. It's a hand tool, inch-at-a-time kind of job. You never see this on TV.

Another surprise was the concrete shower base that showed signs of questionable bonding to the concrete floor. Meg decided it needed to be lifted...good decision! After demolishing most of the form simply by using a concrete chisel, mallet and beaucoup de elbow grease & sweat, no bonding agent seemed to have been present on the outer edges. All of the 'Bondo' must have been poured around the drain where I am sure we will have to use tiny sticks of dynamite and maybe a jackhammer to loosen the pour. Again this will take days to accomplish and is never seen on TV. 

One the brighter side, our little project inspector, Taegan, is always around to cheer us on and up! She loves to pick up a tool or two to join in to help. This morning she trotted in while Meg was up the ladder about to solder some copper pipe.  Taegan would say 'Whazzat?" and Meg would explain what she was doing and say each tool and material she was using. (You can never get toddlers interested in the trades too soon!)

This went along smoothly until Meg, forgetting that T hasn't mastered the letter L yet, picked up the flux and said " Can you say 'flux'?  .....  We both were aghast at T's rapid response and had to stifle any signs of our horrified reaction.


Our bodies are feeling the rigors of this physical effort. We are no longer 'puppies' but we do love the finished product of our labour. It will still be there in the morning and tomorrow is another day...