May: Renos Part 1: The suite bathroom

Well, here's the first project for the house. Knowing that we have have house in North Van (re: insane mortgage) and that the law of passive income is something that's been drilled into my head (oh Syd... so many things outside of school to teach you) our first project is to get our suite in up-to-date condition so that we can rent it out and max out on some income.

Projects include:
- A complete reno of the bathroom
- Re-paint of the bedroom (thanks Kerrie, Lorne and Sam for the help)
- Re-paint, drywall touch up and vapor barrier of the living room and parts of the kitchen (Uncle Ian was a huge help... and he hates painting... :)).
- replacing old windows

The most exhaustive effort thus far is the bathroom. On top of the tiles and paint being outdated, the previous owners did a home reno job. The pipes were above ground as they didn't drill into the foundation and the tiling was done poorly. Highlights include:
- Tarick hooking us up with Lee (what a life saver)
- Stripping down two layers of drywall and one layer of plywood, a major pain in the behind
- Disposing of black mold walls, not good
- Tossing out an old steel tub and outdated fixtures and replacing them.
- Ditto for the North Carolina blue toilet
- Updating all the copper piping
- Installing a laundry box and updating the sink pipes
- Rewiring wire that goes through the bathroom
- Drilling into the foundation with a jackhammer (video proof to follow) to lay down proper piping
- Snaking the piping and cleaning out 40 years worth of disgusting back-up ... it's as gross as it sounds and the stains don't come out
- Re dry-walling and proper vapor barrier (thanks Uncle Rob)

We still need to finish the drywall and lay the slate floor tiles and the new shower tiles, but it's progressing.

Sydney, I think that your mom has found her true calling. She's way more of a natural at this than I am. I just like to paint... :)

More to come...

Before pics of the bathroom with the elevated tub 1.5 feet of the ground






















Stripping away the old drywall to find black-mold and rotten wood























Dropping the tub and the piping into the ground.



















You don't want to throw what the "snake" brought in...