Florida Flip 2...Bathroom Demo and Soldering Pipes

The Bathroom Demo and Soldering Pipes Good morning. Mike and I are in the middle of building a big shed but I can write a quick story. I will take you back to the second bathroom demo. We are gutting the entire bathroom down to the studs and starting over. Just a quick picture of Mike working in the laundry room. We need to take out the old appliances, replace them with new, and redo the room. Mike is working on the plumbing. Onto the bathroom. We have that beautiful very 70's avocado green bathroom. We asked around and no one wanted anything from this bathroom so the quickest way for Mike and I to gut it, is to break it apart. Mike is starting with the cast iron tub. These are just too heavy for us to remove in one piece so we have to break it apart. Mike using the ax to break it...and these tubs are stubborn. Taking a break and doing an easier job. The vanity. The vanity is almost out. Next is the toilet and to speed up the job Mike decides to just break it out. Mike cleaning around the toilet area...yuck!! I hate that job. And back to the tub Using a crowbar on the tiled wall. Mike carefully cleaning up the shattered pieces. If you ever break up a tub or tile be very careful. The pieces are very sharp and can cut you open. While Mike is in the bathroom working, I am taking out the tack strips in the small bedrooms. Mike working on the bathroom walls. After the tub and walls are out we have a huge mess to clean up. What else is new, lol? It has to get worse before it gets better. And more. Time to take out the soffit above the tub. And then the bathroom ceiling. Getting a little side tracked, lol. Mike is taking out the door jams on one of the bedroom doors. We will be replacing all the doors in the house. New door going into the laundry room/garage. Mike is back up in the small attic. We need to add a fan to the bathroom. Here I am using my new fun tool to take out the tile on the bathroom floor. Note....the fancy flip flops and socks Do not do this at home When Mike and I live somewhere when doing projects we tend to just jump into a job when we feel like it Once the floor is out and we get cleaned up, it's time to work on the new tub. Mike needs to work on the plumbing for the tub. Mike soldering the end on the shower pipe. Soldering an elbow for the diverter for the shower. The diverter with piping in place getting ready to be installed. Prepping the pipe to be installed. The diverter is installed and there are no more leaks It may look like a mess but this is a nice job. The new ceiling fan and vent in the ceiling. Of course I put the new insulation in. The new electric for the new bathroom fan. New window installed. And the tub is in place. The messy part is done. The house is prepped for new sheetrock. Time to call in a crew. They do it so much faster than Mike and I can. That will be next week. It is so nice when you get to the point of putting a house back together. I hope you enjoyed this part of the story. Lisa

Motorhome Remodel...Part 3

Time to replace the floor and install a new screen door.
On this day, we were supposed to take off from the motorhome...not. I was down in the house working on inside stuff and canning. I took a break and went up to check on Mike. This is what I found


Half of the old flooring is out of the motorhome, and of course Niki found a seat.

I went inside the motorhome to see what Mike was up to. He was patching the old floor and getting it ready for the new flooring. He has two spots to fix before we can put the new floor down. First is the hole where the old post and table went. We never used this table because it made the motorhome too crowded so out it goes. And he has to patch the floor where the one back passenger seat was.

Mike cutting out some of the subfloor so he can patch it.

The square is out.

Patching it with bondo.

While he does that I get the perimeter of the rest of the floor cut free.

I get that out of the motorhome and start scraping all the glue off the floor.


Mike fills in the last hole which is from the old seat that was behind the front passenger seat.

We are ready. The bondo is dry and the floor is scraped clean of the glue.


We are using individual vinyl floor strips. We chose this for ease of installation, color, and availability at the store.


Mike starts at the side door opening.

Once he gets past the first strips I help him with peeling back the paper and lining up the strips to lay on the floor.


It's coming along nicely.

After the floor we go back to finishing the counter. We have to use what is called end caps which is sold separately for stock counter tops. They are made to be heated on the the ends of the counter top.


Mike ironing the end cap onto the front of the countertop.

And ironing into the back part of the counter.

Next Mike and I discuss adding a screen door since the ERA motorhome does not have one.  Mike wants to make a kit and try to sell it...unfortunately it is too complicated for the average person to install.

We start out by testing the size with a door from our house.

Now that we have the size we have to search down a retractable screen door that will fit.  We found one Larson door from a Lowe's store about 3 hours from us.  So off we go.  We hope this works.  Then again Mike can make most things work:)

Mike starts off by placing the new door in position.  Next he has to take measurements to make templates.  Side walls have to be made and painted.  The hard part is making the side walls because they have to be curved.

Mike gets the right side done...this is the easier side:

Next he works on the left side.  Mike had to take out part of the ceiling to install the side wall and then replace it.

The door from the inside:

Looking at it from the back of the motorhome:

And now we have a new screen door....maybe the only Era with a real retractable screen door out there:)  We are very happy with the result:)

We are finished with this remodel.  My next post will be the before and afters...my favorite:)