House Renovations Blog

Dumpster #1 filled after 2 weeks - a 20 yard container

alice Niles House

One of the first things we wanted to get resolved was a working bathroom - after all, if you need to use the bathroom you don’t want to have to drive 15 minutes

Since we’re planning on tearing out almost all of the first floor plumbing and electrical as we consolidate the 2 apartments on the first floor, we decided to get the second floor bathroom running. If you don’t remember it, here are some pictures :

View of second floor bathroom from the hallway

Toilet/ sink area against the front of the house

We discovered that the reason the second floor bathroom had leaked in the past was due to the replacement toilet; the previous owners didn’t seat the wax ring properly so it never properly sealed the base, allowing water to leak down into the first floor ceiling. But a trip to Lowe’s and a new wax ring & new toilet bolts fixed that problem, so we don’t have to drive all the way back to the Berrien Springs house to use the bathroom. And having fixed the water pipe in the basement means we now have running water!

alice Niles House Second Floor

Original first floor great room drop ceiling

The first floor ceilings underneath the second floor bathroom

So we decided that since we had fixed the second floor water leak issue, that we could then remove the drop ceiling that had been installed in the front great room on the first floor. We discovered that the toilet water leak must have been happening for a while, as there was not only the Styrofoam ceiling tiles hanging from the original plaster ceiling, but another ceiling underneath it - stapled paper ceiling tiles that had been painted a bright bluebird blue.

View of the front great room ceilings

Evidently at one time a rodent decided to make the ceiling its home, as we found a clean chicken bone, lots of cherry stones and evidence that the mouse had made part of the ceiling its nest (red arrow in picture to the left). But after donning dust masks, all the styrofoam tiles and the metal interior frame were removed and tossed into the waiting dumpster. We still need to remove the perimeter metal frame and the paper ceiling tiles, and we’re definitely going to be using the drywall jack that Tony purchased at an auction to repair the ceiling.

alice Niles House First Floor

Pictures of the pipe replacement work to remove the strange pressure valve in the basement water line :

The original iron pipe and pressure release valve

The pipe is gone!

New brass PEX fittings

The new PEX pipe is in place

And we now have running water!

alice Niles House