Happy Monthiversary!

Well today officially marks 6 months since we've been in our house. Here's Andrew on August 19th at our closing. I remember that day like it was yesterday...or 6 months ago. :)

After 4 months of waiting for our offer to be accepted, we were so excited to be able to call it ours. Yesterday I did not feel that way because this weekend has been so frustrating! Our only renovation plan for the weekend was to get our tub installed. Sounds simple enough, right? But if we have learned anything in the 6 months that we've been here, it's that nothing is ever as simple as you think it'll be.

Yesterday we realized that the drain in our new tub is in a different spot than the current plumbing. Still, not such a big deal. Just move the plumbing. So Andrew measured. And the exact spot where the drain of our new tub comes out is right over a floor joist. This joist.

The drain would have come out right in the center of the joist, so reinforcing it with another beam so we could cut into it was not an option. Plus a notch in a joist severely weakens it, and we really didn't want to do that. Our only option then became bringing the back wall forward 2 inches so the tub lines up with the current plumbing. Dang. :(

We started by screwing four 8 foot 2x4s into the existing studs. Here is what it looked like before:

And now with all the 2x4s in:

Then since 2x4s are only actually 1.5 inches thick, we screwed 2 sheets of 1/2 inch plywood into the 2x4s, in essence creating a new wall.

Now we're ready to install the tub in mortar, and then we'll install the cement board right over the plywood and studs (on the sides).

The good news about all of this is that it did give us a peek into the soffit in the kitchen (look at the top of the picture with the 2x4s. That space is the soffit). When we redo the kitchen we want to get rid of the soffit so we can add extra cabinetry or at least just have the extra space at the top. We were worried there might be duct work or electrical running through it, but there's nothing! Yay!

Time to install this tub. Wish us luck! We've already figured out this is not going to be easy. Happy 6th Monthiversary, House!