Demolition is going on. After the kitchen, I turned to the first bathroom, the one at the end of the hallway.

I’m still full of enthusiasm (if only I knew…) and getting rid of this old stuff is quite liberating. I have respirator, goggles and gloves on - what you find under an old bathroom is not exactly pretty and probably not very healthy neither! This drywall seems to be the original one (circa 1964), and wow, I don’t think I want to breathe too much of it - I’ll keep the respirator, thank you.

Everything was in very poor shape and came off quite easily.

Well, everything but the bath tub. It felt fairly heavy and sturdy, and I was hoping this would be one of these cast iron tubs that you can just break with a hammer. Not so lucky - it was just cheap iron. You cannot break these, nor cut them (like you would cut an acrylic bathtub); you need to remove it in one piece. The first problem was an unexpected one: I couldn’t remove the old rusty drain basket… come on, how hard can this be? I don’t even have to be careful about the tub… no, cannot even get a grip on that thing… losing my calm and getting the hammer out doesn’t help much neither… Problem will be solved a few days later with the help of a contractor I was discussing a bid with: “oh you know, there’s a special wrench for this. I can lend you mine”. Thank you Steve!

Since then, I’ve found a web page describing another method to accomplish this. Obviously quite a common problem

Now, the second challenge is to lift and get this tub out of the house. It’s very heavy and it sits tight between the two opposite walls. This is impossible alone (yes, I tried and wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re looking at crushing your back and fingers). There again, problem was solved a few days later, with the help of my father. Three people wouldn’t have been too many, especially as you have to twist this heavy tub in some inimaginable ways to get through all the door frames!

Overall, it probably took me two full days to get through that demolition and clean-up.

I don’t think I had ever enjoyed a shower as much as I did enjoy the one I would take at the end of each day during that demolition exercise (back at the house we were renting, in a bathroom that was still in one piece)!