Three out of four bathroom fixtures up and running!

Although I’d originally wanted to do my own plumbing here, I got a case of the smarts and decided that doing my own electrical work was enough for an amateur. I hired a plumber. On Thursday, March 12, they did most of the finish work in my home.

Plumbing and Construction

If you’ve never participated in the construction of a home, here’s some basic information you might find interesting.

There are three basic steps to putting the plumbing in a home:

Stub In

This is where they bring the pipes from the outside of the house into the house. For my home, there would be a concrete slab. The supply and waste pipes had to come in from outside, under the slab, so the pipes had to be laid before the concrete was poured. This was done back in June 2014, while my building shell was under construction. (Later, my earth-moving guy connected the supply and waste lines from the building to the water supply and septic system.)

Because my building is a pole building and the slab was poured as one of the last steps, the building shell was almost done when the plumbers came to do the stub in.

Rough In

This is where they put pipes for water supply — including hot and cold — as well as waste and venting into the walls. They need to know where to run all these pipes and they need to have room to run them. Because I’d originally planned on doing this part myself, I made my home design very simple, with all the plumbing basically running along one wall between my kitchen and bathroom. That wall was framed with 2 x 6 lumber (at my request) so there was plenty of space. This was done back in January 2015, as I was working on the electrical system.

Here’s one of the rough in plumbers working on a drain line in the wall between my kitchen and bathroom.

Finish

This is where they connect fixtures to the supply and waste pipes. When the finish is finished, the plumbing works. That’s what they started on Thursday.

The Fixtures

I’ll admit it straight out: I didn’t skimp when I bought plumbing fixtures. I bought exactly what I wanted.

After too many years of making decisions as part of a two-member committee, it was refreshing to be able to just get what I wanted without excessive research, debates, and delays. Everything from appliances to toilet to water heater to faucets — I looked at what was available, pointed to what I wanted, and had it delivered or loaded onto my cart. Done!

Some things I cared about — for example, my kitchen sink and faucet fixture. I wanted a specific style and look and took some time to browse the options before picking one. Other things I didn’t care much about — for example, my water heater. Any electric unit with a 50 gallon tank should be fine.

I should mention here that in addition to standard items normally connected to a plumbing system — kitchen and bathroom sinks, toilet, dishwasher, refrigerator (for ice maker), water heater — I had a few unusual items. The most unusual was my bathtub. And yes, that was something I labored over the decision-making process. The reason: I had to order online because there was no showroom where I could see options.

You see, I wanted a soaking tub. I’ve always wanted a soaking tub. Unfortunately, the tub I’d dreamed of having simply wouldn’t fit in my bathroom given the location of the window. So I had to find another tub that would fit the bill. I eventually decided on the 67-inch long Coley freestanding tub. I’d position it at the far end of my bathroom, right in front of my window, so I could take in the view while I soaked. (Sounds pretty good, huh?)

The reason this is unusual? Well, most folks don’t have a freestanding tub. Most folks have a tub that’s built into the wall or shower area. My freestanding tub required a freestanding faucet. It also required careful positioning to get the drain just right — no small task with the rafters under the floor. (As a matter of fact, we wound up installing the tub backwards with the drain opposite the faucet just so it would fit right.)

The tub arrived in January, when my road was iced over and the delivery guy was afraid to drive to my home. I had to take my truck out to the main road where the tub was transferred from his truck to the back of mine. Then I utilized the services of a friend of mine who happened to stop by for lunch to get it off the truck. For months it sat in its box on a dolly under my 5th wheel RV’s hitch. It would be the first plumbing fixture to be installed.

My shower was also different. Rather than buying a manufactured shower stall, I would be building mine onsite with acrylic block walls. And I couldn’t build it until the tub was installed because they’d never get the tub past the constructed shower stall.

Because of that — and because the kitchen sink would be mounted with the countertops at March month-end — it would take two visits from the plumbers to finish my plumbing.

The Start of the Finish

I used the same plumbers for each step of my project construction. They’re good, reliable guys who do good work and have patience for someone like me — a homeowner in the role of inexperienced general contractor who is making things up as she goes along.

After a rush to get my bathroom floor done and last few plumbing fixtures purchased, Dave and his son arrived on Thursday at about 11 AM. They got right to work.

The tub was first. After securing the special faucet I’d bought for the tub, they carried the tub up the stairs. I was working on the electrical connection for the water heater in the laundry room when they wrestled it past the doorway. Within minutes, it was in position, snug at the end of the room.

Next was the drain for the shower stall. They drilled a hole though the floor to meet up with the drain pipe they’d installed at rough in. Back then, I didn’t have the shower pan so they’d estimated where the drain should be. They were off by about 8 inches, but would meet up with the P-trap. Before they put the shower pan back in place, I laid in some floor repair paste that would cement the shower pan to the floor.

They went downstairs to connect the two drains to the pipes under the floor. I’d instructed the drywall guys to leave the drywall panels off the garage ceiling under those two drains — it took some measuring to figure out exactly where they needed to be once the insulation was in place. They pulled the insulation away and connected the pipes.

Next was the water heater. Dave and his son carried it up the stairs and Dave left. I chatted with Dave’s son as he prepped it for installation. It was shorter than they’d anticipated. I’d wanted to put a shelf over it, but they’d run the rough-in plumbing for a much taller tank. The end result was a rather odd looking configuration with two long pipes coming out the top of the tank and going into the wall.

The toilet was next. I think he told me three times that I’d bought a very good toilet. I was just glad to see that its base completely covered the drain hole in the tile.

Meanwhile, my friend Tom had exchanged the cracked vanity top with sink at Lowe’s and returned with the replacement. I was supposed to have the top in place for the plumbers to install the sink fixture. But Tom couldn’t stick around to help me carry it upstairs. So, I opened the box down in my garage and waited.

Next, Dave’s son got to work downstairs. After shutting off the water at the street, he had to clean up my Frankenstein’s monster of a pex plumbing job that I was currently using to get water into my RV. He shortened the source pipe, at my request, and bracketed the whole thing to a piece of plywood I’d fastened between the posts supporting the stairs. He then added a shutoff valve and a pressure regulator — I have extremely high water pressure here — and connected that line to the cold water pipe the rough in guys had dropped from upstairs. The resulting configuration looked funky but was functional and secure.

When that was done, I looked at him and said, “You know what’s next, right? The bathroom sink.” I pointed to the vanity top with sink sitting in its box on the garage floor. “I can’t carry it alone. Can you help me?”

He kindly agree to. I ran a bead of silicone sealant I had around the top of the vanity on three sides and we carried it upstairs. He helped me align it. And then I stepped aside and let him install the faucet I’d bought.

While he was working on that, I was finishing up the wiring for the water heater. I had a heck of a time with the grounding wire and will probably have an electrician friend check it to assure it meets code. In the meantime, I know it’s functional, even if it isn’t pretty.

Dave’s son went out and turned the water back on. Then he turned on the valve downstairs. Soon I could hear water coming into the water heater. A moment later, he was upstairs, testing the fixtures one by one.

I think I was too shocked that these things were working to really register what was happening. After all, only a week before the bathroom had been nothing more than a plywood floor with a shower pan and two stub walls. Now it was 75% done and everything installed was fully functional.

Once the water heater tank had filled, I flipped the circuit breaker switch to turn it on. Upstairs, I could hear a faint hum from inside the tank. I’d have hot water in less than 30 minutes.

Other appliances already connected to the plumbing — the refrigerator’s ice maker and washing machine — would work as soon as I turned them on.

I helped Dave’s son pack up his things, thanking him over and over again for getting so much working that day. I told him the kitchen sink would be installed by March 27 and that I’d do my best to get the shower ready for installation by then, too. It would be a quick job for them to hook up the shower head, kitchen faucet, and dishwasher. And then the plumbing would be finished.

When he left, I wired the last outlet in the laundry room, thus completing the circuit that the washing machine was connected to. I went downstairs and turned on the breaker.

And then I did something I’d been dreaming about doing since I left my Arizona home in May 2013: I did a load of wash in my own washing machine.

My new kitchen and laundry room appliances are delivered.

All the way back in December 2014 — a full three months ago — I decided to take advantage of an excellent Black Friday sale at Home Depot to buy all the appliances for my new home. I had planned my home and my kitchen to be simple, but comfortable. My appliances would be brand new and fully modern, incorporating the features I’d always wanted but never seemed able to get in my old life.

When I ordered the appliances, I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to take delivery of them. I was still sitting on the fence about whether I should go away for the winter or stay in Malaga and get my home done in time for a spring move-in date. As a result, I set the delivery date as far into the future as Home Depot allowed: three months. The date, which I didn’t even bother putting on my calendar, was February 28, 2015.

I subsequently went full steam ahead on construction and stuck around most of the winter to oversee subcontractors and get a lot of the other work done myself. Winter is my slow season for flying and I didn’t have any other things to hold me back, so I got a lot done. By the morning of Friday, February 27, my kitchen was starting to take shape with the cabinet installation mostly finished. I started wondering when the appliances would come — Home Depot had not called.

I was at Home Depot that morning and asked at the appliance desk. She punched my name into the computer and told me the appliances would arrive the next day.

“Saturday?” I asked. “They deliver on Saturday?”

“If that’s what you asked for,” she replied.

I left her desk in a mini panic. Was I ready to get my appliances the next day? I wasn’t — but I thought that maybe I could be. I had a lot of work to do.

Last Minute Preparations

The work that needed to be done fell into three categories:

• Electrical preparation. Although my home’s in-wall wiring had been run and hooked up to the circuit panel, I had not yet finished the outlets for the refrigerator, dishwasher, washer, or dryer. (The range was done.) I needed to get the right receptacle for the dryer — which used 10/3 wire — and then I needed to wire all the receptacles — especially those that would be behind heavy appliances that I didn’t want to have to move.
• Floor preparation. Although I’d laid the floor in my laundry room using adhesive vinyl planks, I had not prepped the floor under the kitchen appliances. I could not lay the Pergo I’d bought for the rest of my home — appliances should not be set on top of so-called “floating floors.” I needed to put flooring under these appliances that was the approximate thickness of the Pergo. That meant 1/4 inch plywood with some more of that adhesive vinyl on it. I needed pieces for under the refrigerator, range, and dishwasher.
• Laundry room molding. The space between the vinyl flooring and wall in the laundry room needed to be filled in with molding or trim. I’d planned to do the molding myself throughout the house using 1 x 4 planks that I’d stain. The laundry room would be a good place to experiment because it really didn’t matter how it looked. What was more important was that I got that molding in place before the washer and dryer were stacked there, since it was unlikely that I’d ever move them to lay the molding in later.

During the day, as the cabinet guys labored to get the over-the-fridge cabinet installed — heck, it was worth the installation cost just to get that one installed right — I worked on outlets in the kitchen and made a list of the things I needed at Home Depot. When they left, I was right behind them, list in hand, ready to exchange another bunch of money for more building materials: 4-prong 30 amp receptacles, plywood, 1 x 4 lumber, stain, 20 amp outlets, outlet covers, etc., etc. (I manage my lists with the 2Do app on my iOS devices and Mac so I always have them with me and can update them from anywhere. Yes, I’m a geek.) I had brought along the measurements for the flooring under the appliances, so I had the Home Depot guy cut the plywood to size for me. That would likely save me about an hour of time and, although they’re supposed to charge for cuts when there’s more than one per piece, they never seem to charge me a dime.

I also bought a table saw. I already had a miter saw that I’d bought the previous week, but the cabinet guy had advised me to get a table saw to handle the rip cuts when I laid in that Pergo. I have to say that I absolutely love having all these power tools on hand. Although my 12 x 48 shop area is half full with my furniture and packed boxes, I’m really looking forward to setting up a permanent shop area once those things are moved into my home.

Of course, by the time I got home it was nearly 8 PM. I am not an evening person. I do my best work in the morning. By then, an annoying Home Depot delivery recording had warned me that delivery would be sometime between 8 AM and 11 AM. That meant I’d be up early on Saturday to get things done.

And I was. I was out of bed by 3:30 and dressed and coffeed up by 4 AM. I had to do things in the right order to make use of my limited time. That’s why I was rolling adhesive floor primer on three pieces of 1/4 inch plywood at 4:15 AM. It might need a few hours to dry and it was vital that it would be ready for the vinyl later that morning. I set it on the cabinet tops to dry.

Next came the preparation for the laundry room molding. I’d never used a miter or “chop” saw before so I made a few test cuts in the wood before making the actual cuts I needed. It was a lot easier than I expected it to be. My main concern was getting the left side and back side walls done; I could do the rest later. Once the pieces were cut and tested — they fit! — I got out the stain and a rag, donned a pair of disposable gloves, and rubbed in the stain. It was a lot darker than I expected — probably not the color I’d want to use in the rest of my home. But this was the laundry room and I didn’t really care how it looked. That room was my “test bed” — more on that in a moment.

While that dried, I got to work on the few remaining outlets that needed to be done: refrigerator, dryer, washer. It went very smoothly. At this point, I’ve wired about three dozen outlets in my home, shop, and shed so I’m getting pretty good at it. I resisted the temptation to wire other outlets that didn’t need to be done — stay focused! — and went on to my next task.

The plywood pieces were dry and ready for vinyl. I had bought an entire box of the stuff with the thought that it might be suitable for my bathroom. But after putting it down in my laundry room, I decided it was too cheap looking for my bathroom. I wanted something nicer. I’d planned to return the remaining planks, but now I had a better use for them. I laid them out on the plywood pieces, using as many of the trim pieces from the laundry room that I could. For a scary moment, I didn’t think I’d have enough to do all three pieces. But by some miracle, I did — with just two 36-inch planks to spare!

The finished pieces actually looked pretty good. I had to trim one — either I’d measured wrong or the Home Depot guy had cut wrong — but my circular saw made short work of that, despite its dulling blade. (Note to self: get new blade for circular saw.) I laid each piece into position and fastened them down with the drywall screws I’d been picking up off the floor for the past two weeks.

By this time, it was about 8 AM. I still had one job to do: lay in that molding. I went down into the shop and was pleased to see that it had dried. I rubbed it with a clean rag. It looked okay, but really a lot darker than I wanted. Still, it would work for the laundry room. I brought it upstairs with some skinny nails and a hammer, laid the pieces in place, and banged them in. I admired the results. Not perfect, but certainly not bad.

The phone rang just after I took this photo. It was yet another Home Depot recording telling me that the appliances were just an hour away. Timing is everything. I went into my RV and made some breakfast. It was about 9 AM.

The Appliance Delivery

The delivery went very smoothly. The guys pulled into my driveway in a good-sized Mayflower moving truck. The driver got out and introduced himself and his partner. They were from Moses Lake, which is about 90 minutes from my home by car. I showed them where everything had to go, apologizing for the stairs. They didn’t seem to mind — I suspect they deal with stairs on a regular basis.

Twenty minutes later, they started bringing things up. The range was first. It’s a flat-topped electric range that fits into my kitchen island. It was a perfect fit. The countertop people will adjust its height so that it’s flush with the counters. They plugged it in and I ran downstairs to flip the circuit breaker. It worked. Not only did the burner shown turned on in the photo come to life, but when I touched the panel, it lit up with all kinds of digital buttons. (Understand that I didn’t choose this range from an in-store display so I had absolutely no idea what it would look like in real life. All I’d seen were a few photos.)

My new range even has a bread proofing feature!

The rest of the appliances came up one at a time. The dishwasher was pushed into place, but since the plumbing was not ready for installation, it was not fully installed. I’ll have the plumbers do that when they come, possibly next week.

The dryer was stacked on top of the washer — I couldn’t see any reason to put them side by side when they could be stacked to save room. Although my tiny laundry room looked extremely crowded with the two appliances stacked in there, both delivery guys assured me that it was the largest space they’d stacked a washer and dryer in the past week. They fully connected the washer and dryer to the water supply and vent rough ins. I flipped the circuit breaker for the dryer and we turned it on. It worked fine. I couldn’t try the washer because the plumbing isn’t done yet. But you better believe that if I have to go to the laundromat before the washer is hooked up, I’ll be bringing wet clothes home for my own dryer.

The refrigerator was the last thing to be brought up. They hadn’t been told to make the door hinge switch, so they did that when they got it upstairs. While they worked on that, I pulled out the shelf packing material. Soon they rolled it into place beneath the cabinet that had been installed so painstakingly just the day before. Later, when the cabinet guys returned to finish up, they’d put a spacer to close up the space between the fridge and the cabinet.

Between each delivery, the guys would remove all of the packing materials, including plastic, foam, cardboard, and tape. They took all that garbage — and the boxes the appliances had come in — away with them. (This was a huge relief to me, since I still had to dispose of a ton of foam packing material from my living room lights, ceiling fans, and power tool purchases. They were extremely careful about dinging the walls — indeed, I didn’t see a single scratch or handprint. They were friendly, polite, and completely understanding of my excitement. Because they were sweating from the hard work, I offered them Gatorade, bottled water, and Coke to keep them hydrated and even turned off the heat in my home so it wouldn’t be so hot for them. I tried to stay out of their way, wiring outlets in the kitchen and living room as they prepped each appliance for the trip up the stairs. It was a very positive experience.

It’s beginning to look a lot like a kitchen.

When it was done and they’d gone, I walked around my home, admiring my appliances. Only two were currently functional: the range and the dryer. But the refrigerator’s circuit could be flipped on as soon as I was sure all the outlets on that circuit were complete; I’d do that in the morning. Of course, the ice maker wouldn’t work until the plumbing was complete. Neither would the washer or dishwasher.

That made it pretty clear what my next big task would be: prepping the bathroom so the plumbing could be finished.

In the meantime, I started planning for my next big party: “Ladies’ Night, Kitchen Box Unpacking Edition.” I figure that after the countertops are installed at the end of March, I’d have a bunch of friends over to keep me company while I unpack all the kitchen boxes I packed that last winter in my Arizona home. I was bored out of my mind at the time, frustrated to no end by my future wasband’s unreasonable attitude and stupidity, so I’d filled the time by packing up more and more of what I’d bought for that home over the years. I know I packed more than I probably want to keep and figure that some of the excess might make nice door prizes for my friends. Any excuse for a party, eh?