So – back in late March/early April, we noticed a little moisture on the floor by the hallway closet. About a week later, I noticed that there was some paint/drywall sagging up above where the wall met the ceiling.
Damn. Something is leaking.
Climb into the attic – look for evidence – Nothing. Climb onto the roof – anything look wrong? – Nope. Grab a hammer and drywall saw – start hacking – Yep. Definitely a leak.
Turns out the overhead hot water run leading to the master bath had developed a slow, slow drip in the seam of a joint. To make matters worse, it’d probably been like that for awhile given how slowly it was dripping – time to cut away more drywall to see how much damage there might be to the framing…
After 30 minutes, I was still cutting. Turns out there was enough moisture to damage roughly 8′ of horizontal frame and a section of vertical frame about 5′ wide. So what to do? Well, first – cut the pipe, cap it, then cuss about it for a bit.
After the complaining subsided, and a taking a few cold showers, plans were established for repairs. But, in true RCF fashion, what that really meant was let’s:
- Take out the closet and air handler then widen the hallway
- Reconfigure the bathroom getting rid of the old mauve sinks and ‘yucky’ (technical term) cabinetry
- Tear out the also ‘yucky’ one-piece acrylic shower tub with sliders and build a proper tiled, walk in shower
- Note – this particular idea required removing one of the cool features found when we bought the place; a little ‘secret’ guns and ammo locker nestled behind the ‘normal’ coat closet (Grrrr…)
- Frame in another window on the south side of the house to bring some of the outside into the space
So the demo began. And after tearing out all of the yuk, the air handler (plan is to replace central with a split system), and the old hallway wall and closet – we started putting it back together.
And finished framing, new plumbing and electrical runs, and set the new shower drain…
Then the fun parts – mudding and tiling and the search for a great slab of black walnut.
And on to the finish work: Cut, sand, seal and fit the slabs. Frame and set. Get the new window in.
Add a little trim, hang the door, scrub the grout a few times – Layla thinks this isn’t going to be half bad…
Yep. We had a leak.