As you can see, we managed to get rid of most of the slate. It was bonded pretty tightly to the plywood below, which was again stuck real hard to the subfloor. With chisel and hammer, most of it was chipped away.This weekend we also managed to remove all the nails holding the drywall, shim boards, or paneling. There are a lot of nails in this house. Nobody can say they skimped on nails. And these are BIG nails. Nails, when removed, that make a terrible screeching sound. They are so tightly bonded with the studs, it was best to use the 3-foot crowbar to remove them.
Okay, so the tub, toilet, sink, floor and many nails are removed - now what? Well, the plan is to remove even more: one wall and the entire floor. The wall will be removed because we are planning to install a pocket-door entry, which will not take up any space in the small bathroom itself. We hope this will make a room smaller than 5x7 seem a little bigger. Thus, the traditional doorframe must go and we must build a new wall. Also, there is plumbing coming up the wall and electrical switches. Those must all be re-done. We think we can put in the pocket door and still keep some plumbing and electrical available. Or so we hope.We are removing the floor (i.e., the subfloor) for 2 reason: one because the plywood the slate was glued to is nailed about 50 times per foot onto the subfloor - nearly impossible to pry up, and under where the tub was (no slate there), so that we can drop that part of the floor by 3-4 inches. Why would we do that? Possibly because we're crazy. But also because we want to install a walk-in shower without a curb. You know what a curb is - that annoying 4-inch barrier you have to step over, trip over, to get into a walk-in shower. It's in the way, it takes up valuable space - did I already mention the room is smaller than 5-feet by 7-feet? And it isn't necessary if the shower is recessed about 3 inches. But we don't want to step DOWN into the shower either. My, my, we are particular. So, the plan is to drop the floor, but then have a wooden decking in the shower, which would bring it back up to the same height as the rest of the bathroom floor. Genius, right? Well, okay, maybe not genius, but we think it will produce a seemless look and very easy in/out shower access.
If you think that's crazy - just wait until you see our plan for the shower door!
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