{shell & seaglass}: {mom, what do you know about plumbing?}

lately we've been hard at work in our master bathroom (finally). and let me tell you, i had no idea how much unglamorous prep work goes into a bathroom remodel before you can even begin to think about tiling. so far we've spent at least four full days and quite a few nights just getting the space ready for the tile. i really had planned on waiting to post anything about it until we were able to start tiling (because who wants to hear about repairing holes in the subfloor or tacking up insulation?).

but then we lived scene two in this commercial.

yeah.. there's nothing like a water geyser in the bathroom wall to provide some excitement on a random wednesday night.

things had actually been coasting along rather smoothly the past few weeks --and let's give us some credit, really since we started this project that is the bungalow-- but things get a little hairy when you introduce a screw to a water line... and how might that happen, you ask??

ok let me back up a little bit - when you start with a blank space like the one above and the goal is to have a custom built, walk-in shower, you have to become best friends with a material called hardie backer board which you have to cut to size to cover the entire area where you plan to tile using special screws to hold it in place. sounds easy enough but what you can't see from the pictures is the fact that it weights a TON because it's made of concrete, so it's heavy and cumbersome and difficult to cut into smaller pieces, and sometimes breaks where you don't want it to or doesn't cut at the angle you needed it, and often crumbles or moves or buckles. thus, causing lots of fussing and yelling and swearing. starting to understand why the prep work takes f o r e v e r ??

and things were going great until last night when one of the screws just grazed a water line (see those bright red pipes on the right side? problem is, you can't when you cover it with hardie board). so in a matter of seconds water was spewing out all over the hardie board & the insulation & the floor & the us & the gh (who, we discovered, is also not a fan of water spewing out of walls, and in sensing the urgency of the situation proceeded to run up and down the stairs, surely in hot pursuit of the off switch to the water line, and for that we thank you, bella).

call in every single beach towel/dish towel/bath towel/bathmat in a very measly attempt to keep water from leaking through the ceiling (which it did anyway, sigh.) while a frantic search begins to figure out how the hell to turn off the water. (come to find out --in case you need to know/note to self -- flip the breaker for the water pump and go to where the water pump actually is and turn the red knob connected to the pump horizontal. advice from the plumber this morning: also turn on the kitchen sink to relieve some of the pressure).

so 25 towels, a bucket, a roll of camo duck tape and a late night phone call to rickythecontractor/bff we were informed of the above steps and finally gained control over the tsunami in the bathroom.

and i can't really handle showing you the aftermath of the floor but let's just say the floor of the sunroom studio (which is directly underneath the master bedroom) had a sizeable puddle/small pond by the time the water stopped.

us: 0 bungalow: 500000

lessons learned: 1-how/when/where to turn off the water to the bungalow & 2-why plumbers make more than attorneys.

on the upside, one of the red pipes feels real special with it's new outfit.