Door!

Because of the way the timing went, the delay from the previous session actually worked out for the best, because it meant we started the day's work with the door instead of finishing--which meant we also had time to put up the storm door in the same session.

And yes, the whole time we were working on the locksets and such, I had visions of some vital component getting fumbled and going straight down the old toilet hole. It's no longer connected to the sewer, so anything that falls into it will just end up in the basement, but still.

Unfortunately, there wasn't room to leave the old bathroom sink in place. I had hoped there would be, because it's handy having a sink there even though it's no longer a bathroom, but the door couldn't open all the way without hitting it, so it had to go. I'll keep it, stashed in the basement or someplace, in case we can find a spot for it later.

The next order of business will be to remove the old bathtub (which will be much easier now that there's a 36-inch-wide door to the outside right next to it), then tear up the former bathroom floor right back to the joists and build a new one that doesn't have decades of water damage to the subfloor. Once that's done, and we've patched up the damage to the walls, we'll move the laundry machines from their current (rather awkward) spot in the kitchen and put them where the tub used to be. We haven't decided yet whether to completely strip the old bathroom walls, or just leave the entryway-slash-laundry room with weird tile walls. The latter would certainly be cheaper. :)

The bad news is, Dad has other commitments for the next few weeks, so we probably won't have another work session until sometime in mid-October--and then Medical Things will be happening in early November that will probably put him out of commission for the rest of the year, so it's likely we won't get to the third phase of the project, a mild tune-up of the kitchen once the laundry machines are gone, until sometime in 2022. This irritates both of us a bit, particularly since we already lost a year and a half to The Virus, but it it what it is, and we have ample cause to be pleased with the progress we've already made.

(Another payoff that will have to wait until next year is how much easier and quicker the new side door will make getting to the swimming pool in the side yard, but that's just an artifact of how pitifully short the outdoor pool season is at this latitude. By the time we made it to the door, that was already pretty well over for this year.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.