This first picture is of the south wall of the basement bath. As you can see there is a riser right in the middle of the room. The wire hanging down used to connect with the outside air conditioning unit (which is missing). There is also a small hole where a pipe also went to the outside air conditioning unit. The toilet at least looks like it was functional - at one time.
This next picture is a slightly different view of the same area. As you can see, there was a sink mounted directly on the west wall. The water lines & drain for the sink have all broken likely due to freezing. Looking to the left, you can see a small part of the wall of the shower stall. Notice that it looks crenelated (like the top of a castle wall). This is a block wall that has alternating thicknesses of block in the wall.
This next view is toward the east wall from the laundry area. At this point, Ron & Tristan had already removed the west wall of the bathroom and the rubble had not yet been removed. If you look really closely toward the bottom of the riser, you can see a white pipe teeing into the riser. This pipe went to the sink. It was partially in the west wall, although another part of it had to be stepped over when entering the bath. This angle also shows that the bath was just open into the area with the furnaces & water heater. The utilities are in a tight little L shaped area which would make it quite difficult to work on them.
In this final picture, you'll really need to use your imagination. Just to the right of the riser, you can see the crenelated shower wall, The shower is actually between the crenelated wall & the south wall. The faucets were on the crenelated wall. We just have to imagine that the shower head was also there since it is missing. There is a floor drain in the concrete floor. There's no evidence that there was ever a shower curtain but then there is no evidence there was ever a bathroom door, either. The walls in the shower do not go all the way to the floor joists so there is a gap at the top around the shower. (How ironic! I'm watching House Hunters and they just showed a bathroom in Sweden where the shower is right out in the middle of the bathroom. Apparently they call it a wet room over there. Seems rather drafty to me.)
Given that we've had to do all this demolition, we're going to reconfigure the basement and do some rebuilding. Our business will initially be using this space so a bathroom is a good thing. We'll be gathering measurements and locations for all drains, outlets, etc. so that Eric & Amanda can draw up some plans. They'll be putting in some office space, equipment storage and a break room, too.
And back to my comments about both 3/4 baths not really being functional. The first floor bath has a square shower floor. On the east wall (about 3 inches from the east side of the shower floor) is an electric wall outlet. It isn't even a special bath outlet, just a normal electrical outlet. This had me really freaked out until we determined that there are no faucets or shower heads in the room. Apparently, they were still working on it because the drain did go through the floor but there was no pipe to connect it to in the basement. While none of us are plumbing experts, hopefully, we can make things just a little safer and at least meet code.
Next time, demolition continues in the basement and later it's happening on the second floor. We're getting a lot done but there is soooooo much yet to do. We're working as fast as we can and keeping a positive outlook. Keep us on your prayer list - additional funding would certainly be helpful!
Didn't you say that house was moved to that lot? Is that basement original to that bungalow, or could it have been reused from a previous house that might have been here? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Bungalow was moved to that spot in the 1950s. But there wasn't any house there before the Bungalow, so it has to be original to the house. We've heard that the last owners of the property were scavengers who used a lot of their finds in the 2 houses. This may be why some of the things we're finding seem somewhat out of place. And Ron says that the basement is consistent with 1950s construction.
ReplyDelete