Installing a Dance Floor
This is the “Long” bedroom. It had a closet. In 1929, when the second-floor was converted into five studio apartments by Scott Mouse, Sr., the closet to the Long Room was enlarged (by moving the wall to the right into the hall, and the upper wall also into the hall) and transformed into a bathroom.
Which looked like this when I purchased the house in 2014. The 1970s mylar wallpaper covered over the 1929 linoleum “tiles”.
The Long Room will be my bedroom. And I loathe windowless bathrooms. Ditto for tiny bathrooms. So, my plan was to reconvert the bathroom back to a closet, and transform the housekeeper’s room into an expansive bathroom for me. The 1929 bathroom fixtures were removed (and stored) and I also installed an AC duct up through the floor (thus removing a duct which screwed up the dining room). And……….this is how things remained for six years. Six friggin’ years of having no floor in this small space.
Justin though was suddenly available for a few days so put him to work at belatedly getting a floor in the closet.
However, I also wanted to assure that the closet could, again, be a bathroom in case a later owner wanted to convert the house to a Bed & Breakfast. As such, plumbing needed to be installed. The vertical waste line used a chase behind the angled built-in china cabinet in the dining room below. Perfect!
Ta-da! After six years there was a floor! I was so excited I did a dance in the space! Because of social distancing though it could not be a duet with Justin. The toilet roughing is to the top, with the sink to the right.
Tub roughing.
All the roughing drops into the basement but will not be connected. It will be labeled however so a later owner will know what to do with it.
This way, I will get a nice walk-in closet while making it easy for a later owner to re-install a bathroom without tearing the house apart. The 1929 toilet, sink, and tub will also get labeled.
In short, while people across the globe are terrified, there is a tiny tiny tiny bit of good news:
There is a new dance floor in the Cross House.
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Trite but true…..every cloud has a silver lining.
I’m just loving your blog. You make us feel like we are “in” on the project. You and Justin stay healthy!
Hooray! Let’s do the jig!
I am sure that I am worrying needlessly about something, but the waste pipes are not capped in the picture. If they are not actually hooked in to the waste lines to the sewer, then that is fine. If they are hooked in, then they need to be capped off so sewer gases can’t come into the living space.
*Most people don’t know that traps are designed so that the water in them “traps” the gases in the pipes, blocking these potentially dangerous vapors from getting into the living spaces. Although they might catch objects that fall down the drain, the reason their installation is required by law is to block toxic fumes that, if breathed, may be harmful. They also may be flammable and could ignite, causing an explosion.
******For those readers who live in homes with rarely used plumbing fixtures, the water in the traps and toilet bowls will eventually evaporate and allow the gases in too if they aren’t topped up. ******
As I wrote: “All the roughing drops into the basement but will not be connected. It will be labeled however so a later owner will know what to do with it.”
Kudos to you for thinking about what future owners may or may not want. If it were me, I would be looking at my checkbook and focus on what I needed done. Future owners be damned.
Wow. That 70s wallpaper is so trippy, man! I can’t believe you didn’t want to retain that feature.
Can’t wait to dance in the world’s smallest ballroom.
I love everything that gets done at the BIG house and can be checked off the list, Ross.
I have a question…more like a request though. Can you update us all on your plans to convert the housekeeper’s room to you private bath? There is no way to make it an en suite bath with the long bedroom. Are you going to put a door at the end of the hall near your bedroom to kinda close off that east end of the 2nd floor to afford yourself some privacy?
When I come out of the sewing room late at night to get a snack from the kitchen, you don’t want me to catch you walking down the hall from your bathroom in a towel, do you? Lol
Update: I just went back to the original blueprints and saw the door that closed off the housekeepers room and back staircase. Is it still there? But I would still would like to see a sketch of your ideas for your master bath.
Thanks you Ross for posting something beautiful every day. You make staying at Home easier. Take care.
Thank you for being a source of good news right now.
Man…personally, I think that space makes an ADORABLE little bathroom, and I would much prefer an en-suite bathroom over a closet. I could only dream of what a magnificent closet the housekeepers room would make. Miles and miles of shelving, floor to ceiling mirrors, with a round pouf in the center? *sigh*. I’m with you on the whole natural light thing though. I would have installed an inoperable window with etched privacy glass opening into the stairhall on that little angled wall to fix that issue.
You always think of everything. Thank you for continuing this blog in these horrible times. It’s a bit of normality that’s help keeping us sane. From an avid fan in the uk currently in lockdown.
Randomly watched a video on YouTube (circa house) about you and the Cross House… and now I’m completely enthralled!!! Thank you so much for documenting everything! I now know how I will be spending all my quarantine time! lol!
Very nice to meet you, Julia!