Bathroom remodel anyone?

Oh heck. Today started off so good. There was a list of possibilities. They quickly turned into "Oh my Heck!"


The middle daughter drew the short straw evidently this morning. She went to pull the lever up to take a shower and is now responsible for a total bathroom remodel! The house hasn't been touched since 1963 and that faucet connector (called a nipple - just for the blog traffic thank you!) is fused with the main pipe and will not budge. See photo below:

This picture is evidence of what facilitated the remodel. The tool, a nipple extractor - yeah guys name tools (forged steel) broke off inside the pipe (nipple, there I go again!) so now the entire pipe will have to be removed. That means taking out the tile. The tile is cemented on the wall. Those pesky 1963 builders! They've built this house to last through the millennium. Just not the plumbing.

We have been planning this for months actually. But we were waiting to see if we were going to expand the bathroom, and add a master bedroom onto the house. We are fortunate to own a house in the county so the building fees are reasonable. The only thing to be considered is the fact that this house was built in 1963. It has no foundation and a crawl space. So do we add on behind the other bedroom and expand the bathroom or do we use the patio already in and build on a room behind the garage?

The answer to that is if the patio is the correct thickness to be classified as a foundation. If it is the bathroom will stay the same size and we'll just add the room on the back of the garage. It will be the most cost effective room and we can make our other bathroom a full bath without too many difficulties. Worst thing? The middle daughter still hasn't been able to take a shower, fun.

Son Alison, have any tips for me?