Walls up!

We are ready to pull the trigger on these two new bathrooms!  Instead of taking apart, we are now putting together.  We have our plumber's bid and it was just what we expected.  A lot of drains and supply lines will need to be moved to accommodate the new layout.  In order to have the plumber start, we need all the walls in place that will hold water.

So the first wall was to split the bathroom in half.  We debated the best way to build this wall because it is a little complicated by a tall, sloped ceiling and some decorative cross joists.  The center beam has another beam a couple of feet below it.

Originally we were going to build the wall directly under the center beam which would have been easy.  However, the side that will become the master bath needed a few more inches in width to work the way we wanted.  Plus the other bathroom will not have a tub so has more space to spare (not to mention, it is a kid's bathroom, more for the adults!).  So the wall had to go up right beside the beams.

To deal with the trouble of attaching the top plate to a sloped wall, we cut some 15 degree wedges to hold the top plate level and then sank nails into the hidden joists.  It was surprisingly easy to do.

Then we split the top plate into three sections to fit inside the joists.  We considered trying to cut the joists since we believe them to be completely decorative but we weren't sure we could do a good job cutting them in an attractive way.  So we constructed the wall in separate segments with the top plate split.




The height of this room at its tallest is 10' 7" which meant we had to  use 12' lumber instead of 8' or 10.'  To make matters worse, the Home Depot was out of 12' pieces so we went with 14' lumber.  Wow, those are so long to get home in your SUV!  Not to mention, this length tends to be very warped.  As it turns out, we ended up using a double top and sole plate so we might have gotten away with 10" studs.  Nevertheless, it is done.

Once the main dividing wall was up we had to build a short perpendicular wall that will hold the shower head.  That one was much easier because we built it 8 feet tall to fit under the lower beam.

 First step toward the new bathroom is done.  Hooray!

And here is my best carpenter.  Thanks honey!