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Fear drives us to pre-emptive strike on second floor bath

We got worried about the pipes in the floor of the rear second floor bathroom.  It is located directly above the dining room and part of the living room.  A leak could spell huge trouble for both areas.  Instead of seeing just how long we could go without getting whacked, we decided to ask Joe the Plumber to put in all new pipes.  What a mess.  We had no idea just how hard this job was going to be. 

The bathroom had work done sometime in the 1940's.  We know that because when the sink was removed it had 1943 stamped next to the manufacturer's name and model number.  It was actually in good shape, even though it was missing what I think was either a towel or washcloth holder on the right.  The toilet was of unknown vintage.  The jewel is the cast iron claw foot tub, in very good condition.  

The tub had been converted to a shower some unknown years ago.  It leaked, looked kind of odd and the shower curtains always found a way to smack my rear end.  What should have been a simple shower for me was always became some bizarre battle with me out gunned by stupid sheets of plastic.  

Since we had to use multiple layers of curtains to make sure the water did not escape, it was always fairly dark inside the shower.  In addition, the large curtains made the whole bathroom look much smaller than it actually is.  The decision was made to rid ourselves of the shower.  The question remained...what do we do about a shower?  In spite of what people say about how lovely a bath is, the reality is that we are a shower society.  A bath conjures up pictures of soft music, candle light, a big glass of good wine and looking for your mate among the suds.   Hard to pull that off when you have to go to work in less than an hour.  After much angst, we decided to replace the tub fixture with a hand shower.  Some call it a telephone shower since it does look a bit like an old fashioned phone.  We will show that to you later as we get closer to completion. 

What you see in this picture is the new copper pipes and waste pipes in place.  To get to this point, the toilet and sink pictured above had to be removed and the floor taken apart. 

It looks like sometime in the 1940's, there was a plumbing problem.  The evidence to support that theory is the floor itself.  Instead of oak, we found what amounted to throw away boards covered by some sort of tile material.  The floor supports looked like someone had taken an ax to them to cut away for new pipes.  Joe the Plumber had a very hard time running new pipes from the basement. He then asked me, "By the way Mike, who is your carpenter?"

"Carpenter, what carpenter?!"  After a lengthy discussion, Joe the Plumber seemed to think I could handle the fairly easy task of cutting a piece of plywood to fit over all the shiny new pipe.  But first, there had to be something to attach the plywood to.  There was not one floor support that lay above the pipes.  I spent D A Y S cutting, fitting, re-cutting pieces of wood to fit to the floor supports so I could then attach the plywood. I became obsessed with the idea of using only one big piece of plywood that would somehow magically fit perfectly over the new plumbing. 

No way.  I finally got two pieces to fit fairly well.  The important part is that the new cover was level and SOLID.   No creaks or groans when you stepped on this bubba.  Then Anna came in and said "You know, that would look so nice finished in oak, like the rest of the floor."  

I should have fled the country.......