I notched the ends to fit in the slots. Not all that easy as you can’t stand ‘em up in the sliding saw.

Slot 3

Tab A

All four.

Here it sits, balanced on it’s legs. And it still wobbles.

I added a second set of brackets below the first, meant to wedge the branch against the side and first set of brackets.  It’s not perfect but it might work for now.

Here’s a shot of the wobbility assedness of it.  It does stand on it’s own, so it’s a start. 

A much more dramatic shot:

Laying on the top:

And screwed to the 2×4.

I closer look reveals the edges are not even. Perhaps I’ll deal with that tomorrow.

Here’s how it looks from the other side.

Here’s the backerboard I’m going to put on top of the plywood.  I might add leftover tile, or I might just leave it with this stuff as the surface.  Dunno yet, it’s an outdoor plant table and I don’t think plants can appreciate the work put into it.

This table was to be built from scrap, whatever I had in the garage. I knew the legs didn’t need to be all that strong, modern monitors are light and keyboards weigh next to nothing. I found some dowels, and cut one to the height of my would-be table.  Then my eye fell on a walking-stick, propped in the corner.  Natural!  Wood!  On-hand!  Sweet!

The previous day, my neighbor had lugged his borrowed thingy up and down the street, volunteering to cut back pesky branches.  This of course left me with a ready supply of my environmentally friendly table legs.   About the time I was trimming these erstwhile branches, my daughter came out and wanted to know if I was building a table for her plants.  She’s been on a big green-thumb kick lately, to my delight!

Well bazinga, now my table would serve outdoors, where it could be as wobbilty as it wanted.  Because these legs curve, they need to be cut at the correct angle, both at the bottom and top.  There’s got to be some technique to cutting these things, but it’s trial and error with me.

You can see in the pic above I cut a number of slices off the branches to use a shims.  I’m going to need them.  I thought about using the PVC as cross bracing as well, but couldn’t figure out how to attach them with what I have on hand.

I had originally planned on throwing some cement fiber board on top and calling it done, but that would never work.  The stuff I have is to thin, and breaks easily unless fully supported.  So now I needed a frame.  I uncovered a 12 foot length of pressure-treated lumber, slightly curved.  Well, that sort of fits with the theme, so I cut it into two 4 foot lengths, and two 2 foot lengths and screwed ‘em together.  I had to ride it like a pony to get ‘em more-or-less flush.

Here it is, screwed and braced.  If you look at the front left corner, and rear right corner you might notice neither is touching the floor.  Bummer.

I’ll screw the legs to the corner pieces.  I hope the corner braces are big enough for the twisting legs.  I’ll add the plywood in the next stage; I set it on top of the frame here to see if it’s big enough.  Of course, it’s not.

Since it was well over 100 degrees, I decided this was a good place to stop. I set the plywood on top and weighed it down with the miter saw.  Maybe it will straighten itself out.

I had to have some help when I opened this up.  But my objective was to add a light over the tub; I had to do some wiring, drilling and cutting as well as climbing into the dusty attic.  This is what I had when I finished.

And it works!

Next up was the toilet.  More specifically, there was no way I could change out the floors and still leave the same flange. I talked to my friend Matt; my best bet was to cut the pipe in the garage below and add pipe which would extend above the floor level.  I can then cut it to the correct height when my floor is installed.

You can also see in the above picture the added layer of plywood.

I took out that new piece near the door and replaced it with plywood running in the same direction for added strength.

I also replaced the insulation; obviously I need more practice at this.

Although to be fair, the walls on the left have a ton of obstacles!

Next up, I will be installing the CBU, although we do not yet have the tile picked out. Alex wants some sort of blue tile, we will see…

Stripped

And some of the soft spots patched.

Patched

Now I need to figure out how to bring home all the backerboard and drywall.  I think everything else I need will fit into the car.

Not like this!

And then there is the lip problem. No, not the areas that the razor just doesn’t reach.

I’ve read many forums on this and not a few instruction PDFs from tub makers and cement board makers.

Some say to leave 1/4 inch between the top of the lip and the bottom of the CBU.

Some say to use furring strips on the studs so that the CBU can be brought to within 1/8 inch of the top of the tub, thereby covering the lip.  The furring strips will make the protruding lip even with the studs so the CBU won’t bow when it goes from tub lip to stud.

All say to use a vapor barrier, but some say 15# felt, some say plastic (anywhere from 3mm to 6mm). Some say to bring that barrier over the lip, and trim it before caulking. And use caulk to help stick it to the tub lip.

Why is there no consensus?

And then there is RedGard and Ditra. What the heck are they?

I nudged a few of the surrounding tile; they came off as easily as a dress after the prom.  Knowing what mold spores can do, I sent the girls out of the immediate vicinity.  Well, that and they were both grabbing my arms and yelling at me to stop doing that!  The youngest was crying; she just doesn’t like letting go of anything!

Here’s what it looked like after I quit prodding.  Yuck!

Was that really behind there?

So we headed out to find someone who might know what the next step should be.  In this case, it turned out to be a man at Lowes.  He said the best step would be to just rip out all the drywall rather then peeling the tile off.  That way we could avoid spreading the spores everywhere. He also said that lumber from 15 years or more ago had anti-mold properties that today’s lumber doesn’t have. He said that in 1985 the government no longer mandated the use of chemicals to prevent mold. To my relief, he was more or less right – at least above the tub.

I did that, and decided to go ahead and replace the insulation behind the drywall I removed as well.

The new insulation comes wrapped in some sort of plastic.

I also added some Great Stuff to the gaps where I could see daylight.

See that yellow foam-looking stuff?

I’m lucky enough to have a friend who worked in construction for 10-15 years, and he was a perfectionist. He says you should do it right or not bother. So I had a video call with him via Skype. (Why doesn’t everyone use Skype? I don’t get it…) He said I might as well take out all the tile on the floor. And look under the tub. And… He makes me think this might be an opportunity rather then tragedy.

I think this tub needs replacing!

Smish-smash I was taking a bath!

The black spots near the tub were bothering me, so my friend told me how easy it should be to pull the tub as it was mostly likely steel and not that heavy. I did manage to snap off the drain pipe; thankfully it’s PVC. Here’s the nastiness underneath.

Black spooge.

Don't look in the corner.

I’m going to pull the sink next. Might as well see what’s what. But unfortunately before I can begin repairs I need to fix the sagging garage where the dumb-ass “handyman” cut through a support beam to install a garage door opener.

Right through a support beam!