Le super beam

The original layout divided the washroom with the toilet in one little room and the shower and sink in another.  In our case, there was a little swinging window between the two. Cute! And useful for… facilitating conversation while one of us is in the loo? …emergency TP without having to open the door? I suppose, the window could have come in handy, but I decided I would rather have the luxury of a powder room complete with a hand washing sink (I heart hygiene!) and a separate modern bathroom.  It turns out, I’m high maintenance. I wouldn’t even move into Le Pit until we had a proper shower, unwilling to sponge bathe in the kitchen sink. Diva.

Our design required tearing down a structural wall to extend into what was a fourth bedroom and testing out Cousin Rob’s engineering calculations. We beefed up some of the basement and second floor joists and added a new, big-ass LVL beam. RD and Gary installed the new beam with relative ease, I mean, as easily as a HEAVY 10 foot-long piece of laminated veneer lumber can be manipulated.

As it turns out, our existing structure had already been working pretty hard. When we pulled out the existing cast iron tub out, Gary noticed that the beast was made in the “Dominion of Canada.” Old school. It would have been fun to re-enamel it and reuse it but we decided we preferred a freestanding tub. We don’t actually have a freestanding tub, but that’s beside the point. For now.  Like I said, we needed a shower! So far, the structure is doing grand. We love you Cousin Rob!

Careful calculations

Floor joists sistered for reinforcement

Team Le Pit

RD

The cast iron tub…

…made in the Dominion of Canada

Pondering how to move the super beam

managing

heavier than it looks

up it goes

and up

and ready to position

 

Hurry up and wait

If our insulation permit was going to take a whopping 5 weeks to process, I worried how long our renovation permit would take. I was suddenly less hopeful about our October 1^st moving date. That was, until I got an email from my cousin Rob in which he signed off “P.S. Let me know if you need a structural engineer. I know a guy!” He’s the guy. He’s the man! My cousin is a recently registered full-fledged structural engineer.  Was my procrastination to call someone else earlier being rewarded? No, probably not, but I like to think so. Regardless, cousin Rob came to the rescue just in time and agreed to get our full renovation permit plans ready for our next meeting with the City September 5^th. Yet another family connection. You are great cousin Rob!