A major milestone occurred today. The plumber pulled out our old toilet in the master bath to make way (eventually) for a nice new comfort height toilet. With the old toilet gone, the drywall guys have access to the wall behind it.

The old toilet is gone.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the house, we needed a new outside faucet, properly called a sillcock. The old one was located in what will soon be our new shower, so it’s been removed.

The only access to a water line where the new sillcock would be located was behind a wall made of knotty pine paneling. So off came the paneling. We hoped we might find hidden treasure or at least some interesting memorabilia behind the paneling, but no such luck.

This paneling had to go.

The plumber tapped into the water line for the guest bathroom and added new line (blue) for the sillcock.

Plumbing connection for our new sillcock.

And here it is!

Our new sillcock, a.k.a. outdoor faucet.

While the plumber was doing his thing, the drywallers started applying joint compound to the drywall they hung yesterday.

The drywallers showed up at 8:00 a.m., and less than six hours later, nearly all the drywall was hung. Only a small section in the bathroom remains to be done. Then comes taping, mudding, and sanding — and dust!

Bathroom: Some of the old drywall (painted blue) was preserved.

Bedroom: It looks really BIG now.

Walk-in closet: OK. it doesn’t look like much, yet, but we’re very excited.

Laundry room: It has its own big closet on the right.

With the drywall in place, the naked partitions, with their exposed plumbing, insulation, and wiring, have suddenly become rooms. We’re getting the first glimmer of what the finished project will look like.

In one corner of the family room, behind our bookcase, we had some damage where moisture had penetrated the fascia. So that was fixed today, too.

Repaired water damage.