Project Underway! Basement Bathroom Actualization

So you may or may not know that there's a bathroom down in our basement.  It features in the background of several previous project posts, such as this one and this one.  It's a bit sketchy:

It has a toilet and a sink.  The toilet was leveled with a shim in form of a paint stirrer.  (Awesome!) Check it out:

It's an older style, with an enormous tank that was running a lot, so we actually turned off the water leads to it to conserve water.  This was usually fine, except on the rare occasion when an unknowing guest, or Lucy, used the toilet.  Ooops.

The sink leaks, and when I asked a plumber about it, he said it was not worth fixing the faucet; we should get a whole new sink set up.  Also, it was previously the drain for the washing machine (as detailed in the posts I linked above).  The faucet is set back very close to the basin, so it's actually not a great design for hand-washing. 

So this project has been on the back burner for a long time, since we do indeed have two other bathrooms.  But a few things have propelled this project forward: 1) we bought a third toilet back when we were replacing the other ones 2) our friends Matt & Mary gave us a new sink they had inherited [the tall white thing beside the sink in the photo above is actually the pedestal of the new sink] 3) we wanted to make more use of the backyard, and having a handy bathroom might make that even nicer.  Oh, and 4) our neighbor, Lisa, was available for some projects!

So the project is underway today.  She's taking out the old toilet, checking to make sure things are OK down there, then putting in a new one.  Then she'll take out the old and put in the new sink.  She's going to put down flooring plywood, and then go over it with some vinyl tiling I bought.

I am SO excited.

Updates as I have them.

Woo hoo!

Update: 3:40pm

Check it out:

Here's the latest status on the project:

--->Old toilet and sink are gone, gone gone.

--->Water intake valves (3 -- 2 for sink, 1 for toilet) replaced with shiny new, easy-to-use accessible ones.

--->Toilet drain confirmed secure (relief!  we weren't sure -- it's an OLD pipe, but a solid one)

--->Wood beneath and around toilet confirmed secure and not damaged by water or critters.

--->Evidence of critters, in the form of SQUIRRELS confirmed.  Not ideal, but not posing imminent harm to plumbing or the house.  Further investigation necessary.  Possible "re-location" plan may need to be developed.  We're not even sure if the critter is still in residence.

So hey, most of that is good news.  Liza is putting down new flooring plywood right now and then will paint it.  Tiling happens next.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: 10pm: IT'S DONE!

We're just delighted.  Liza stayed until 10pm just because she wanted to get the job done.  Awesome.

I need to do a bit of clean up tomorrow, but hooray!

Of course, now the new floor and new fixtures make the rest of it all (the walls) look worse.....perhaps another upgrade will be in our future.

Cheers!