what we found under the tub

While fixing things up we have found many unexpected items. Today’s struggle involved sorting out the bath. We thought it probably wasn’t right to have water coming up through the floor. I mean, talk about having a DIY wet room/disaster zone.

It didn’t seem to matter until chunks of rotten wood floated up through the bathroom floor of our new home. That’s where we drew a grubby, damp line.

Now the tub is collapsed. The rotten wood is peeled away in smudges. We have tiles around us and a lot of something that seems to be made up of hair and ancient soap. Not a pleasant scene, but a starting point from which to find some artefacts. I’ll list our inventory below:

• a potty brimful with murky water
• an inscription beneath the sitting water - written in the concrete - this was something like Sumerian. I’m no expert
• various screws  and tacks
• pieces of pipe that were cut down and left lying around - the whole thing makes it seem like the plumber that installed this job 35 years ago left halfway through without tightening things off or clearing up after himself
• a book - the most intriguing discovery, I think, as it’s somehow managed to escape the rot. It was above the sitting water by less than an inch and only because it had been wedged in against the tub. It’s not some literary classic, sure, but it’s interesting - a 1985 almanac that made us sad for the events we missed ever seeing

All told the most important thing we found was something of ourselves. Oh, and we fixed the leak. Watch this space for more DIY news.