Let’s Move a Bath Tub

“Oh, sweetie…”, I said to Number One Son,” there is only one small job, that we really need help with this weekend, while you and Number Four Son are together.  Could you please haul strain carry magically get that bathtub upstairs?”

There were just a few teeny, tiny little ‘issues‘ with this request.

1.  The bathtub was cast iron.  Imagine ‘heavy‘ on steroids, then add a few pounds, yep that’s it.

2.  The stairway the bath tub needed to go up was not only narrow, but has a 90 degree turn in it aka: “Dead Man’s Curve”, designed for function, not form.

There were great discussions, deliberations, measurements and more discussions about how to get it up the stairs, if it could make it up the stairs and if they got it that far, how in the world would they get it around the corner!

“It won’t fit”.

“It will, trust me”.

The biggest issue was of course, that if the bathtub got away from them, someone would get seriously hurt.  Number Two Son and My Loving Spouse were on hand to help as well, but there was only so much room in the stairwell.  We gals told them to be careful and tried to not watch, as we discussed whether this was more or less scary than the time this group decided to take the tree down!

I came out of hiding when I heard hammering or really I should say ‘unhammering’ as they had determined that the balustrade needed to be removed.  The ancient balustrade was being carefully removed, so that it could be simply re-installed later, but part of it had been well glued so we are adding  ‘build new balustrade’ to the great ‘to-do’ list.

The bath tub moving crew decides that the dolly is not a help, so they lay two long pieces of 2×4 studs on the stairs for the tub to slide up.  Number Two Son is in charge of keeping those in place while Number One Son pulls, Number Four pushes and My Loving Spouse adds support at the top with a strap designed to keep the bath tub going ‘up’…not down. There is a small rest and celebration as they reach Dead Man’s Curve.  They then flip the tub over to make the turn.  These guys are strong…did I mention that this tub is very, very heavy? This is when we really celebrate!  The bath tub has made it up the stairs, over the corner and into the attic!  

Making the job of getting the 5 foot long cast iron school-house sink I scored last summer seem like child’s play to move from the garage to the attic.  Yep, I know it needs a good cleaning, but I have learned that when you have two strong men willing to move something nearly impossible, my best move is to stay quiet and get out of the way…cleaning can come later.The attic transformation continues and we are very excited.  If you are visiting this summer, you should be excited too as the plans for an upstairs toilet are not far off!