Saturday, November 22, 2008

All I Want for Christmas is...

... my bathroom finished, (Sing it now) my Bathroom finished, yeah my bathroom finished. All I want for Christmas is my bathroom finished, then I could take a shower in it!

Unless memory fails me, we are fast approaching three years of a gutted bathroom. It is quite possible it has been longer. Time flies when you're having fun. We are down to one bathroom. Have been for a while. That one bathroom does not have a shower, just a claw foot tub. Washing a head of thick long hair that reaches past my shoulders is NOT EASY in that tub with a cup! Not to mention, the hair falls out and who wants to get out of the tub with 2 foot long pieces of hair clinging to them? Eeeewwwww. Yucky!


We are at the mercy of others at this point. We don't know what we are doing. We do not have the disposable income to pay someone to do the work. Chris works two jobs and it is just hard to find the time to get it done. Trying to coordinate two schedules to work on it is darn near impossible. Here is what we need done (I gladly accept charity work without any notice!!!)...


1. Sheet rock is hung, needs to be finished, sanded and painted.
2. Cement board needs to be hung on shower walls
3. Tile needs to go on top of cement board
4. Tile the floor
5. Install Sink, toilet, and shower fixtures


We have most of the supplies we need to do it, just not the expertise to finish the job that was started a loooonnnnngggg time ago. In the meantime, I am left with one bathroom with a claw foot tub and no shower and one messed up bathroom that desperately needs attention. Lets take a look at the progression. Keep in mind, these photos were taken over a period of 3 years. The first photos date back to April 2005 and move all the way through today's post. I am not sure if we have made progress or not. Looks like it went from bad to worse in the photos.

Looking into our pepto pink bathroom from the playroom. Gotta love the pink plastic tile and 1960-70's era wallpaper. The floor was so stained and smelly to boot.

Note the missing tile in the shower and brown wallpaper glue and mold on the pink shiny walls.


Yep folks, "they" wallpapered the ceiling. Not sure why. It is peeling off in this photo, and the second shower curtain you see is the one I put up to cover the holes in the wall so the shower was usable for a while. The brown and ugly stains are NOT the result of bad photography, they were actually there. NASTY!!!!!

Phase 1 of bathroom remodel, circa March 2007. Walls are out. All that's left that is original is the 500+ pound cast iron bathtub. Its gotta stay. Hopefully a little re glaze will do the trick on it.

The corner where the sink/vanity use to stand. Now, its just 2x4's. My brother did some rewiring for us so new light fixtures will be at the correct height for the pedestal sink.

Looking over the toilet, at the ceiling in the shower area. What a mess. Had to do some corrective plumbing. My poor Dad. In a crawl space about 2ft high. Couldn't pay me enough to get in that nasty space. Notice that there is NO insulation in the walls. NONE!!


Check out that NASTY NASTY floor. I particularly like the butter container in the sewer pipe to keep out the fumes. We knew the floor was soft before we started pulling up linoleum and soon discovered the source of the problem and smell. Most of the boards near the toilet area were saturated with URINE and SMELLED!!! Ummm, several decades of soaked in pee. You can just imagine.

Looking straight into the room, which is now serving as a work equipment storage area. The sheet rock is hung, but unfinished at this point. The walls have nice, new insulation in them too.

The corner where the sink will go. My brother, who hung the sheet rock, had a few choice words about old houses not being square.

The tub/shower area with the nice new insulation. The tub is currently serving as a holding area for the bathroom door and extra sheet rock.

THE FLOOR! No more Urine stains or smell, but plenty of junk to cover it up! My cat likes to sleep on the plastic. The butter container is still under all that plastic somewhere.
Looking back at these photos makes me long for the days of pepto pink walls and moldy wallpaper. At least then I could take a shower!!

3 comments:

Karen said...

oh, wow! That is quite a project. I wish I could help. I have no clue when it comes to renovations, etc. Just think, when it is all finished, you can know that it was done right (re-doing the floors and insulating the walls, etc.).

35 and holding said...

i think i will lose my mind before it is finished!!! Then, when this project is all done, we have about 100 more, starting with the kitchen floor and upstairs bathroom. Old houses are great but a lot of work!!!

Sarah said...

thanksgiving day? can you get something done then? can we help at all?