This is how it looked when we bought the place. Pink walls. White and black tile with lead glaze that was so potent that it was off the charts when we had a lead test done on the house. The best part about the tile is that it wasn't finished. Sadly though, who ever was doing this project put up all the thin set to stick the tiles, but never got around to putting them up. The bottom left of the first pic shows this. Another great bonus to this room - handicap accessable. See the PVC pipe across the first picture? That was anchored into the wall with foot long bolts. The original owner was a man getting on in years. Apparently he needed a little help with balance while using the facilities. Gross! The second pic shows the vanity falling apart, the floral linolium, and the beautiful shell pattern on the toilet seat lid. Let's not forget the window in the shower with two shower curtains covering it. I still don't know why two were needed, or why one was pink. Interesting.
So, here's the shower. Plastic laminated partical board, which apparently is like a dessert for termites. Nice view of all their holes and paths around the shower. Nothing like showering in this ugliness, and then worring about visitors.
Well, if it wasn't ugly before, it sure is now. M went to Florida for his brother's wedding. During that time I stayed home and invited my family over to help fix the termite mess. My father and brothers came down and we tore out the termite infested partical board. Thankfully the internal damage wasn't too bad and no structure damage to deal with. So, after a few hours at Home Depot and lots of $ later, we had the materials to put it all back together. This time, with tile, so no more buggies could eat their way into my showers. (notice the cheapo flooring we put down in the interim, horrid)
Happy Mother's Day to me! Instead of flowers and a home made card from AJ, I got to grout a tub. Oh, what joy. (Mother's Day the previous year had me painting stripes on AJ's bedroom walls, really hoping for a less labor intensive Mother's Day this year).
So, this is how the bathroom looked for months after that busy weekend. We put up the paneling and installed a new vanity. We also got a new toilet, thanks to M. He claims he accidentally dropped it while moving it, but I'm going with it was more accidentally on purpose.
So, here's where we are today:
New flooring that matches the hallway and kitchen. White doors and trim makes a huge difference.
Brown makes the space more comfortable as opposed to the blue that was a bit much. Plus, the radiator was sandblasted and repainted, to make it look much less like the 60 year old piece it is.
Ok, so the mirror is a medicine cabinet. Not the best choice for modern, but we lack space in the house, so it's needed. Plus, if we had a picture of how it looked before, this is a vast improvement. When we bought the house there was a mirrored medicine cabinet with etched flowers on the glass and flourescent lights on each side of the mirror. Horrible. M may or may not have electricuted himself trying to remove it.
So, that's the bathroom for now. I still need to reframe the window trim in the shower, change the light fixture in the ceiling, add a towel holder for the hand towels, get a new rug and towels to match the room, plus I painted all over the rug that's in there now. Oops. Not great, won't be in a magazine, but a vast improvement I must say.
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