It was on that day that we decided to paint the wall a color that would compliment the beigish-taupe walls- Raisin. Before we painted we wanted to prime the walls because the color was dark and we only wanted to paint it once. As we painted the primer on the walls, the walls began to bubble and rise....
Low and behold, we came to find out, to our utter dismay:
The bathroom had actually been wallpapered before and painted over with white paint!
Our "little project" was quickly turning into a grand mess. We knew that we couldn't just continue painting so we decided to peel the big chunks of wall paper off. Unfortunately, as the wallpaper came off, so did the face of the sheetrock. After we peeled and peeled and peeled, and peeled some more, sweat dripping from every orphus of our body, and our hands and arms covered in paint, we quit.
That was more than 2 years ago, in the dreaded summer of 07.....
In the interim we turned our attention to the kitchen (yet to be finished), the master bedroom (complete) and the upstairs bathroom, along with about 5 other side projects along the way....
To tide me over I just painted the half peeled wall board with kilz, raisin paint, put up a new light fixture, mirror, and picture, and called it bearable until "later".
In the fall of 08, When we were about to finish the master bedroom flooring we noticed a small line of "wetness" outside of the bathroom wall. It was made clear to us that the shower was leaking- from somewhere...Henceforth we showered as much as we could at our gym and resolved that we needed to fix the bathroom "as soon as possible".
So John completed the upstairs bathroom in the summer of 09. When this was complete, we stopped using the downstairs bathroom shower all together. We decided we would eventually get an estimate for replacing the shower floor.We got an estimate on replacing the shower floor and were told that the shower liner (a lead pan) needed to be replaced, and that it would cost $1500.
Because we needed it done, and because John had never done this kind of work before he was willing to just pay to have it done. I, however, was not in favor, and suggested that we could redo the whole bathroom for less than that, to the detriment of the kitchen progress. He did not like that idea, but it came to pass that families were going to move in with us, so we needed both bathrooms to be fully functioning. After mulling the bathroom redo idea over, he decided that it would be ridiculous to spend that kind of money on a 40 year old bathroom- so he tore everything apart the day after our Christmas party.
We started researching "special" tubs after realizing that a traditional tub was 4 inches too big for our bathroom (who does that?) because we did not want to move the outer walls of the bathroom. We settled on an "Aker by Maxx" 48 inch tub that was going to take 3 weeks to deliver. However, after a trip to Lowes, we quickly discovered that a child would take little pleasure in taking a bath in that tiny bathtub, let alone a full grown adult. So we canceled the order and decided to go with a shower insert.
Now our bathroom is small, so our bathroom door is even smaller, which meant getting a traditional shower insert inside a 24 inch door was going to be next to impossible. Yet, Southern Heating and Plumbing, right over in Yorktown, said they had a 3 piece shower insert that could fit through the door. Hooray!!
So John spent 2 hours on New Years Eve morning at the showroom in Yorktown picking out trim and fixtures for the shower- only to find out that they didn't have the shower that they said they had in stock. John left empty handed, quite perturbed.
He then did some research with Ferguson Enterprises and came across a shower insert, 3 piece, that both of us agreed on (there aren't many out there to choose from anyhow...).
He brought it home with much success and unloaded it off the truck. He went to close the tail gate, and knocked the dolly into the corner of the base, causing the base or the shower to crack in the corner- amazingly ironic, since the whole reason we were doing this is because there was a crack (i.e leak) in the old shower base (lead pan).
However, with God's great humor he also has great provision. My ever-faithful friend Becky (you know, the one who helped me peel 40 year old wall paper off a wall with wet paint?) knows how to repair fiberglass, so she will be able to seal the crack. It really is only about the size of a dime though....
Sooo!!! 1557 dollars later (thats right, woot woot), persevering with God's strength and grace, our downstairs bathroom is NOW complete.... No more is the taupe tile from 1968. Welcome brilliant white wainscoting and bamboo flooring!
Now if we can just get the glass to come in the shower doors and I can find some time to seal the floor with urethane...
I can't wait for you all to see the bathroom- as soon as I charge my camera.
For now, here are some pictures before and during demolition....
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