Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Bathroom Renovation

Surely you remember the lone bathroom on the second floor of 1926 Foursquare. 
What a mess.


Firstly, please note the total lack of an exhaust fan, a single electrical outlet-
(that is ONE outlet which also functions as a lightswitch)
so exactly one socket in which to plug a hair dryer or something. 

Usually it sports a pretty night light. 

I am such a huge fan of GE's electroluminescent night lights!

You may also remember...


My beloved laundry chute. <3

My adorable gas flame space heater. <3

We had the heater removed last spring. That's around the time things got really bad.






View from above the medicine cabinet. Someone did a REALLY crappy job.


I effing hate this vanity. What I wouldn't give for a pedestal sink and a built-in medicine cabinet!
Alas, that is not in the budget for this round of remodeling!

Solution = paint it!!!








The paint... I hated that paint. I know it's not the paint's fault that we didn't put a vent in our bathroom when we first moved in, but the paint cracked like crackle paint and slimey paint-water ran down the walls every time we showered. So gross. So we were like screw you crappy paint! And we installed a fan and painted with better quality (Sherwin Williams) paint in hopes of not having a repeat of the crackling.

That is, we repainted after framing the ceiling over top of the plaster and installing new drywall and a fancy fan light. We also installed a new wall so that the end of the tub would be flush with the wall so we could install a tub surround. The tub surround went on perfectly on the newly built, perfectly flat drywall. However, on the curvy wavy plaster walls from 1926? Not so much. It was like an episode of I Love Lucy as we contorted ourselves in the bathtub, smashing our shoulders and bottoms against the vinyl trying to get the surround to curve and stick to the walls. But those things are designed NOT to warp so getting them to act flimsy and bend so that they would adhere water-tight was a nightmare! On top of all of this, the manufacturer-recommended caulk peeled off like rubber cement the day after it was applied. I swear that surround is made of Teflon. It is, to this day, the bane of my existence! 




 New ceiling.

New plate rails. (The walls were too wavy for wainscoting.)

New cabinet for towels and stuff.


Pretty paint!


New prints and a pretty fan light.


New hooks for towels courtesy of Target. God, I love Target!




Pretty hand towels hanging on our new wall!


So in love with our hotel shower curtain rod!


I am so incredibly glad this project is over with- for now! Still shopping architectural reclamation and salvage centers for the perfect pedestal sink!









2 comments:

  1. It looks beautiful!! What have you been up to lately?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I bought a space heater like the one you removed and unlike you, I want to use mine but I've never seen one like this before. It has a manifold with holes in it on the inside, but nothing else. No ceramic or anything, so is this all that yours had?

    My grandparents house from the same time period as yours, had originally, one light bulb in the center of every room and one socket in each room. The wires were ran on insulators like tiny train tracks and each room (4) had a door. Crazy huh?

    ReplyDelete