Dear Diary - Day 1: Bathroom Reno's

I had been waiting over 20 years to renovate my bathroom from hell.  Finally,  I could stand the stress no longer and I made the decision to go deeper into debt and just get it done once and for all.  Brace yourself - I don't exaggerate when I tell you - it was disgusting!!   The picture below is the main bathroom of the house and it is very tiny; If you can imagine the width of the tub - you can see how small the bathroom really is. Directly to the right as you enter the door is one of those 3ft x 3ft TIN shower stalls. Part of the original bathroom wall was taken out and the crappy shower was installed 3 ft into the adjoining bedroom.  The shower leaked constantly onto the kitchen ceiling directly below.  If you happened to be in the kitchen at the same time as someone in the shower, you inevitably were dripped upon.  If you happened to walk into the kitchen when the ceiling fan was on and someone was in the shower, you were unexpectedly sprayed in the face with the water that was dripping onto the spinning fan blades.  

This picture is what you see the moment you walk into the room. After renovations, this cupboard will extend to the floor and it will be an open concept  cupboard with decorative baskets because apparently - children are allergic to closing cupboard doors.

I certainly made no effort to tidy this bathroom before taking the 'before' picture, because this is exactly what the bathroom looked like each time you entered it. No room for storage or a large enough can to handle the ever flowing garbage.

Tiny Toilet Corner with peeling-outdated-sponge-painted walls. 

Stylish floor tiles, ...gag,...displaying the cat's favourite rolling toilet paper toy that somehow always managed to find its way out of the garbage.  Right Sushi...????

And the reason why I wanted my tub refinished.  The worn finish was starting to work its way up to seating area of the tub, and I just couldn't risk a worn finish on MY seating area.

YUCK!  I feel the anxiety building just remembering when I used to have to stand in this shower! The floor was so old and rusty, I had tried to paint it. Anything was better than standing on the rust. Then of course it peeled and I knew it would, but it was a necessary - yet temporary fix. As you can see, I caulked the hell out of the drain to stop the indoor kitchen downpours. Yes, that is a plunger that was necessary to live in the shower with you, because you HAD to plunge or the slow moving drain would cause the build up of water to run out over the side.  I was ecstatic the day I found a round bathmat.  I folded it over for the picture to show you the true definition of GROSS.Then the mat decided to camouflage itself to match the rusting floor.

When the contractor came to give me a quote for the room I said, "I don't know how you are going to get the tub out of this room, it won't fit through the door" 

He said, "Oh, it will fit.  I'll just turn it on it's side."

Meanwhile, I'm thinking: 'You think so do you???'

The first day of the demolition, he met me at the door as I returned home from work and he said, "I couldn't get the tub out the door so I had to remove the wall so now it's in your bedroom.... along with the toilet."

After the renovations are completed, this tub will most definitely be a permanent fixture in this house because in order for Ryan to gut the tiny room, replace the plumbing, sub-floor and tiling, he had no choice but to remove the wall to put the tub somewhere.  Once this was complete, he then had to put the tub back before he could install the marble shower and replace the wall.  That tub is going nowhere. Ever!  This was also a deciding factor in having the tub refinished.  How could I spend all this money and leave a damaged tub that I was never going to be able to remove in order to replace it. Besides, why would  I ever want to; the tub and I have too many fond memories.  There isn't anyone else whom I've laid naked against so much.

So we were a few weeks completing this project with no tub or shower,  a missing wall between the bedroom and the bathroom and a bathtub and toilet to stub my feet on in the dark when I would wake up in the mornings and forget they were there.  Thanks to sisters and neighbours who let us borrow their facilities since the two piece bath just wasn't going to cut it for 3 females. 

So... let's condense a few weeks into a few days.

Dear Diary - Day 1

Cat not adjusting well to renovations.  Kept me up most of the night. She has tonight to prove to me she can settle in and accept that the tub is NOT in the bathroom anymore.  If she can't do that, she's going to be locked up for the night  because as you will see from the photo - it's hard for me to get out of bed and chase her in the dark of the night.   So this picture is my bedroom - with the bath accessories IN it while the rest of the bath is completed.  Because I was so paranoid that this disruption in the walls would cause the hibernating bats to seek warmth in my bedroom, Ryan hung plastic where my wall USED to be.  Sushi decided the plastic would make a good scratch post and with no claws - she only succeeded in rattling and swooshing it ALL night long.

I couldn't wait to paint the outside of this tub. 

This is where the toilet sat: Note the Timmy cup is now the toilet (not really, but it is plugging the sewer pipe). This mess of old cast iron pipes is what the contractors were trying to figure out what to do with until 10pm one night ... then they finally called it quits for the day.

I think they got the hint when they heard me say "good night" from the other side of the plastic.

The view from my pillow.  It was kinda scary actually. 

Stay tuned .........