Bathroom Redo

it's like this all day

trailer on Friday afternoon

The long awaited and overdue bathroom renovation has begun. The guys came on Thursday morning bright and early and started dismantling everything. I had already removed lots of stuff--the cabinet, the stuff under the vanity, shower curtain and rod, and about a fourth of the wall tiles.
   They took out the medicine cabinet, which  I have repainted and plan to put back in. It's actually quite pretty and I like the idea of maintaining the vintage look of the bathroom. There was a block of wood behind the cabinet on which was written the name of the tile setter and the date he worked on the room. October 30, 1934.
   When they took out the tub, they were astonished at the lack of support under it. All the wood floor joists had rotted away long ago and all that was holding up the tub was the cast iron drain pipe and the actual position of the tub. It had wedged itself into the wall a long time ago. There is a date cast into the tub from the foundry where it was made. The date was in 1923, so this was the original fixture for this house.
    While I painted the medicine cabinet and the cover for the air vent, the guys continued the demolition. Everything is ripped out to the studs. All the old tile is gone and all the plaster except for the ceiling. The wall from behind the tub has been rebuilt. The window was really rotted away too and has been repaired. A new window will replace the old one. It is beautiful and is exactly what I described to the contractor. He had it custom made. The workers have been thoughtful enough to replace the potty in the afternoon, so we have facilities for the evening. Bathing is a challenge, but manageable so far.
   It's all a wreck right now, but I know at the end of this upheaval there will be a beautiful, structurally sound bathroom, that will look just like the picture I have in my mind.

 under the tub

rot

bye bye tub......

  Earlier today, I went back and found a blog posting from March 9, 2009 that has a photo of the bathroom after I had replaced the toilet, vanity and repainted. It was kind of like putting a bandaid on cancer. I think that is the only good "before" picture I have. Right now the room reminds me of a scene from a Japanese horror movie. A gleaming white toilet sitting in the center of destruction.