Bathroom Updates-Part I

Before Thanksgiving we made some progress on our bathroom updates. As the only bathroom in this house, and one that is smaller than many walk-in closets, creative changes were necessary for it to function for all six of us.

The original towel bar (the only one in the room) could only hold one bath towel and one hand towel. Towels ended up on the floor most of the time. It was the first thing to go (along with the original light switch cover, which was wallpapered with the same country blue and pink heart wallpaper). Little did I know the towel bar was anchored to the wall, leaving nickel-sized holes in the plaster when removed.

My Mom, God bless her, spent two days tearing and scraping the rest of the wallpaper off the walls. There were two layers of wallpaper; I'm guessing the blue dated to sometime in the the 80's, and the pink/orange/green flowered and striped stuff from the 60's or 70's. Something my Grandma Mahoney said when she wallpapered most of the downstairs walls in their house kept coming to mind: "Wallpaper covers a multitude of sins." Oh yes it does.

If I had a time machine, I would love to see what the square tile looked like that made up the wainscoting in the bathroom so many years ago. As it was, removing the wallpaper uncovered multiple layers of paint: dark teal, pink, mint green, and yellow before succumbing to the wallpaper. And of course, there was still some grout still stuck on there for good measure. It's hard to believe someone would rip out tile in favor of cheap gold-marbled waterproof paneling.

Above the shower I ran out of spackling (and time) to patch all the cracks and holes in the plaster. I did take the time to knock some plaster off the chimney. Eventually I'll remove all the plaster on the bricks and seal them, leaving the chimney exposed. The paint I used is the gray I decided not to paint the kitchen. It works so much better in the bathroom!

Through this winter hopefully Eli will be able to get the rest of the beadboard installed.We had saved to update other things in the bathroom, and then one Suburban needed both front and rear ball joints replaced, and the other Suburban needed a new gas tank. So the plan is to next year replace:

the toilet,

the flooring with this basketweave tile (yes, good thing the bathroom is so small!)

The vanity lighting with this schoolhouse fixture:

The ceiling fixture with this schoolhouse pendant:

And the vanity with one of these:  

or