Another fine mess.

Please put all food and beverages aside for a moment.
We'll be visiting in the bathroom today.  :o)

After we spent countless hours on wallpaper removal and plaster repair

in our upstairs bathroom (8 months ago) was I any happier with the room?

Nope.

After the wallpaper was gone and the upper walls were painted white
all I could focus on was the beige tile.  I looked at that wall tile
 month after month and wished it would magically transform itself
into white subway tile.  Not happening, I'm afraid.

I was so uninspired to continue with the room that last weekend I convinced

my partner in crime (who may have been slightly less enthusiastic

than I to embark on this quick fix) to help me remove the beige tiles.

Less than an hour later we were done!

  Woo hoo!

Then we stood back to survey the damage.

It gets worse.

You can see the many layers of paint over the faux plaster tiles

from days of yore.  It's even worse behind the toilet

which necessitated removing the tank.

After removing most of the tile to reveal the nightmare beneath,

I wisely decided to leave the tile around the tub.

I'm going to cut a few tiles I saved to finish off the edge

and then paint the remaining tile white.  My ever changing plan

is to install beadboard over the rest of the damaged walls.

*Update:  It seems the tiles have been transported to the landfill.
Hmmmm.  I guess we'll worry about that later.

First and foremost we need to smooth out the walls to create

a flat surface on which to adhere the beadboard.  No small feat!!

Worst Case Scenario is what we uncover
 every blankety-blank time we start a project.  You'd think just once
things would go our way!

As you can see, progress has been made, but I foresee nothing but problems
nailing base trim around the room (that slopes downhill)
 onto walls that are not remotely level or plumb.  There will be a lot of standing around
 and head scratching whilst we try to figure this out.

If you've visited the Cosmos Mystery Area in the Black Hills of
South Dakota, you have an idea of what we're dealing with in our bathroom.

But,
 I'm trying to be more of a glass is half-full type of person,
so on the plus side:

1.  No black mold was found in the crumbling walls.

2.  No small rodents or insects crawled through the holes in the walls.
(I watch every episode of Infested.)

3.  We already have new plumbing, wiring, toilet, sink,
medicine cabinet, and window so this facelift should be fairly inexpensive.

*Estimated cost x 4 (or 10) = Actual cost.


4.  I'm not a participant in a blogger ORC.
(for those of you unfamiliar, ORC is a one room challenge
completed in a few short weeks.  I'd crack under the pressure.)


Now let's look at my timeline, shall we?
Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner.
Six adults and 4 small children.

Is this not the perfect time
 to demo a bathroom?!

Timing is everything.
Vickie

Skip to my loo.

I made a list of things I want to complete before summer

and I've already crossed off number one.

It may not sound like much of an accomplishment,

but just imagine giving 6 of these chairs (1,000,000 spindles)
 2 coats of chalk paint.  Yeah.

This was the first thing on my list after I saw how bad they looked

when I set up my dining room for Christmas dinner.  They were all

different shades of white, and 2 of them had just a coat of primer.

There are only 2 chairs alike, but now at least they're all the same color.



August 2011

Our dining room in my early days of blogging.

What a difference a few coats of paint can make!

Since I had paint left over,

I gave the two dressers and drop leaf table their first

coat of paint and this is how they've sat for 2 weeks,

because I'm already onto a new project.

(I've completely given up on being focused.)

Number 2.  he he

  We are on day three of wallpaper removal.

I hated the wallpaper (already removed in this photo) in this bathroom from first sight,

but it's taken me over 12 years to tackle this project,

because I knew exactly what to expect.....

.......hours of scrubbing to remove wallpaper glue, followed by sanding,

priming, and a skim coat of mud on the plaster walls.

  Messy, messy, messy.

This photo is from a thousand years ago, and it's hard to tell,

but the wallpaper was a faux sponge paint purplish pinkish beige.  Yuck.

It clashed with the tile that I'm not fond of either and I'm currently

researching the pros and cons of painting the ceramic wall tile white.

 The truck is going bye-bye, along with all my turquoise thingies.

The beige floor tile is staying.

We installed the reproduction medicine cabinet, pedestal sink, and new toilet,

so it's just the walls and window trim that need work....

and the window that was installed a number of years ago will finally be painted.

All work and no play make this Ranger cranky,

so in the evenings I've been working on this......

 Making the squares is fiddly work, but crocheting them together

is sort of like putting together a great big puzzle.
It's very relaxing to do after a long day at work.

I'm pretty sure somebody in this house would rather see a different

sort of spread on the dining room table, but since it's
temporarily out of commission, I believe we'll be dining out tonight.

Works every time.  :o)

Thanks for visiting!
Vickie