New Bathroom

We recently did a mini-renovation of our downstairs bathroom. We had to, we had a leak behind the wall and the entire tub unit would have to be pulled out to repair it. That's okay, we were never fond of this tub. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see the mineral build up on the faucets. They were like that when we moved in and I've never been able to get them completely clean, much less shiny. Also note the mold and mildew line where the shower wall meets the tub wall. I have tried every chemical and cleaner known to man and I could never get this clean and it would just continue to grow. I couldn't figure out why this was happening.

Well, as it turned out, the guy who owned the house before us was the one who installed this tub. He didn't install it properly. He had paper covered fiberglass insulation behind two of the walls and nothing behind the plumbing wall. Because of this, whenever water would leak and get behind the tub/shower walls, it would cause mold to grow and mildew. I could never get the tub clean because the mold/mildew was being fed from behind the walls. You can see in the corner of this picture the black mold and where the wood was wet from the water. So the guy we hired had to rip everything out down to the studs, put in new piping, new insulation, the works.


















This is what the specialized drywall that goes behind showers looks like. So now we know our walls are insulated, water resistent and mold resistent. I have a feeling it will be a much easier task keeping the new shower clean. So here are the before and after shots. I tried getting a picture of the new shower curtain, but I didn't realize my flash didn't go off. So maybe I'll add that picture tomorrow.

Here are the after shots of the shower. We have a new shower head










as well as a new faucet and plug.










We also have full length built in shelves in each corner of the shower, plus handicap bars on the wall and side of the tub for our parents when they visit. We also got the bowed shower bar so we now have more room in the shower without the shower curtain clinging to us. The tub is so shiny and pretty!


Here's the "before" view from one end of the bathroom looking at the storage shelves behind the bathroom door. The bathroom's whole theme was "country" and "garden." Here they built a faux fence gate to use as the door for the storage shelves. They also put up plaid green wallpaper with a border on top of gardening tools and seeds.

Here's that same view after. I painted all the woodworking white and got rid of that cranberry strip of molding. I still need to build a door for the storage shelves. I'm going to try to build a frame with picture frame molding around the outer edges and put a piece of frosted plexi-glass in the middle so you can't see everything behind the door. I figure the door will be lighter this way with the plexi-glass than having a solid wood door there. If you click on this picture to make it larger and look at the pattern on the hat boxes, that's the pattern and color of the shower curtain. I actually found four matching pieces for the bathroom at four different stores. Talk about luck!












Here's a shot of the original sink. The sink top was an ivory color that had really yellowed, so it didn't match the new bright white shower or white toilet. It was also sporting the old homey hot and cold faucets a lot of us grew up with and tarnished gold knobs with ivory colored inserts and pull handle. So of course none of this matched and looked pretty shabby.

So I replaced the yellowed sink top with a white one. I also replaced the old faucet for a shiny new chrome one. I got such a deal on this faucet. I picked it up, brand new, at our local flea market last week for $26. Then M and I went to Lowe's and saw the same one for $89. The savings I received on the faucet provided enough money to pay for the new sink top. Cool, huh?

Here's the long view of the bathroom as you walk in the bathroom door. You can see the lovely country plaid wall paper and the red molding.











Now voila! Here's the after. The bathroom is done in shades of brown, white, slate blue and chrome. It's rather spa-like and I'm totally thrilled with how it turned out.