House Projects: Bathroom

We have this teeny tiny little bathroom. It is 5’x5′. That’s it. It isn’t too bad as long as just one person is in there. We’re not beauty queens needing a 6′ counter for all our stuff.

What they did was move the door to one room, make a hallway, and put the bathroom at the end of the hallway. We know this because there’s a threshold in the hall and a really nice doorway w/out a door. All the original doorways have this wide, 2″ high threshold held down with cut nails (meaning they were made by a blacksmith not bought from a Lowe’s).

Anyway, this is a long ass story so I’m cutting it here. Click below to see the whole thing, including photos! (unless you came directly to this post then the link isn’t there)

Where was I? Oh, yes, the bathroom. The walls are this strange old wood, some of it rough cut like it is in other rooms, some of it this horrid green, some of it was covered with floor linoleum that left behind this fuzz when we took it off. Places of it looks like they took drywall tape and drywall plaster and tried to fill in the gaps between this wood, especially the ceiling. The ugly green wood is, surprisingly, tongue and groove board.

Ryan is coming down this summer and we decided he needed a good, clean place to pee. That and I broke the sink back when I broke my leg. I use(d) the sink to stand up from the toilet or to get my balance getting in and out of the shower. It was a sink attached to the wall and didn’t have anything under it. It held great for many years! Then the bracket slowly worked loose and the weight was transferred to the drain pipe and that’s what broke nearly a year ago.

So we needed a sink. And we needed to do something with the walls. And we needed storage in there. And we needed new lights and….there’s more but you get the point. So we started working on it Friday. Lorna took Thursday off because of PopCorn. Her sub, Greg, talked her into taking Friday off since she already had Sat. and Mon. off. This gave us 4 days to get this done. We’re on day 3. And no, we’re not done.

We had gotten a bunch of paneling a looooong time ago to use in the kitchen but never did. I hate paneling. It has been stacked in the Cat Room behind the hutch. We took these 3 sheets and are using them to cover the fugly walls in the bathroom. Nearly a year ago, we had gotten some paint when we figured we’d replace the bathroom sink and we might as well try to paint the wall behind it, right? Ha. Never happened, obviously.

We had to cut the paneling into manageable pieces. Then put on the primer. All was going well until we made the cuts for the hole for the invisible outlet and the two holes for the lights. When Lorna marked and measured for the one light, she put it in the wrong place. The mark I told her was for the lower left corner of it, then she would have measured out 2.5″ to make the lower right corner. She got it backwards. The hole for that light is exactly one spot over.

We fixed that the Redneck Way. No, not duct tape. By covering it up! I figured out which wires went to that light and disconnected them. In the cut out place, we’ll use a marker and tell whoever that there’s a dead electrical box. Then, we’ll put this pretty medicine cabinet over it. There. Fixed.

We got a new light, a new medicine cabinet, a new storage thingy for above the toilet, a new faucet, and a new pedestal sink. I didn’t want a pedestal sink. I wanted a cabinet. But remember the bathroom is small? Because the toilet sits right in front of the sink and they both sit right next to the shower, you get in and out of the shower by squeezing between the two. Had we put in a cabinet, we’d have to step over the toilet to bathe. While the cabinet would have looked pretty, the bruises on our shins would not have. And finding a light for such a small bathroom wasn’t easy either. Most of them are designed to be bright and wonderful and pretty and shiny. That’s cool if you have a 3′ wide mirror, double sinks, and need to do your hair and makeup every morning.We didn’t like any of the “vanity” lights they had but found a porch light we both loved. So, yeah, our bathroom will have a very nice looking outdoor light. Get over it.

Friday we did the planning. Figured out what we were going to do, in what order, and how to best do it. We went to Lowe’s and got some basics (paneling nails, plumber tape, caulk, etc).

Saturday we cut and painted the primer on the pieces that would go against the door and behind the sink. Those two pieces are in place. Thing is, the wood walls are harder than brick. It was a lot of work getting those damn paneling nails to go in! We also went to Lowe’s and spent a small fortune. Took us a long time because we had to make up our mind as to what to get. We also wound up removing the door trim on the inside. That was interesting. They used 3.5″ nails to go through 1.25″ wood.

Sunday (today) we first went to breakfast at Waffle House then went to Ace Hardware to get nails for the door trim, a clevis pin for the lawn mower deck, and suet for the woodpeckers. Once home, we cut and primed the other two pieces and made the correct cutout for the switch. Lorna painted the primer on the walls we aren’t covering (top of shower, window, and above door. and ceiling, too). While I put on the primer, Lorna cleaned and sanded the wood trim we took off. We also decided to not remove the toilet but work around it. So the idea was to prime and paint those two pieces (behind the toilet and the wall next to the door on that side). We got all the primer done first because we only had one tray for the roller. Sigh. We got the first coat of paint on those two pieces. Color isn’t what we thought it was (Lorna thought it was more peach toned) but we still like it. We think. We came in and Lorna put the first coat of paint on the uncovered places. Something one should never do when tired and in a poorly lit room. It’s not pretty but a light sanding tomorrow and another coat and it will be just fine. Then it starting pouring rain without warning. The two pieces that I painted are now basically paint free. Sigh.

More later as we slowly get more done.

Here’s the photos:

Close-up of the green wall where the sink was: (click here for larger version of entire wall)

The wall above the toilet. This is the “new” wall, built to separate the bathroom from the Rose Room. The water streaks are from a leak we had around the vent pipe a long time ago.