Bathing Beauty, Part I: Before Photos

As many of you know, I can't wait to demo our only bathroom.  So many people who see it knowing that I want to redo it say something along the lines of, "Oh, that's not so bad."  Well, guess what?  I think it is awful.  I will now detail some of the changes it has gone through since we moved in a year ago.

Here's a picture of it the day we moved in.

April 2011

The first thing to go was the frosted glass door with see-through flowers.  There is nothing I hate more in a bathroom than a sliding shower door.  Not only am I opposed to the look of them, but they make me feel so boxed in.  At least a shower curtain moves when you elbow it!  (Also notice the shower curtain rod hung above the door.  See?  Even the previous owners didn't like the door.)  So, after much complaining, I decided to take matters into my own hands and one day while Aaron was at work I unscrewed it and hefted it out to the garage.  I peeled away as much of the caulking as I could and called it a day.

The next things to go were the curtains.  The teal/gray floor tile is leftover kitchen tile and I'm guessing, since it doesn't match anything else in the bathroom, the previous owners wanted to tie the floor in with matching teal/gray curtains.  Not what I would have done, but the curtains were easy enough to remove, so down they came.

September 2011

 Here is a picture five months after we moved in.  Notice the new shower curtain (since replaced with a clear curtain) and the absence of window curtains.  The next change was part of a whole house spruce up.  We had new windows installed and rather than replacing the old casement window with a new casement window, we opted instead for a double-hung window with the same privacy glass (the pattern is called smooth-rough, but also sometimes goes by the name Flemish Obscure) as the old window had.  The old casement opened into our backyard and when it was open you could see right into the bathroom.  With the double hung window we can open it from the top down when guests are over and we have the other windows open so the bathroom remains private, but still breezy.

March 2012

That brings us to the current state of things.  Let me give you a list of a few of the things I really dislike that still remain.

1. 'Lemon Meringue' Yellow and Forest Green tiles.  Don't get me wrong here, I love vintage tiled bathrooms, just not when the colors clash so badly.  Some of them are cracked also.

2.  The extra tiles.  I'm referring to the mismatched tiles that have been thrown in by those looking for a change without any demo work.  You'll be able to see some other extra tiles in the shower in photos below.

3. The lighting.  They are fake crackle glass balls hanging from rusted chain and with decaying ground wires. (Sounds safe, huh?)  So many people like these upon getting 'the tour', so I guess to each his own.  Two people have already asked for them when we take them down.

4. The almost-there paint color.  I call it "Muted Highlighter".  It's hard to see in the pictures, but the paint color is just the wrong color.  Someone tried to match the tile.  His or her eyesight must have been pretty horrible because he or she made a bad decision. 

5. The plywood vanity.  Enough said.

6. The tub that got drenched with acid and scoured with steel wool and now has grey speckles.  You know how bathtubs, when clean, tend to sparkle and shine?  Ours doesn't.  Don't be deceived by the front facade; it wasn't cleaned in the same manner as the inside.  Just wait for the pictures on this one.

7. No towel bar for the hand towel.  There used to be a towel ring over by the toilet (which is behind the door).  I took that out before the furniture was even moved in.  Gross.

8. The door swings the wrong way.  It opens in to the bathroom, which is correct, but instead of opening against the wall, it opens against the toilet.  Inconvenient to the max.  Especially for the two of us who don't close the door when we use the bathroom (unless we have company, of course).  Did I go too far with that?  Oh well.

Now let me illustrate some of these in pictures.

Those are the extra tiles I spoke of, the toilet behind the door, damage from taking down the shower door, the plywood vanity with a dark stain, various cracks in the tile, and the non-shiny bathtub.  I would like to put in a disclaimer here that we do clean our bathtub.  It holds on to dirt because it has no finish.  Those marks won't come off.

I hope some of you will better understand why I want to gut the sucker now.  We're hoping for a Summer 2012 renovation.  I'll keep y'all posted along the way with updates and pictures as they happen.  Next up: Inspiration Strikes!