I need to hurry this story along. Some of the biggest renovation projects have taken place over the past 2 weeks at the DC Co-op. Why did I wait 6 years to start some major kitchen and bath renovations, you say? Well, I had to move out first. I don't know why! I will skip over the part where I bought a 2nd house and moved into a 3rd for now, for the sake of continuing with the Co-op's Cinderella Story.
The kitchen. And the bathroom. I know that I have mentioned these two as the bane of my existence before. Sort of my mental blocks. The blind spot of my renovation dreams and schemes. Let's take a look at the bathroom, shall we?
*Warning! Look away if you are squeamish. I would. I used to shower with my eyes closed on the real.
Here are some revealing pictures of how I was living for 6+ years:
I just couldn't deal. That window? I spent hours upon hours after work scraping, peeling, sanding, stripping, scraping, scraping, scraping and scraping some more. With any sharp, flat tool (the best was a chisel) I could find until I took off the forty thousand layers of paint that had been slapped on there without a care and practically painted shut!
Scary stuff, but doesn't that patchy part look like Bob Marley?
About a month ago my mom came down and helped me by scraping, stripping, wire brushing, priming and painting this radiator that used to look like death:
There is no before picture of the radiator. It was that bad. I know you are thinking, but those before pictures of the wall, floor, window and shower were pretty bad. This was worse, okay? It just was. I get nervous even thinking about it.... *shudder*
Two weeks ago things
really started happening. I called in the big dogs, Bathfitter, to tackle this project because it was lightyears beyond my scope. There was that window box thing to contend with, the heavy-a$$ cast iron tub, shoddy tile job, no water shut-off access. This project had always overwhelmed me to the point of paralysis. Once I moved out, however, I was finally able to give Bathfitter a call and set up this contract with them.
Of course, in typical "me" form, this was the week I forgot my camera at my new house. So all of the following photos are from my very nice, but not a camera, phone:
First, the guy (Nick) set up shop in my bedroom:
Can I just say jealous? I was so envious of his power tools. I wanted to try each and every one of them and see what I could do with some real tools (more on that later). He very nicely installed easy-access water shut-off valves behind the tub for me so that I never have to deal with the stupid Co-op Board's rules about shutting off the water to the whole building ever again (that deserves a whole post on its own)
Then he got to work breaking apart the old tub:
It took him the rest of the day to level the floor underneath the tub and build out all of the walls flush to the effed up tile job that was done prior to my moving in:
Already much-improved, no? While he was working on that, I was working on the kitchen - but I'll save that for a separate post since this one is already longer than I expected.
That night I had continuous nightmares about getting up in the middle of the night and knocking into the tub, upsetting the levelness of it all.... I was a wreck getting up at 6am with no sleep!
The next day Nick worked on setting the tub, tub surround and window, already knowing that he would have to extend his contract by another full day due to the delay in getting the tub level. This confirmed my nightmare, which had ended in him needing to stay an extra day!
But look at that progress! I was a little disappointed that it wasn't finished yet, but my premonitions are usually right. Luckily I was able to finagle another day off of work. I had also made some major progress in the kitchen simultaneously, will get to that in that other post I keep talking about.
On the third day, Nick finished the job and my life was forever changed:
He even managed to rig up a strat that pulled the radiator away from the wall far enough to put the acrylic wainscotting behind it:
Brillz.
I am in love with the new bathroom now, so pristine and 180 degrees away from what it was. There's still some work to be done that I've got on my to-do list:
-paint the window frame with Rustoleum Satin White (same that was used on the radiator)
-while I'm at it touch up the radiator paint (the strat messed up the finish, but it was worth it)
-tile the concrete-filled corner (did I ever mention how old-school that concrete is? That it actually contains
rocks. Like,
rock rocks. Yeah. Should be fun leveling that out.) I have the tile already. Almost a perfect match, maybe I can faux age it once it's in.
-replace the toilet. It's old and cracked and not worth it to try and salvage. It had been mortared to the tile for over 60 years, so of course there were problems in removing it to get the wainscotting in behind it....
There are many more stories to be told as well:
-how I felt like a superwoman using professional power tools
-how stupid the Co-op Board is and just how passive aggressive their bulletin board "notes" can be
-how I made major progress in the kitchen
I finally feel like I'm semi-catching up to myself. Well, in the co-op that is. There are still a thousand stories of the other two houses to get to.... it never ends!
