Act One - continued (The Bathroom)

[Post written June 26, 2007]

I realize I haven't posted an update in awhile. Things seem to actually be progressing (ever-so-slightly) on the house. Since last I wrote, my new kitchen cabinets have gone up (yay!), which means the holes in the floor and walls of the kitchen were finally filled. We still need to put the rest of the cement board down on the floor, then we can begin installing the (phenomenally gorgeous) slate tiles I bought for the floor. Still to do in the kitchen - besides the floor, we need to finish wall repairs to the "laundry room side" of the kitchen and frame out the pantry that will go on the opposite wall from that. I bought 12"x12" black marble tiles for the countertop yesterday. I was really wanting a deep cobalt blue, but apparently large tiles just don't COME in blue. I've looked everywhere, it seems, and nothing is right. I was going to settle for something different when I found the marble on clearance - so price won out in that battle. It won't be the blue I wanted, but hey - I'll have marble countertops. :)

After the kitchen tiling, we'll finally be able to move to the next project - completing my bathroom. I don't think I mentioned before what sad shape the bathroom was in. I first discovered something was wrong when I was using the tub to fill a bucket so I could wash and then paint the walls in my bedroom. When I filled the bucket, the water looked oily, with black flecks in it (straight out of the pipes)... no matter how long I let the water run, the oily, dirty appearance wouldn't disappear. Then, when I dumped the water out of the bucket into the tub, I realized that the tub was "getting dirtier" - the white finish of the tub was apparently just recently "painted" on, and as it was used, the white was flaking off. Also, around the drain was a VERY LIBERAL amount of silicone caulking... I had, by this time, decided just to replace the tub. When we took the tub out, we realized that the liberal silicone caulk was, in point of fact, *holding the drain in place.* The drain had completely rusted through the tub, and therefore there were large holes in the tub around the drain.

(Tom, our minister @ church, had fun tearing out the old tile.)

Anyway - suffice it to say, there was a large mold problem in the bathroom as a result of the tub leaking (around the top, sides, and bottom), so the walls were full of mold and mildew. Currently, the entire tub/shower area is stripped to the bare walls. We're redoing the bathroom/hall closet as well (bizarre construction), and since there's not much bathroom left, we're just going to replace the rest of the wall and floor tiles as well. We already know we're going to have to redo the plumbing throughout the bathroom, not only because of the tub pipes, but because the sink doesn't drain well (and knowing what this meant for the kitchen sink, we can only suppose a similar situation exists for the bathroom).

I don't yet have the tiles for the bathroom - I still want to order the kitchen backsplash tiles first - but I do know what I want to do in there, I think. I'm envisioning a combination of white ceramic and cobalt blue glass tiles (the latter as a random accent throughout). It should look nice, I think.

When the bathroom is functional, then I might be able to consider moving in. That will be nice, as I haven't been sleeping well on the parents' air mattress...