At last, however, we have managed to set aside some money to upgrade something for the sheer beauty of it. Yes, we've decided to upgrade our bathroom.
Here's the "before" photo:
I laugh a little when I look at this, because in this photo, the bathroom looks OK. But, trust me, it doesn't look good in "person". That glass shower stall in the far corner was pitted and scummy - although I'm sure the previous owner did her best to clean it, well, it was just beyond redemption - oh the hours I spent on my knees trying to scrub and polish to get it looking nice. I never succeeded.
The original tiles in the shower, around the tub, and over the sink, were tan with brown decorative trim around the edges. Really dated. The previous owner painted over them with a special white paint - but inside the shower, that paint started to peel off and flake away a long time ago (made worse by my scrubbing the tiles in my continuing war on mold):
What's that you say? Eeeeeewwwww!? You bet.
The toilet is relatively new - in our first year here we replaced the old "one flush" toilets with new "dual flush" ones. But the sink is old, with a tan basin that looks pretty icky on the white vanity, and with an aging, pitted gold tap and handles. There's not much storage in that vanity - and it's, well, just cheap and grotty-looking.
The final beast is the jacuzzi tub (immediately under the window) which I only tried to use once - and quickly came to realize it was too much work to deal with.
Yeah - this bathroom is a beast and it's time to do something.
We called in a local tradesman to have a look - and he had lot of ideas about how to tart the old bathroom up - so away we go. Trevor and his son Ralph arrived y'day and the demolition began at mid-morning.
Here's how it looked when they left:
The noise was deafening - with hammers and saws and... ...well... Trevor and Ralph cut up the tub and lowered it and other bits from the balcony outside the bathroom to the deck below - RIGHT IN FRONT OF LAKA AND GEORGE'S WINDOW... If you think saws and hammers are loud - well, wait till you listen to macaw-meltdowns happening about every 20 minutes for several hours.
Laka and George went to bed last night tired, but happy in the conviction that they'd driven off those nasty men making all the noise.
I've got bad news for them. Trevor and Ralph will be back today - probably with earplugs.
Hello Liz, I have been following your blog for a while now. I do enjoy reading it.
ReplyDeleteI giggled when I read about the tub pieces being dropped onto a deck, because it brought back memories. My hubby and I are familiar with remodeling a bathroom. Many yrs ago, when we bought our house, the old tub (extremely heavy, iron) had to be broken into pieces in order to remove it. Since our bathroom floor had to go as well and there was a good size opening in the floor right into the garage, guess where those big heavy tub pieces landed :)
Our new bathtub is one piece (tub and stall, so no grout problems) but.... it was so tall, hubby had to cut a piece of celing above the stairs to bring it upstairs, where our main bathroom is. I thought that project would never end, hehe.
I can't wait to see your remodeled bathroom.
Whoa... sounds like your rennovation was even more "fun" than ours is! Eeek!
ReplyDeleteWe're now in "day 3" and the thumping and banging continues, although it doesn't sound quite as violent - and Laka and George have settled a little. Or maybe it's just that they are having brekkie; parrots are quiet when they are eating...