If You Gotta Go...You Gotta Go in the Backyard

So, now that things are wrapping up in the kitchen, Joe decided to demo the only current bathroom in the house. We're not living in the house currently since we're having trouble selling our other house so I wasn't worried about not having any running water for a few weeks. (We even have to go outside and run the water hose when we want to wash hands.)

Heres an original picture of the bathroom...

I know, I know, why even change. That bathroom is just so glorious in all it's goldenrod glory. It's just so perfect! Well one thing led to another and now it looks like this...

You think maybe Joe got a little carried away with the sledgehammer?

Truthfully, what happened was when we took down all that lovely wallpaper (as with the rest of the house) we found some major problems with the walls.  Unlike the other rooms, however, these walls were beyond repair. There was black mold everywhere. Plaster was falling off where they had nailed things in.

The bathroom had never been waterproofed. There wasn't a shower, only a tub. Someone had decided long ago to just attach a showerhead to the tub faucet and hang in on the wall on a hook. This lasted 40-50 years so it was no suprise when I took off the "cover-all flaws" wallpaper that the walls were so water damaged they were literally falling apart. Some plaster even came down with the wallpaper leaving exposed lathe. As into saving all the plaster walls as I am these walls were just too bad.

You can't see it in the pictures but there are also holes in the subfloor.  When Joe and Kyle took out the tub they said the floor was even a little "squishy". And did I mention there was absolutely NO insulation on that outside wall? None! Guess I know why my electric bill was higher for that house than my current one (and no one even lives there!).

So the plan for this bathroom is...

-new subfloor

-tile

-new clawfoot tub

-new toilet

-insulation

-drywall

-board and batten

-new medicine cabinet

The only thing we're keeping from this mess is the sink. I like the vintage vibe it gives the room. We're just going to clean it up and put it back in. So much for staying on budget.

BTW...gotta give mad props to Joe and Kyle for getting that old cast iron tub out all by themselves. They got it through the narrow doorway, hallway, through a bedroom, and into the living room/appliance graveyard. Its currently hanging out there along with the bathroom sink, old toilet, old kitchen sink, refrigerator, and stove. It's almost donation time. I hear the ReStore calling our name.

Hello Walls

The wallpaper is gone and if you read the last post you got a sneak peek of what the walls look like. Scary. Since I've lost my camera I can't show you pictures of the awesome 1940's wallpaper that was under three other layers of wallpaper. I can, however, use my mad writing skills to describe each layer in detail (from the top):
1. "Civil War" paper - I'm not describing it...you've seen it.
2. Pink Spinning Wheel paper - exactly as it sounds...pink...with spinning wheels on it...very, um...colonial?
3. Green/Blue/Gray patterned paper - actually was more like flowers
4. Awesome vintage 1940's paper. OMG Awesome. Can't understand why they ever covered it up. We didn't get to see it all, just bits and pieces. It was just so fragile. It featured big apple trees, cherries, a cow, goats, sheep, a dove sitting on a wheelbarrow, chickens. I was so sad to see it go but it just flaked away. I wanted to save a little to frame but it was so badly aged with three layers on top of it and there was no way to get it off without wetting it...I promise we tried.
5.Pink Paint
6. Robin's Egg blue paint / falling plaster

Thankfully, all these layers were just on one wall. Everything else was just the blue/falling plaster. My friend Dana got that wall. She worked for at least two hours steaming and scrubbing that wall. LOVE YA DANA! Here's her finished product.

Funny story: Dana was washing the wall with a very wet sponge when she started to hear a crackle. See that outlet near the floor. Yep. She had been pouring water into it for 30 minutes. She almost solved all my problems for me.

Climbing the Walls

To quote They May Be Giants:
"I got tired of pacing the floor
Sick of it all, I'm done with the floor
Walked away ever since I got a new job climbing the walls . . . "

Now that the floors are at a stopping place (for now) we've decided to tackle the next huge kitchen project...the walls. Here's what they used to look like:

As much as I despised  loved the wallpaper, we decided that it just wasn't the look we were going for. Luckily for us each strip of wallpaper came down in an entire piece (no steamer necessary). I neatly folded them up, put them in a bag, and have left them out on the curb for the garbage man. Feel free to drop by and salvage it. I'm sure it would just look lovely in your kitchen/bathroom/bedroom. You could even frame it and put it above your mantel.

Here's what the walls look like now...more to come.





Crack House

So, finally, after months of waiting, waiting, waiting, and more waiting, things finally seem to be back on track. I took a few "before" pictures today. I'm going to try to start posting them so that everyone can see the "progress" that is happening.

Below is what went down today. I totally intended just to hang out and take a few pics today (maybe pull up a little carpet and marvel at the beautiful wood floors) and yet somehow ended up not only ripping out carpet but also wallpaper too.

This room is pretty scary. The wallpaper was coming down pretty easily but behind the wallpaper...oh, behind that wallpaper. Behind that wallpaper was a complete mess. I'm going to try to describe this the best way I know how. Someone (probably 60 years ago) decided to paint this room pink. Then, this person decided to hang wallpaper over that pink plaster...brown wallpaper with little red flowers all over it. (It was pretty gross.) Joe's Grandad made the wise choice to remove that wallpaper and Joe's Grandmother selected the country blue wallpaper you see above. 

Now, I had no intention of removing this wallpaper today. It was more curiosity than anything. I kept wondering, "What is behind that wallpaper? What is behind that wallpaper?" So finally, I grabbed a piece of loose wallpaper and just ripped. Amazingly, it tore all the way up to the ceiling without shredding. So I grabbed another piece and ripped that one off all the way to the ceiling as well. Everything after that is a haze of flying wallpaper and plaster. And yes, that is my dad standing there supervising. He "supervised" almost the entire process.

After the wallpaper frenzy and I was able to focus again, I finally took a step back and shrieked in horror. There were cracks everywhere. Im not sure these pics show it in great detail but it literally looks like a crack house. This room will haunt me in my sleep. In fact, I thought about calling up the producers of the SAW movies and letting them know that they could rent out this room to film their next movie.

Good news though, I did eventually end up tearing up the carpet. You can't tell from this pic but the floors are beautiful. I don't know why Joe decided to take a pic of the carpet pile instead of focusing on the actual floors but this seems to be the only one I have. We have beautiful floors with staples all through them--which reminds me...beer and staple party at my house next weekend!!!