Taming the bathroom

Once upon a time, the bathroom here at E's house was a vision of almond, pink and baby blue loveliness.  The stopper handle for the sink would pull completely out if you dared attempt to use it.  The tub spout was working on corroding away also.  The vanity and accompanying cabinet had exceeded their shelf life.  The medicine cabinet had seen better days, and the wall mounted ceramic toothbrush holder had been on the losing end of a fight somewhere along the line.  You can see the damaged toothbrush holder, blue sink, vanities and a bit of the medicine cabinet in this photo.  (Taken whilst perched atop the baby blue toilet.)

 

And let us not forget the tiled ceiling (hiding who knew what) and the rusted beyond repair baseboard heat cover.  This was an adventure that spanned quite a few months. Luckily, once the ceiling tiles were removed, we were left with furring strips that were nailed into the original plaster.

We were able to sheetrock the ceiling and add crown molding for prettiness.  E replaced the rusted heater cover one day while I was away.  I didn't hear any horror stories, so I think that may have gone smoothly.

Somewhere along the line, we took a trip to World of Tile up in North Jersey to seek out a replacement toothbrush holder.  They have piles of older tile in all sorts of vintage colors and patterns.  It's definitely worth a visit if you need to match a tile something in your old bathroom or kitchen.  At the time, we were also in the market for a few matching wall tiles in case anything got damaged when the shower plumbing was redone.  We brought samples of the toothbrush holder for a color match.

Earlier that week, I managed to gently and carefully remove the old jagged toothbrush holder by taking an oscillating tool, hammer and masonry chisel to it.  I'd hoped the oscillating tool would get the grout out from around the edges deeper and better than a grout saw.  It also left burn marks better than a grout saw:

Luckily, that was OK because the toothbrush and soap holders usually overlap the adjacent tiles a bit, so in the end, I was able to hide most of the mess I made while trying to be "gentle".  A little thinset and a lot of duct tape and we were soon to have a beautiful new toothbrush tealight holder.

I think this is a good time to end this post because it's been sitting in the can for over a month now.  I don't know that regular blogging will be my strong suit.  More on the beautification of the bathroom later.  In between there, I have more current news to share.