the boy's bathroom

I mentioned in a previous post that I like to show the entire storyline of a project. I give the good, the bad and the ugly. Be prepared for a whole lot of ugly. I consider it all part of the journey in buying and renovating an old home.

You have to have very realistic expectations with older homes. We were lucky with our home in that the stonework on the outside was drop-dead gorgeous. We also had the original woddwork throughout. But that is about where the fairytale ended. Inside, everything was ugly, ugly, ugly. The new home people have an easier job with before and afters. A little bit of paint, and they are good to go.

Old homes? We require months of plaster, electrical, painting, staining, screaming, praying, etc. But the finished product is hopefully worth the work. And we get a bigger sense of pride in a job well done, right?

(This is what we tell ourselves so we don't give up, curl into a little ball and cry.)

Like I said before, get ready for a whole lot of ugly...

The upstairs bathroom is shared by the three oldest boys. The youngest is still taking baths in our bathroom, but the rest like showers. For awhile, we ignored the ugliness of the bathroom. As long as it was functioning, it was not a high priority project.

Now?

Houston... we have a problem...

The bathroom is having some plumbing issues. Somewhere, water was leaking down into the kitchen ceiling. (The previous owners, instead of fixing the issue, drywalled over the damaged plaster in the kitchen). The water was coming through the ceiling and down our cabinets. Not good. We had to act now before we were facing un-repairable damage.

Let's take a short tour...

Behind this door lurks something scary...


Opening the door...

A rusty medicine cabinet. Burgundy-mauve sink.


A matching tub...

Floor to ceiling tile, complete with roses! Just what boys really like!
And a poorly constructed linen closet.

The only part I like is the old-school shower rod that hangs from the ceiling.

This room has officially been tore out. Gutted. Steven began work on the plumbing this week and has found some very serious issues. Of course, the project is not as simple as we hoped it would be. He has to remove a great deal of old corroded plumbing.

And I should add that I underestimated how fun it would be to share my bathroom with 4 little boys. Yuck.

The boys, however, are excited about their new bathroom project. Everything has been purchased and is awaiting installation... once Daddy gets all that plumbing figured out. We are prepared to hear a lot of colorful language over the next week. Yikes!