Almost. Finished. Bathroom!

The long night is nearly over...

Apologies for the month-long wait. What with the holidays, my new book project, and everything else, it's been a crazy time of year. Fortunately, the bathroom is almost finished! As of a couple of hours ago, all that's left is to finish painting, caulking, toilet hookup, and minor touch-ups.

Let's take a brief look at the 'before and after', then move on to some of my favorite highlights!

BEFORE


Pictures 1 and 2. We were faced with:

• black, shiny floor linoleum squares on the wall around the tub, greenish-white fake wood paneling on the rest; 
• a tub with no shower, painted brown and surrounded by fake brick; 
• a toilet that not only had to be bucket flushed, but also caused the user to lean a bit to the right because it sat on a half-rotten/half-missing floor; 
• a sink with an old faucet and lines that caused poor water pressure; 
• an ugly wall light fixture above the mirror; 
• the back of the door and frame painted white; 
• and other ugly bits I can't recall right now.

1. BEFORE

2. BEFORE

 As you've seen from most of my previous blogs here, we've done a lot of work demo'ing this little bathroom, sanding and restaining the wood, tiling, and so forth, but now....

AFTER

3. Boom -

3. As you can see here, we had the tub refinished, converted it into a traditional shower, and tiled wall and floor.

4. - badda -

4. All the walls are tiled now. The wallboard is gone, which did expose the vent stack, but it's a nice classic touch too.

5. - boom!

 5. The pipe also makes a convenient towel rack! You can also see here that we still have to install the lights (see picture 6) on both sides of the medicine cabinet, and the accompanying switch plate, but we still have to finish painting. Normally, of course, we certainly would have painted first, but we had the opportunity to get some help with the plumbing installation and took advantage of it while we could.

6. One of these will soon be on each side of the cabinet.

6. Yeah, the lights are cool.

7. On the ceiling above the sink, there's also a fan! Eventually, I want to get a vintage grate (probably from the Laurelhurst Fan Company) and replace the plastic one, which really isn't worth taking a picture of, but worth mentioning. After all, this bathroom has been without a fan for over 105 years, and we were worried it would be a big job to put one in. We'd intended it to go over the window, but there's actually not enough room. It looks like there's plenty of space when you're standing in the bathroom, but when you look at the outside wall, there's only a few inches between the roof and the top of the window.

Fortunately, the electrician (Bill's Poor Man Repair, in Zion IL, whom I highly recommend) had found that he could put it in the ceiling above the sink and run a short hose into an existing roof vent. It's nice, simple, and quiet.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

Here are some of my favorite little touches, almost all of which were chosen by my lovely wife.

8. Sink faucet handles and decor.

8. The chrome and ceramic sink faucet handles with the 'hot' and 'cold' labels (from the HOBO in Waukegan IL) are a great vintage touch. This pic also shows off the Target accessories that match the shower curtain (also from Target).

9. Shortly after installing.

9. The vintage shower head and curtain rod, an Elizabethan Classics brand special-ordered from Just Faucets (in Arlington Heights IL) are classic. The exposed chrome supply and drain lines behind the tub are nice, too, but simply generic chrome-plated pieces.

10. Tub faucet handles

10. The tub faucet handles, also from Just Faucets. Sadly, the 'cold' handle was a bit damaged when we took it out of the box, which should be a lesson to us and you. Always check these things when you get them. Since we special ordered these months ago, and have no receipt,  it's too late to return it. We'll have to seal the ceramic and order that replacement piece separately. Fortunately, it screws off easily enough.

11. The shower curtain hooks.

11. The 'hot' and 'cold' shower curtain hooks look great in combination with our tub and sink faucets. Even better, they were super affordable at Target!

12. New heating vent grate

12. Originally, this heating vent went into a tube through the fake stonework and out into a modern grate. Of course, that was all demolished. When it came time to tile that section of wall, there wasn't much solid material there to mortar the tiles onto, but I used one of our other grates to measure with, and all seemed fine. Bad news: our new grate ended up being a bit shorter. Good news: when I caulk around the grate, it should hide that excess space without having to take out and retile that area.

13. Let there be light!

13. The overhead light (and its light switch cover) is the only original piece left in the bathroom, aside from the tub and toilet, and thus I think the only one of my highlights that Liz didn't choose!

Well, that's it for the moment! I'll post some more bathroom pics once we finish painting and installing those last little pieces. Then it's on to the next project, which will probably be the kitchen. We can't afford to go a complete remodel on it yet, so we're going to have some fun opening up and repainting the cabinets.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to relieve my exhaustion by going out and shoveling snow...