We have been remodeling our upstairs bathroom since April 2008. And actually, if you count when we had the new glass block window installed (on an extremely rare for Chicago, warm day in January), it has almost been a year. But...I see the light at the end of the tunnel! Late this afternoon, Paul (with a little help from me) installed our new claw foot tub. The shower attachment has not yet been installed, but at 5:15 PM tomorrow, once the silicone sealant that Paul applied to the drain is fully cured, we can turn on the water to the tub!
We decided that Tyler will be the first to take a bath in the new tub (although I confess I will be chomping at the bit to have a lovely bubble bath soon after). The poor darling has been having his bath in the kitchen, on the floor, in a too-small baby bathtub with his knees scrunched up! The rest of us have been showering in a deck shower in the basement-brrr! So we went to Toys 'R Us tonight to buy Tyler's Christmas presents, and we also picked up a toddler-sized Thomas the Tank Engine hooded bath towel, and Elmo faucet cover (to keep little kids from bumping their heads on the faucet, plus he adores Elmo) and some fish to play with.
I will post pictures of the new bathroom as we install the new fixtures, etc. bit by bit, but I wanted to show a couple of construction photos so you can see some of the work we did, starting with a few "Before" pictures. In a nutshell, our bathroom was cramped, dingy, falling apart, icky, old, and awful!
Paul getting ready to work in our tiny bathroom (6 1/2 feet by 7 1/2 feet, pre-expansion/construction), by taking down the shower bar. Note his little "helper". And the 1950's avocado-green bathtub. I love the 50's as an era, but a 28" wide, cramped tub with the finish worn off so that it takes a massive amount of elbow grease to get clean does not fit my view of retro-charming.
The icky ceiling with the space alien heating fixture. The weird spot in front of it was where we had removed the oldest ceiling fan in history-eeew.
The sink and toilet. And the helper.
A good chunk of the refuse that came out of the bathroom, including the non-charming green bathtub.
A view of the new ceiling joists. The cross bars were put in for extra support since this is where we expanded into the room next door, giving our tiny bathroom a little more than an extra foot of space (sounds tiny, but in a bathroom as small as ours was, even a mere foot can make the new space seem huge!)
The floor after expansion, with the old plumbing still in place.
Now the old plumbing is out and some of the new is in. You can see a bit of Paul there with his stubby craftsman-like pencil, meticulously figuring out the placement for the rest of the plumbing. Stay tuned for the transformation!
The tea table, festive with reds, pinks, whites, cherubs, and chocolate scones made by Lisa.
One of the tea options I served, Harney and Sons Valentine's Tea Blend (which their website describes as a romantic brew joining chocolate tea and rosebuds). Yum!
We made Valentines from a craft kit. I won't post the name of the company because I was disappointed by their service, plus the glue in the kit was all dried up. But we managed in spite of the kit's deficiencies to put together some nice Valentine's. The one pictured above is the one I made and gave to my beloved!
