WARNING: A self-absorbed home renovation project post follows.
I’ve mentioned My Arduous-Although-Small Bathroom Renovation Project, but I never told you how it wrapped up.
The contractors finished their various bits some weeks back, and I’ve enjoyed having a working shower (as opposed to a leaking shower) much more than I’d anticipated. The humid western PA summer weather has made evening bathing essential (which reminds me that someday I shall have to write about my old Cambridge roommate who showered three times daily in summer and spent many a day wandering the flat in only a towel….).
Anyway, today I finally finished painting the renovated bathroom, as part of painting the interior of the whole house. (Of which more in the next few days.) So, voila:
For pained memories and photos of the final stages, continue reading.
One of the first things I had told both Mike the Handyman and Todd the Tile Guy at the beginning of the project was that I was going on vacation in mid May, and that I wanted the project finished before then.
“Not a problem,” Mike said.
“This’ll take about two weeks,” Todd said.
Those of you who have made home improvements in the past should now get back up from the floor and take a few deep breaths to stop your laughing fits.
The tile, being funky odd-shaped tile, had to be ordered of course, and some of the bull-nose tile would take longer to arrive. And Todd the Tile Guy himself was going on vacation before I was, and would be away when the tile arrived. So the tile installation started the day before I left for Florida and ended while I was away.
Happily, it did come out well.
After I returned home and caught up from all the work I’d missed on vacation, I bustled over to Lowe’s and bought a tub door — the same one as in the rental house in Florida, so every morning when I bathe it’s like I’m on vacation — and towels racks, hooks, and paper roll holder. Oh, you have to see the toilet paper roll holder! It’s so cool. See:
No springs! From such a small life improvement comes happiness.
So Mike the Handyman installed these goodies, and most importantly reinstalled and cleaned up and generally repaired the toilets in this bathroom and the powder room.
Hoorah!
And then a few weeks passed, and I made myself busy with other stuff.
Eventually I gathered enough inner strength to start my next long-overdue home improvement project: painting all the rooms in the house. That is what has occupied all spare and non-spare time in the last three weeks. Choosing colors, picking paints, buying everything, learning how to paint, learning how to get paint and spackle shrapnel out of my hair…. I’ll starting writing about it tomorrow.
For now, let’s enjoy a before-and-after of the bathroom:
BEFORE
AFTER
It’s a huge jump in quality, believe me. My ditsy web camera doesn’t do justice to the changes wrought. I should not have waited so long.