And God said, "Let there be Demo..."

So the walls around the bathtub are down, and can I just say ewwwwwwwwwwwww....

The drywall behind the wall where the plumbing is was dry, but had mold.

The framework is in good shape, so no additional expense there.

Luckily, this wall of tile came down relatively easy.

Now on the opposite side of the tub are, this wall did NOT

want to come down. It took 2 days to rip out the tile and

then attack the Sheetrock behind it. We did accidently

put the hammer through the wall in one spot, but behind

that wall is my bedroom closet, so no one can see it.

Notice all the water damage to the framework on the outside wall?

Oh joy.

Luckily, the damage was purely superfical. We also discovered

that at one time there was a water leak from the outside that

happened around the window. Lots of dry rot to the window, lots of

dry rot to the metal edgework around the window, but once

again we lucked out on that point.

Had to replace all the insulation though - it was all black.

Yuck.

Oh yeah - see the big opening in the outside wall?

Best we can figure is when the previous homeowner

had the back of the house stucco'd, one of the guys

doing the work pushed through the outside wall but

neglected to say anything before he covered up his boo-boo.

Once again, luck was on our side. The stucco outside prevented

anything from leaking in through this opening. We sealed it

with silicone anyway, just to be safe.
We also hosed down this entire wall with Kilz.

All hail original plumbing!

Especially leaky plumbing.

Especially leaky plumbing that won't stop leaking now that

we have pulled the wall down and removed all the tile.

We can't shut the water off, so it has to just leak until we are

done with the demo and the plumber can get in there

and repair the plumbing and raise the shower head.

We taped a plastic bag behind the plumbing so water won't

get behind the wall and drip downstairs to make

an even bigger mess.

So now we wait for the plumber to repair and move the plumbing, and the drywall dudes to come out and put up the Durock around the tub area.

Can't wait. 

Before...

In the beginning, there was...

A rotten, moldy wood window.

In a shower, of all places.

I'm still trying to figure out the genius that decided

to put a wood window in a shower area.

Idiot.

A bathroom long and narrow that reminds one of a dark cave.

Not a good feeling when you're trying to take a shower.

Leaky plumbing and rotting, moldy drywall behind that

oh-so-stylish gold-speckled white tile from the 60's.

Groovy.

Cheap, $10 light fixtures, wood poles with no purpose

(except perhaps to look extremely ugly),

and medicine cabinets from when the house was

built in 1965.

Oh, did we mention the fact that the shower head itself is at a

height perfect for my nephew?

Oh yeah, he's 5.

Was no one in 1965 taller that 5'2"???

So, the obvious issues notwithstanding, we could only imagine what we would find once we got behind the walls. We are hiring a General Contractor to help with a few things that we would just rather a professional do, and do correctly, than have us start something and make things worse.

We hired First General Services of Colorado Springs for this one. They did some work for us before and they were fantastic.

So, the GC will be taking care of:

*Putting up Durock behind the tile area (basically, that's Sheetrock made out of concrete material - it won't mold, and will last a helluva lot longer than regular Sheetrock.

*Tile - so beyond our experience level it's not even funny.

*Plumbing - gotta fix the leaking faucet in the tub area, and we don't need to set anything on fire trying to weld piping together.

*New window - vinyl, thank you very much (It will match the new windows we had installed in the house last year. We skipped the bathroom at that time because it was such a mess and we didn't want a new window being installed where we were pretty sure there was mold and dry rot present.

*Electrical - gotta move the light fixtures from beside the medicine cabinets to above the cabinets. Also want to have an exhaust fan/light combination installed. (evidently, folks in 1965 didn't have any such thing as mold to worry about.

We will be painting, replacing the counter top & sinks, replacing the medicine cabinets, sanding and refinishing the bathroom cabinets, and changing all the fixtures to ones with a oil-rubbed bronze finish.

Here is the color scheme:

The walls will be the light beige color, the cabinets, medicine cabinets & etagere will be the dark brown color, and the accent color will be the blue color. The floors will be addressed later, because our budget is tight, and not expandable at all. If we run out of dough, we have to stop, so we will be very careful when we buy the fixtures, etc...

Our max budget (very, very max) for this bathroom is $5k.

So, here we go.

Wish us luck...

What a Pain in the Butt....

Welcome to the Noel Family drama that is our bathroom makeover.

We have created this blog mostly for family and friends to check out the results of our bathroom re-do, but if you happen to make a random stop - welcome!

Eventually, as we work on other rooms, we will post those projects, but for now, we started fairly small.

Here we go....