We've been working on cleaning up the guest bathroom, which was a bit more work then we had planned (which is how these things go I suppose). However, we made good progress and have managed to turn the corner on things, so that we are moving solidly in the forward direction. The room was a "vibrant" blue with ugly linoleum floor and crappy fixures. Previously, it was a kids bathroom, and it fit well with that expectation. We got the walls patched and kilzed in order to hide the aqua blue, replaced a few pieces of wallboard around the tub where things had got rotten. I used the mold and mildew resistant wallboard (the yellow stuff), so hopefully that will hold up better. It finishes just as nice as normal wallboard but weighs twice as much and has a paperless core. I was able square up a messed up corner that way and discovered how nice the new corner bead glued to tape is! If you haven't seen it it's a solid strip of 90 degree metal somehow adhered to standardish wallboard tape. It installs and finishes much easier than the perforated metal cornerbead I've struggled with before. We removed the flooring and discovered a botched diy floor levelling job that was attempted with some sort of troweled on thinset-ish material? It was cracking around the edges and was only marginaly level (the notched trowel marks were all in the floor), and the real joy was that it was serving as a holder for water, so it was covered with nice back mold. So a couple hours with a spray bottle of bleach and a respirator was required to clean that up and then remove the leveling stuff. The current walls in the bathroom are clearly not original as the flooring was original flooring, old patch, and new construction where a second floor addition was added on 20-ish years ago. So the the sloped floor appears to be a junction of new and old construction. This has resulted in a crappy uneven floor that we're not sure what to do with. Either way, the damaged underlayment has been replace and two coats of paint have been put done on top of that, so we're ready to do whatever. We think vinyl tile, we bought some that will look nice, but I need to put down another layer of underlayment first. I'm not sure. I will probaby wait until the structural engineer takes a look at missing central support (more on that later). There are two coats of paint on the walls now, so those are ready to go, and today the new bath and light fixtures went up. Bath fixtures were a fiasco of course. No shutoffs in the right place, etc, etc. So far I have found one correctly installed fixture shutoff. Sigh.
Pictures of our new cool brushed nickel bath fixtures, you can also see the pictures of the highlight tile that we are deciding on in the upper right. A slate subway pattern or these crazy blue swirly things:
And my wifes favorite, the outrageously expensive switch covers:
They are pretty hot!
Next time, I'll be putting up meticulously stained and finished beadboard wainscotting!
