This will be the final time you will be reading about the bathroom remodel because we are done! It was on January 22 that I wrote this post that finalized our decision to keep the tub in spite of others imploring us to ditch it. We are glad we did now that it is looking brand new instead of 35 years old of wear. Now we have at least one tub in the house and to our eyes, it looks just fine. More than fine, really.
It must be stated that without the work Bruce did, which was more considerable than you might think, the project would never have come to life nearly as quickly. Before I go into the process of having the tub painted, here's a last look as Bruce is preparing to apply the lower window privacy film.
That color is no more and dare I say, you will hardly recognize it?
After a crazy busy week it is completely quiet in the Peck home, as Bruce is playing pickleball with the gang, while I am sitting at my desk. And you thought my elbow was better, didn't you? Mostly it is, but like a complete dummy, I agreed to have two basal cell moles removed from my back on Wednesday. It should be noted that I played pickleball the night before with the very dermatologist that did the dirty work. The office called Tuesday afternoon with the results and asked if I could come in the morning, say 8:30 or 9? Yes was the answer I gave and oh how I wish I could take it back! As most of you know this type of skin cancer is not fatal, nor will it ever be. What was I thinking??? Walking into the set up room, the sight of five needles lined up gave me a moment of pause.
Wait, that's six! After those were done, it was a piece of cake, although later in the day it was not so much. The following morning Bruce changed the bandaging and OH MY GOSH did it hurt when he took them off.
My poor skin!
Upon seeing it, Bruce said oh my! as well, because he was surprised that the top incision was two inches long, thus the admonition from the doctor that I not play pickleball for TWO WEEKS if I cared how it healed. Thus I sit at home while Bruce has fun playing. The last time I went through this,
documented here on election day 2016, it became infected and took forever to heal. I will do my best to heed her advice and be careful this time.
With that out of the way, let's get to that bathtub, shall we? We used a company called, Bathtub Guys that I found online, much as we might have done years ago with the Yellow Pages. Remember them? From my first call I was impressed with not only how they answered all of my questions, they actually answered the phone! Another "remember when" moment when people did that sort of thing. Alex arrived promptly at 9:30 as he promised, immediately going to work with sanding and cleaning the tub, the first step.
He claimed that it was actually refreshing to find a tub in such good shape telling us that many folks have chipped and cracked tubs that need considerable prep work. He covered the floor in the bedroom for his exhaust fan thing,
that he then ran it out into the back yard.
This was after he had covered the room with paper or plastic.
Here's the actual equipment for painting.
It is here that I will pause for a moment to mention that not only was Alex here, but a plumber from Harvey Baker was as well. Are you kidding?
No, I am not. Lately Bruce noticed a change in our amount of hot water, thus he called them and wouldn't you know it, they came at the same time. Emptying part of my side of the closet to give the plumber access, while that orange thing was heading out the back door, another hose was as well in order to drain the water heater. What exactly am I saying? I'm saying that we have a small water heater, located on a shelf in the closet above my clothes. Now you can picture it better. Well, it turns out that there is excessive amounts of sediment in the tank necessitating a new one which will happen on the 25th. Good timing, right?
At any rate, our bedroom was a beehive of activity as I sat at the computer amongst the chaos, doing our taxes while Alex donned his protective head gear and went to work. From the time he arrived until he left was about three hours in case you are wondering.
He warned us that the fumes were strong and he was not kidding, but due to having a new handy dandy, extremely quiet exhaust fan in the bathroom, the odor was gone in about a day.
While I was at the dermatologist, Herbert came by to put on the tub handles and by golly we were nearly done. Seriously, it is shocking how the tub looks now. A word about the tub handles, or maybe a cautionary tale for anyone doing something like this, turns out that one of them barely fit, something I never gave any thought to when making my choice. Previously there were round knob like handles and as pictured below the new ones are anything but round. Although the handles proved to be nearly too long to use, there was just barely enough space.
A few folks have seen it in person and tell me the pictures do not do it justice, so you will have to take their word for it. I have to admit that I keep looking at it in different light because it is so exciting after having a vanilla bathroom for the last few years.
Back to Bruce....what a husband! After installing the window film, he cleaned the outside of the bathroom window as well as the one for our bedroom. I can see clearly now!
The final piece came yesterday afternoon in the form of glass shelves. Okay, let's go! Or should I say, let me watch while Bruce does the work?
For the life of me I cannot recall how I ended up with glass shelves, having looked at other materials all along. Walnut, white, black, gold? All were given consideration, however, somehow I came across this company,
Dulles Glass and Mirrors, and now that they have arrived and are installed, I can give them a high recommendation for both quick delivery, an excellent product, as well as superior packing. I scoured the house looking for display objects and there are many memories tied up in a bunch of this stuff. The drawing was done by Alissa, the box came from my long lost cousin Joelle, the black vase came from Bruce's mom, and the Baccarat owl was gift from David and Michelle. Perhaps some tweaking will come to this space, but for now I am happy. And oh my, those shelves are nice. Obligatory magnifying mirror for old eyes notwithstanding. Function before form is my motto.
Well, there you go. A bathroom remodel for about half what most folks spend. Then again, most folks don't have a Bruce in their family but still...we love doing this sort of thing, so it is not really work to either of us; Bruce with a tool in his hand, and me either shopping in person, or online. It is what we do.
Gayle came by the other day and asked "now what can you remodel?"
Indeed.
your friend,
Gail
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