The Impossible Renovation

How do you gut and renovate a bathroom when its the only bathroom in your house. Do you see the problem we have? We can't rip apart a bathroom down to the studs without moving out. Our house is from the 1920's and I guess back then they considered themselves lucky to just have one indoor bathroom. We are considerably more spoiled nowadays but we've managed to make it work for us. So far. At least until Grace becomes a teenage girl. Did I also mention the room is smaller than most peoples walk-in closets? Which we also don't have in this house.

This house saw a big renovation sometime in the 60's or 70's and we've had to undo a lot of stuff. We actually gave this room a cosmetic upgrade back when Grace was a baby. When we moved in, the bathroom and kitchen were the worst rooms in the house. I wish I had pictures. The bathroom then had dark blood red textured Formica going halfway up the walls. The rest of the wall had rough textured green and yellow striped wallpaper. I actually saw this exact wallpaper on a rerun of the Brady Bruch when they were repapering the parents bedroom. It was even too much for the Bradys and they went with something else. One day I couldn't take it anymore and I started ripping it off the walls and we repainted and papered. The walls were in rough shape because of the Formica being glued onto them so we papered the bottom half and painted the top. This isn't bathroom wallpaper at all but I was inexplicably attracted to the hot air balloons. Afterwards I put my Titanic poster up and the theme of the bathroom became early 20th century transportation. See how the wallpaper is peeling? Its worse near the shower. I want subway tile now.

We also have this huge mirror with no storage behind. I like the mirror but I want to frame it out or something. Maybe get a real medicine cabinet and move the mirror someplace else.

I wish I had a picture of the lights that were in here before. They were the worst thing in the room/house. I can't even find a picture of them online. They were antique brass and glass hanging globes. The electrical box was above the mirror like it is now and 2 heavy chains came out from that. They went to two hooks hanging from the ceiling on either side of the mirror. Then they hung down on each side of the mirror with the globe lights hanging from the ends. The glass globes were made from a bumpy yellow glass and I was constantly banging them but they would never break. This silver fixture was a vast improvement at the time but I want something different now.

Even our toothpaste cups need replacing. And see that bad tile job on the sink? The blood red Formica extended to the top of the sink. Its still there-I just covered it with my first tiling attempt. I didn't use the proper equipment to do it and some of the tiles are sort of jagged and sharp. I can do better now.

The shower is a showpiece too. For some reason, there is a different colored upside down tub as the top of it. I'm too ashamed to show you the actual tub where the silicone caulking turns black no matter what I do. I want a tiled shower. A tiled floor too. We put down peel and stick tiles over the red linoleum floor that was there and they are awful.

I saved the best for last. Whoever redid this bathroom in the 70's didn't add real heat. I guess the Formica budget went over so they had to lose heat. A simple baseboard would have been so easy and reliable to have. They figured these heat lamps overhead were enough. They are not.

When we gutted our kitchen we were without it for over 6 months. We can't do that with a bathroom for obvious reasons. Maybe we could rent an RV and park it in the driveway for 6 months?