Phase One - Bathroom Remodel (Fantastic Mr. Fox meets the Brady Bunch)

We have been living in the Panhandle for almost three months, and half of that time has been spent making Haefen our home.  The living room, dining room, and master bedroom are painted (they just need some trim work done), and the wallpaper in the kitchen is slowly being scraped, torn, and chiseled off.  But, the biggest project yet is underway....

I am sure that you have guessed it, yep, the bathroom.  Hmmm maybe the title gave it away?

This a shot from the door into the bathroom.  I tore out the carpet the second week that we moved in.  There were two layers of carpet on the floor.  I guess one was the padding?

Here is the bath/shower and a glimpse of the vanity

This bathroom makes me think of the Wes Anderson film, Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It has a muted kind of 1970's look to it: creamy wallpaper with gold flowers, gold and cream faux marble wall board in the shower, wood trim in all the corners, and of coarse wood paneling!

These are super deep, built in shelves right above the toilet. They are completely off-centered.

Remember this is our one and only bathroom.  It is shaped like a square, a small square!  We had plans to make another half bath behind this bathroom, on the other side of the wall, behind the toilet.  That is where are utility room is and there actually is room for a toilet and a vanity.  We could probably fit a shower stall in there too, but that seemed too expensive for our budget.  After having two plumbers out and some root cellar investigations by Corey we decided against creating another conventional bathroom.  It seemed too risky to drill a hole through our rock and mortar foundation to connect a second toilet to the sewer line.

As I mentioned before, this is our only bathroom so we want to make it the cleanest, most functional and beautiful bathroom that we can afford.  We found a tiler (?), who was available to help us renovate our humble lavatory and he was scheduled to embark on this momentous project this week, but we have encountered some unexpected surprises and therefore delays.

We decided to keep the old bathtub and tile the walls and ceiling around it along with the floor.  We also wanted to put up dry wall and have at least one room in the house with no wood paneling.  Isaac and Lillia helped start the demo work by pulling down wallpaper, removing trim, hooks and other odds and ends.  Thankfully Corey prayed and asked the LORD for guidance before he started his part of the demolition.  I also prayed quietly in the living room.  He decided to start by changing the hardware on the bathtub.  It was bent and tarnished and I could smell a musty, earthy smell coming from the auxiliary drain hole which made my anxiety level rise higher than normal.

Corey discovered that the drain pipe was rusted and a small hole emitted some water underneath the bathtub.  Since there was no way to get to the pipe without pulling out the tub, that is what we decided to do.  When Corey pulled the wall board away from the wall he discovered this abnormality:

A wall of weeds

This vine of weeds was found behind the shower wall board, and it is what I was smelling!  It grew from underneath the tub all the way up the wall.

Our gutted shower stall

I don't have a picture to prove it (because I was shopping for a new bathtub), but there were  four wheel barrow loads of wood chips and sand underneath the bathtub.  Corey removed all of that and found a cement slab underneath.  When he removed the wall board that was installed above the bathtub he found another weird surprise.  Can you guess what?  You will never guess this one - two dead kittens surrounded by mouse bones (I also do not have a picture of that!).  Not sure how the cats ended up there but I am glad that the mice, the cats, and the weeds are gone!

After gutting the shower stall, Corey started taking down the wood paneling and found layers of wall paper.

This looks like the original wall paper.  It is a lacy pattern

shiplap!

Of all the wallpaper this is my favorite

 Don't you just love the butterflies and orange scalloped border?  They make me think of the Brady Bunch.  They are so cheerful and uplifting, especially after finding weeds and dead animals in my walls.

As of right now the toilet is still installed and working and so is the bathroom sink.  You may have already put two and two together and wondered how we are bathing.  We did foresee this possible problem and we were ready with a plan....

An outdoor shower, of coarse!

 We clothes-pinned old sheets and a table cloth (used for our painting drop cloths) along with a real shower curtain to our clothes line.  We are using a garden nozzle for the shower head that is hooked up to a hose which is attached to the utility sink in the utility room.  Our shower floor is made up of bricks that we found laying around.  Voila, an outdoor shower.

Three out of four showerers were satisfied with their showering experience.  The one dissatisfied bather complained of not enough hot water.  He did take his shower after his little brother and after the dishes had been washed.  Three of us have not experienced this new natural bathing experience, but will soon need to, preferably when the sun is shining.