Five years ago, we moved into the house we live in. Five years ago, I took my first shower in the upstairs bathrooom, and water leaked through to the kitchen ceiling below. We haven't used that bathroom since (we have another full bathroom on the first floor).
Three years ago, I got ambitious and thought I could take on the renovation myself. I took a sledge hammer to the tile surround, and found that the wall behind was PLYWOOD. It was so rotten you could put your hand right through it! Worse yet, the plywood went above the plane of the ceiling, so we would have to cut back the ceiling (or take it down completely) to get the wood out. So I focused on taking down the nasty wallpaper. And found that the gypsum board behind it was DESTROYED. Unsalvageable. We went to take out the vanity, and the water shut-offs didn't work. The list goes on.
So, for 3 years, that bathroom door has stayed closed while we ignored the problem (since we had another fully functionally bathroom).
This year, we finally decided to hire someone to do the work. It was supposed to be 2 weeks. It started April 1st, and finished yesterday, a week and a half behind schedule (he ended up working Saturdays too). We encountered just about every problem you could think of once the bathroom was gutted. Our house was built in 1920, it's got some history, but it's also got some issues. The framing was bad, the roof was leaking, the old cast iron pipes all needed to be replaced, there was no insulation in the exterior walls, the door had to be moved, the floor was unlevel and the framing needed extra support...the list goes on. All I can say is, THANK GOD IT'S DONE! I took my first shower in my new bathroom this morning and it was glorious.
Now for your viewing pleasure, the pictures:
Before:
During:
And just for good measure, me in the beautiful new lighting that my new bathroom gives me :)
