Unposted post

My sister just posted about finding "drafts" in her post listings. Things that weren't quite finished for whatever reason. So I checked my list and found a few as well.

Including this one from April 2009.

I just want to rip out the bathroom.

I know that we can't afford to re-do the bathroom yet, and we can't start ripping things out until the other bathroom has a useable shower, but every little thing that goes wrong would be easier to fix if we started over.

The day after we moved into our house, a note was dropped into the mailbox from the previous owners. "Do not use anything stronger than dish detergeant on the painted bathtub". Thanks a lot. We'd already scrubbed it clean the previous day with normal strong bathroom cleanser.

Maybe this wouldn't have happened if we forever-after used
only dish soap on the tub, but we now have a white and pink tub. White paint
over the original pink. I don't know how hygenic that is because I imagine stuff
gets under the paint that can't be washed off, but I have a healthy relationship
with germs and bacteria. It builds our immune systems, right? But it is
embarassing and I try to keep the shower curtain closed.

That bath area I imagine to be our largest expense in the room to replace because all of the drywall feels spongy behind our tub surround.....

Hmm, interesting. In spite of having no sudden influx of funding, this is what our upstairs bathroom looks like today.

Lovely, isn't it? After cleaning up the debris and spraying anti-mold stuff on the studs, I did what I've always done since moving in here. I hung up the shower curtain ... and closed it.

Things changed a bit in the last little while to make this bathroom more of a priority, although I still would have liked to work on the basement first. The hot water faucet in the tub needed a new washer, and then the faucet was stuck in the "on" position. It wasn't easily fixable, so we just turned the shut-off valve at the hot water tank. We lived virtually without hot water for three weeks, turning it on when we needed baths.

I did a temporary fix on the shower in the basement. Now we can shower there and a friend cut off the pipes to the tub upstairs. Work began right away this week. We'll do most of it ourselves, but I also realize that we will have to rely on the knowledge of our friends too.

Once I ripped out the drywall today, the whole project seems so much less intimidating. We do have to hurry a bit though because the basement shower is truly a temporary fix. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

And now for something more lovely.

Thister Thuzy thitting on a thistle is heard alot since yesterday.