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I have a 4-foot by 4-foot half-bath on the first floor of my house. When I tiled the kitchen floor, I did the steps and landing to the side door; this bathroom shares the same floor as the landing.

Ironically, the bathroom floor started the whole mess that I posted about earlier: the subfloor underneath what is now beautiful tile was rotted and weak, and needed to be replaced. It was actually the first step of this long project, and the rest of the room is now the last to be finished.

The floor is laid; now the walls are out (mostly), waiting for insulation and a brand-new exhaust fan (the room currently has no fan). The fan goes in this week, followed by new sheetrock on the walls, beadboard, new woodwork to match the new style of the room, a new sink and fixtures, and a genuine pressed tin ceiling to top it off. The style is sort of “Modern Victorian” (well, way modern, I guess).

I had to gut the room because the walls were horrifyingly tiled, and the water pipes had burst at one point, and I needed to see if there was any damage beyond some weak sheetrock on the ceiling. My bride was afraid of black mold…

So all of this renovation needs to be finished by July 1, when relatives will arrive with small children (neices).

Here I thought I knew what sweating bullets was like! Here’s how my bathroom looks as of this post:

I’m dedicating this specifically to Steve FitzGerald, who is struggling with an older kitchen’s remodel.

I feel your pain, Steve, I feel your pain.

1 Comment

• by Steve FitzGerald 08 Jun 2005 at 10:23 pm

  

  Will, thanks for the dedication. Our kitchen is, for “all in tents with papooses,” completed. I wish I had your skills, really! But I know I don’t and more importantly so does my wife, so we hired out the job… but it was still 13 weeks of brewing coffee and doing dishes in the upstairs bathroom.

  Recently, I thought maybe there was hope for me. I was re-installing a shelf with coathooks by the side door. (Unfortunately, I had to rip it out from the wall, because it wouldn’t unscrew for some reason). So I’m screwing it back into the wall with some dandy bolts (or are they screws?) that came with toggle-thingies that look like a pairs of wings that I picked up just for this simple job. Things are going well… job well done, success! Later I was in the living room and noticed two holes in that wall. The bolts I bought had actually gone through two walls because they were too long. Now I’m faced with going to the library to read about repairing holes in drywall and painting, I guess.

  For the women out there, let it be known that not every guy is a handyman. Unfortunately, not all of have Will’s impressive talents.

  Now go get that half-bath, buddy! I’m gonna lay low with my hammer.

  All the Best,
  Steve FitzGerald
  “Lakewood Life” blogger on cleveland.com
  lakewoodbuzz.com founder