OK so this all started with painting the small bathroom. I thought it would be a little thing to keep me busy and some of the bigger projects I would handle at a later point. So before I painted I needed to get the incredibly bad caulking job off the wall where it meets the shower. As I am taking if off (no small feat) some of the tiles start to come off with it! Can you imagine? Turns out the caulking is all that was keeping some of them on! So I have lost about 4 tiles thus far and the shower project that was meant to be put off for a significant amount of time has now been bumped up the schedule. As it stands now we are getting quotes from various sources and are deciding how to proceed with the shower fix.
So anyway back to the bathroom. The vanity needed to be painted. It was already pained white and badly. I wanted it to be a dark dark brown. In doing this I needed to take off the hinges. As I quickly discovered though, the screws were stripped. So thus began an hour long lesson in patience as I twisted and pried the hinges off the cabinet. Which of course meant I now needed to buy new hinges. So eventually I got my cabinet painted and the new hinges are on and it is back together. Ta da! It looks great....almost. It became glaringly obvious how disgusting the vanity top now was. And the sink....it has a couple of chips in it that now stare at me whenever I use it. So another trip to Home Depot to buy a new counter top sink and faucet. UGH! Oh and in all that I disconnected a light fixture in the bathroom without killing myself!
So next step it to get rid of the ugly ceramic toilet paper holder in the bathroom. Well I cut through the caulk there to pull if off the wall only to discover that it was actually sitting IN the wall. So now I have this big 5" x 7" hole in my wall. Hmmmm.....I don't think Polyfill will stretch that far! So I take a piece of wood, cut it to fit between the joists put it behind the wall, in the hole. Then I take some drywall screws and screw the wall to the wood. Then I take a piece of drywall and cut it to fit in the hole. I screw that in as well and then I take Polyfill to fill in the gaps. It worked like a charm! So once we get the counter top (Thursday) we can put that in (with the sink and the faucet YIKES) I can finally sand and yes, paint the bathroom.
So I decide I can wait until Thursday before I attempt any more DIY and frankly my house is falling apart. There are beds to make and dishes to do and laundry to wash. So I decide, you know what, the bathrooms could use a good cleaning. The tub surround in the big bathroom is reprehensible. I swear the previous owners lived in a dirt trap. So I have my little scrubby sponge and my Vim and I am scrubbing away at the soap scum when I try to clean the yucky caulk. Well, doesn't it come off the wall! Turns out the previous owners caulked over the old stuff without first removing it! Jack of all trades, masters of none these people!
So after 5 minutes of removing 2 layers of caulk (that should shock you all because caulk is INSANE to remove) and applying stuff to melt the little leftover bits I went to cut some trim. There are spots in 2 of the bathrooms that were missing trim and I felt that while I was waiting it would be as good a time as any. Then after a little while, I attempted my first caulking job. I am notoriously messy so I was smart and taped off the sections I was working on. It looks pretty good. Better than what was there before if I do say so. I noticed while I was doing it that the faucet never had anything to seal it...ever! So I made sure I did that too. The tub area also has a window so I resealed that as well. All of this because of soap scum in my tub!
So I have decided that cleaning only leads to bad things happening. This house is apparently held together by dirt so I should just leave well enough alone. I was quite happy to paint and rest on my laurels until we could afford to do more, but apparently this house will not let me. Sigh! That being said, I am glad things are getting fixed. I hope I did a good enough job to not warrant having someone come in to fix my "messes". Guess we will find out! Looking forward to Thursday but part of me is scared that I will just screw something up there too! Maybe I will just let my father in law do it!
I hope to have some pictures for you soon and as soon as we decide what the heck to do about the shower (aka "bane of my existence") I will post it.
Oh and it should be noted that the kids for the most part have been great while mom is going through all of this. It hasn't been easy for anyone. I hope tomorrow I can hang out with them in the pool and just relax and enjoy them. I have some pretty awesome kids I must say.
So I am going to sign off for now. I need to take a breather from life and just lie catatonic for several hours.....wish I could have a bath tonight!
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3 comments:
Huray for new house surprises! We have discovered that our house is held together by caulking as well.
A previous owner apparently saw a some DIY show and decided that the tip to fill in gaps with a bit of white caulking was something that they would do everywhere! I don't think it applies to areas that are an inch by an inch!
I hope that you get a break soon!
me too! i was up half the night sick because of it. Wondering what was going to happen next! Still can't get over how cleaning the tub caused that. Makes me wonder if it was an installation issue as well. Guess I will find out if my job fails! The I will be tiling the tub next! Yeah me! Wish me luck changing the vanity top and sink/faucet! At least my father in law will be here to help me!!
Sounds like quite the ongoing adventure. I'm sure it will look fabulous after you're all done, and you can be proud of all your little projects that turned out to be quite successful!
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