We’re friends, right? So you’ll completely understand when I say that sometimes something is so bad that you decide you’ll pretend everything is okay and work on something easier instead. Have you ever done this? That is the story of our master bathroom. No one ever sees it and we have 1.5 other bathrooms. So when I moved in I looked at it, got overwhelmed, and decided to focus my efforts on something else. Finally, it was no longer avoidable. To be clear, we have no budget for a full bathroom makeover (goodbye fantasies of a fabulous bathtub), but it was finally so bad that something had to be done. Here is a glimpse of the disaster area that we’re working with. I’m not hiding anything here, so if nothing else, please appreciate my honesty.
You can already see the clutter that is piling up on the counter space, but worse was our linen closet. It seems like every forgotten item was pushed in here.
If you look at the photo above, you’ll see that we have a huge mess of things in here. I kept throwing dry cleaning on the bottom shelf because I didn’t want to leave it on the floor but the dry cleaner that we go to seems to only be open during the hours that I am at work. We have extras of everything as well as beauty products and vitamins that I bought at some period and then disliked or found something better. At the top of the closet was the extra toilet paper and a few clean towels that I would have to jump to reach. It was a mess.
But that’s still not the worst part. I’m pretty embarrassed to show you the state of the shower area.
You can already tell that it’s going to be bad. For some unknown reason, the person who owned the condo before us decided that it was a good idea to put wooden blinds with a metal top in a shower. Why would anyone ever think that was a good idea? The result was rotting blinds with rust mixing into the rest of the ick. Let’s see a close-up of all this.
You may be thinking, “How on Earth could you live for one moment in a house with such disgusting grout?” Well, instead of cleaning the grout like a normal person might do the previous owner caulked over bits of the grout that looked bad. He got mixtures of caulk and grout on the tiles and everything just looked gross.
Now obviously we didn’t just have issues with caulk and grout. The tiles were stained from hard water and just generally gross. Take special note of the floor of the bathtub. The grip of the floor had actually worn off in places, making it somewhat dangerous to use. Thankfully we have another full bathroom, and aside from the time we had a dinner party and paraded all of our guests up to the bathroom to see what a mess it was–I’d hate for people to ever think that we are without fault–no one ever saw it. Until now. I’m sharing it with you.
Peter and I were debating about what to fix in the condo: the dining area so that everyone would think that we were that much more fabulously put together, or the real issues of the bathroom. While sitting in our bedroom, staring with terror into the bathroom, we decided to take off the door to the linen closet. Immediately we had a bit of hope and we were committed. It is a pain and we’re nowhere near done. This weekend, albeit very productive, left us screaming and cursing at this horrible room. Go ahead, judge us, but stay tuned for the cathartic removal of the blinds, re-caulking, plumbing woes, and lots and lots of bleach.
So not judging! I completely and totally understand. It sounds like we weren’t the only ones dealing with bathroom hell this weekend. It’s a huge undertaking, but you’re doing the right thing! And you will feel like totally different people when all is said and done!
I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. I think we’ll be on our journey at the same time. We can be bathroom reno buddies.
Ahhhh we have a SUPER embarrassing bathroom as well – thanks for sharing – can’t wait to follow along!!
Thank you so much Meg and Heather. Gosh, for awhile I didn’t get any comment notifications and I thought, “Wow, I really freaked them out. They totally think I’m weird and gross!!” I’m so glad to know that you guys understand.
Heather, please share your embarrassing bathroom with us!
Meg, your comment seriously made me laugh!! I’ll totally be your bathroom reno buddy!
No worries. Have you seen my bathroom before? YIPES. I had wood in the shower too, and an electrical outlet. Yep. Mine was worse than yours which is why it was one of the very first things I did to my house (also, it’s my only bathroom). All in good time! It already does look better with the linen closet doors off though.
Eek, an electrical outlet in the shower. I would like to know the story behind how put it there and what their reasoning was. It seems like you really dove in. Peter and I are lucky because we can take out time with things. Yes, we have to skirt around cans of paint and tools when we want to use the bathroom at night, but it’s manageable, and given our schedules its what works the best for us. Thanks for stopping by!