Bathroomlopnik

"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97) 05/18/2018 at 01:26 • Filed to: None

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Being moved in, it was time to start updating the house a bit. I decided to start on the hall bathroom along the lines that it is a small room to start with. I’m not sure this was the best decision in retrospect, but at least I think I’m on the putting it back together side of the project now.

1990 called an wanted its light fixture back, so it was the first thing to go. With six sixty-watt incandescent bulbs, that ugly thing heated up the bathroom whenever I flipped on the lights. LED bulbs in the new one don’t feel like a sauna when turned on.

Much better.

Up next was stripping the pink, flower wall paper, which no fun. I never thought I’d own a steamer, and I hope to never use it again. Even being just a border, it was terrible to remove via steaming and scraping. Those pink flowers of ill will just laughed at the wall paper stripper chemicals I tried. I’ve come to the conclusion that people who put up wallpaper are terrible human beings. It probably took 10 hours over the last week to strip and scrub everything. The good news is that the bathroom was built with green board in the shower area. Being built in 1989, I wasn’t sure what was going to be under that tile.

The floor and shower tile are going to stay as they’re in great shape, but the pink laminate vanity top ain’t. It got taken out tonight and replaced with a new granite vanity top from Home Despot Light Lowes. I even managed to get the giant mirror off the wall by myself without breaking it.

My plan is to hook up the plumbing, wash all the walls and do spackle repair tomorrow evening. Priming and painting is my plan this weekend.

DipodomysDeserti > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 02:10

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Holy shit, it looks likes you bought the same house I did nine years ago. My main bathroom is now all schwanky with subway tile, marble counters and a clawfoot tub, but I still have that exact pink tile in some of the rooms in my house. I tore it out in a few rooms and was pleasantly surprised that the foundation had a beautiful dark red stain. I’ll eventually tear out all the tile, but it is a pain in the ass. I bought my house from the original owner, and she also put up that thick as shit wall paper. Spent a month removing that stuff when we first moved in. My house was built in 1958, so I had to replace the drywall in the bathroom with green board.

It looks like you raided my library as well.

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 05:43

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The new top looks great. I’m doing the same in my house, except the lady likes a vessel sink. 1980s homes were probably the best combination of well built but still modern, so it looks like you got a good one once it’s updated.

vondon302 > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 06:09

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Wallpaper is a plague on humanity.

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 07:12

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Yes, people who put up wall paper are the worst.

Good work!

OPPOsaurus WRX > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 07:32

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you should be a recessed medicine cabinet. It took some work but I got mine in there.

you lucked out on the wall paper if it was just that foot tall strip. When we moved in last June, these were the rooms with wallpaper:

living room, dining room, kitchen, 1st floor bath, hallway, stairway, second floor hall ,our room, daughters’ room

the only wallpaper left is in the two bedrooms

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > OPPOsaurus WRX 05/18/2018 at 08:18

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The only thing I have to add to this discussion is fuck wallpaper.

OPPOsaurus WRX > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 05/18/2018 at 09:09

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thats a given yet important point

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > DipodomysDeserti 05/18/2018 at 10:32

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That does sound schwanky. This won’t be schwanky, but it also won’t look like 1990, which is all I’m going for right now. A more extensive remodel of this bathroom could happen sometime down the line, but that would probably be at least several years away. This house only has that tile in the hall bathroom and the entryway at the front and back doors. I guess it fits with the Southwestern motif they were going for at the time, and it does match with the pink marble around the fireplace, so it will all stay for now. I would’ve gone for a saltillo tile of some variation had I been the builder or original owner. I think we’re going to do a light colored laminate wood floor in the rest of the house that currently has worn out carpet.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher 05/18/2018 at 10:39

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I just can’t imagine how someone looks at a graphical pattern (even one they think they really like) and says “I’d like to permanently glue this to my wall!”

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 10:41

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It was the style of the time ... the horrible horrible time. To quote my mother-in-law, “But I like it.”

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind 05/18/2018 at 10:58

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That seems to be the case with this one. All evidence I’ve found so far suggests that it is pretty well put together, and it is certainly built better than our previous (built in 2012) house was.  It was a fairly high-end house for Las Cruces at the time.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher 05/18/2018 at 11:07

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Funny enough, we were coming from a new, built in 2012, house previously, and in the email to realtor on the buying end about what we were looking for in a house, I actually said that while the next house didn’t have to be new inside it also couldn’t look like 1963. I told the realtor that it could look like 1993, and that is pretty much what we ended up with. We learned the location/neighborhood lesson on the first house, so this time around we focused a lot more on the neighborhood and were willingly sacrifice on modernity of the house to get a better, well-established, neighborhood. 

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 05/18/2018 at 11:32

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That was an important lesson to learn! Location, location, location!!