Our bathroom has been ugly for a long time, but I'm not one to complain much about the looks of things so we have just cleaned it the best we could and went from there. Many years ago we had Garth's brother, Mike, living with us for a while. He wanted to do something nice for us while here, and decided to replace our old bathroom floor with tile. He had been doing tile setting in Vegas and was pretty good at it. He picked out a tile and got it all layed. Later, I realized we had beige tile in the tub and gray tile on the floor. But it really didn't bother me.
Because I am so short it was very difficult for me to lean over the tub to clean it. I had to hold on to the soap holder to balance myself. One day, the soap holder just fell off the wall, leaving a big hole in the wall. We tried to glue it back in, using gorilla glue, super glue, cement, everything we could find, but nothing worked. I'm not sure what finally held it in, but there was gunk around the edges and looked really groddy, but it held up so we accepted it. But the tub area looked really bad, but didn't know what to do with it.
When Garth came home after back surgery he was getting into the tub to take a shower. He held on to the handicapped rail, and, behold, the tiles it was attached to came right off the wall, and he was left holding the handrail and the tiles with a big gash in the wall. Not good.
We were left with only one choice...get it repaired by a contractor. We found a guy here in town who was willing to do the tile work. He came in and looked it over and gave us a good deal on his work, along with suggestions for a better than before bathroom.
We got everything ready for the big repair. Our biggest problem was, ... we only have the one bathroom. So we knew we would be going to the trailer to the outhouse during the repair time. It worked out alright, just took us a bit longer than we wanted, but it was worth it. The bathroom is beautiful! We are waiting for one of the shower doors to be replaced because it shattered when the contractor was trying to put it in. Other than that, we are sure enjoying the room.
We gained about 10 inches behind the sink and toilet, which helped a lot. It was all wasted space between walls so why not use it! Now someone can be at the sink and another person actually walk into the room at the same time. It is nice not having to step over the tub to get into the shower. The tub has only been used by the grandchildren during the past 10 years or more, so it won't be missed. The kids will just have to learn to shower. Here are before, between, and after pictures.
Notice the big "square" in the middle? We had to tape a grocery sack to the wall so the water wouldn't get into the hole created by the missing tiles. Pretty, don't you think?
Garth did a great job building a cabinet over the toilet. Still have the original mirror and sliding door thingy.
Nice big towel rack!
The tub completely gone, plus all the tile and the wall! Ugly!
The floor looked horrible!. Later the floor under the toilet was totally gone and replaced.
New tile everywhere. I LOVE the trim. It goes all along the wall, above the window, and along the wall with the towel rack. It is beautiful. The new cabinets are great! Drawer for my stuff!
The tile is also on the wall behind the towels. Can you see it above the shower door? Notice that one of the shower doors is missing, soon to be in.
Isn't that tile great! You don't notice the extra space here, but believe me, it is wonderful!
Love the sink and room for a hand towel. We also have an extra plug for all those electric things like blow dryers, curling irons, and razors all at the same time!
We really weren't planning on remodeling the bathroom, but it was a necessity. I'm not sorry we did, just wish it had come at a better time financially. But it will be worth it. It is great!
