Our Second Blue Project of the Summer*

(*The first blue project currently in process until late October.)

Oh, what have we gotten ourselves into?

You remember Ye Olde Blue Bathroom? It's been a thorn in my side since we purchased our house - six and a half years ago! Even ignoring its (many) cosmetic flaws, it's always had a small variety of minor electrical and plumbing related quirks. (There is no vent, the sink faucet is always clogged, the toilet does not flush properly, the plumbing under the sink is comprised of plumber's putty and an ice cream bucket, the one electrical outlet has reverse polarity and is located about four inches above the main water source, the linoleum floor is peeling, the light switch is outside the bathroom and across the hall, and so on.)

There is nothing like a baby to spur those long-overdue home projects. So we're tackling the bathroom first (and we have about three other projects lined up before summer's end, too). 

  

We started small. Demo doesn't seem so bad when you're just removing cheap bath surrounds.

Behind the bath surround was sheetrock, then old lath and plaster, then original studs. And dust. Lots and lots of dust. And probably lead paint (Adam did the demo). The bathroom floor actually sits nearly an inch taller than the adjoining kitchen floor. The reason? Underneath the linoleum, we discovered - in order - plywood, sticky tile, hardwood, subfloor, original planks.

After removing the painted linen cabinet, we discovered that it really could have been worse. Honestly, I would have loved to have met the color-blind people that inhabited this house before us.

The view from my kitchen. This scene has not changed in weeks and is likely to remain well into August at the rate we're going. (Now is a good time to mention that we are not actually doing the bulk of this remodel ourselves. We are assisting where we can, which is generally demolition, cleaning, making hundreds of small and incredibly boring decisions, and purchasing obscure items from every single aisle of Menards and Lowes, even items from the scary back corners of Menards and Lowes that no one ever really ventures into.)

Working late into the night.

Hard to tell, but Adam is wearing a fine layer of insulation.

Time to call it a night. Refreshing gin and tonic for Adam, sweet blood orange soda for Nicole. Thus ends the first weekend of very hard work for two lazy bones.