We’ve owned our 1924 home for seven years now.
(…Wow. I just did the math on that. I thought it was only 6. No wonder we look so young in the early house photos!)
The place needed more than a makeover in 2005. It needed something akin to the Extreme Home Makeovers you see on TV. Only without the complete teardown. And slowly but surely, with the incredible help from family and friends, we have brought this girl back to life.
The full bath was awful when we first got the house. I don’t know how anyone could stomach bathing in that place. We ended up gutting the room and doing all new fixtures, etc. JB and Mr. Rich even painstakingly put up subway tiles for the tub surround.
And the room was mostly awesome when we were “done.” But it was painted white. And I didn’t have any inspiration to hang curtains or really decorate. It also had a few fiddly things that needed attention. But a couple of weeks ago JB and his Dad worked hard to fix all those fiddly things and then JB whipped out his paint roller and gave our bathroom a healthy new glow. I even made a valance and put up framed photos I had taken. Woo!
So here it is. In case you are feeling ungrateful for the bathroom that you have, feast your eyes on what you could have had, if you had bought this house and never had it improved. (I’ve spared you the need for a strong gag reflex, as I have not included close-ups of some nasty stuff.)
1.) Note the grimey window. That's how the previous owners rolled. 2.) Notice the blue flooring. It was laid overtop the original tile in 12" squares. The squares separated, leaving a nice sticky adhesive to collect any and all bathroom indescretions. JB cleaned up that mess over several days. He gets a Gold Star for life for that one. And for not puking once during the ordeal.
I think this is self explanatory. The previous owners, on the day of showing, did not bother to clean the tub, but rather to give the IMPRESSION that they intended to clean, by dumping a bunch of comet into the tub. Hmmm...
Back in the 20's someone thought it was a cool idea to have a separate tub and shower in the same bathroom. Sadly this shower was neglected for too long and could not be saved. Not that a separate shower would have made sense. We put a shower head in the bathtub and converted this to a closet. (Also note the shower hardware tossted on the floor. The shower didn't work, and again, they wanted to give the impression that they cared.)
The walls and floor were 3-4" thick slabs of concrete. I dropped several chunks on my feet as I worked. I swear I broke at least one toe during the shower breakdown, which is why I have toe arthritis when it rains or snows. JB thinks I'm being dramataic but I'm sticking to my story.
The old cast iron tub was not salvageable. It was too pitted to clean properly. Being probably near 500 pounds, we had to sledgehammer it to more manageable pieces to haul out.
The ceiling had to come out, too. This is looking down into the bathroom from the attic. It was here that I inadvertently picked up a squirrel skeleton that was entangled in an old shag pillow. The look on his squirrelly skull was that of terror. As though he died a horrible death. Good. Tree rats. He and the shag pillow were part of a mound of trash that was sitting on the rafters above the bathroom, caving the ceiling in. I hadn't wanted to fix the ceiling but my father-in-law said that I probably wouldn't want the ceiling coming down on me while I was bathing. And knowing now who was in the pile of garbage, I say that my father-in-law was 1000% right. Sadly, this was not the only dried up squirrel that we encountered during renovations.
I didn’t take any closeups of the awesome valance that I made, but take my word for it: it’s awesome. 
I know–curtains are easy to make–but it took a lot of math brainpower to make sure this valance came out right. Math power which I try to keep on reserve for important things like designing quilts or paying the bills. There was over 100″ of material and cotton ain’t cheap these days so I had to be wise. I also lined it with some of the free fabric from Bev and now it’s a reversible valance. Oh yeah. Coolest valance on the block.
I did a load of research on Bungalow Bathrooms. I desperately wanted two pedestal sinks put in but had to opt for a regular sink. One sink is less to clean than two, so I am okay with this compromise. 
Oh, man! It’s so gorgeous, and I’m so jealous! I am still living with my grungy, gross bathrooms. It’s on our list, but the dread for the tearing out part has slowed us down. We need to get going. Our master bath (and the other bath) date from about 1983. Never been remodeled. About 8 of the tiles have popped totally off the floor, and I had to scrub the tub for hours to get the grunge off. It’s clean now, so I can stomach showering in there. We have to tear out walls for sure, and we need to climb into the attic to run the fan and exhaust. The previous owner thought it would be good to just put in a fan and let it blow all that damp air into the attic. Lovely. Way to go on getting yours all done. And your valance is AWESOME!!!
Pedestal sinks are great to look at, but you’d sorely miss the storage space and the counter space if you’re going to live in this bathroom. I think the pedestals are only good for powder rooms for that reason!
(Does that help you feel better, too?)
Thanks for those pix ! I love seeing remodels. We are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have had our home build, in 1998. I say unlucky because of how quickly things go out of style, and my need to TRY to convince my hubby that they are indeed Out of Style. Right now I am trying to convince him to remove the huge (builder grade) mirror from our master bath and, after a little wall repair and paint, hang an oval framed mirror. Fingers crossed my convincing doesn’t take too long. Your bath is terrific !
I know you guys are enjoying the makeover
Looks so clean and great job!
I love the finished product. I had already seen the great job on the tiles in the tub area but didn’t remember the tiles behind the sink. Beautiful! What’s the name of the color paint you used…it looks like lavender in some shots and pale blue in others. The valence and framed “April Art” are the perfect finishing touches. I agree with your friend about the pedestal sink. We looked at them too, but decided we weren’t willing to give up storage space.
Love,
Aunt Rhonda
Wow!! That remodel is awesome! Especially that math intensive curtain!