The Bathroom

Of all the things to post after a long blogging hiatus...

Ah well, it's one of the many projects that happen to be almost complete.

The only thing it really 'needs' is a shelf to go under the medicine cabinet.

But if I waited until I found the perfect one, it would probably be another 6 months til I posted this room.

I'm just a tad picky ;)

Speaking of being picky,  I'd like to replace the lights with something vintage and find the matching sink and toilet to the bathtub, but that could take years.

So here it is, as close to finished as I could possibly get it right now.

And it's as close to what it probably looked like in 1950, which is what I wanted.

For those of you that don't know the tale of this bathroom, click here.

But here's a quick glimpse of the bathroom during the restoration:

A lot of work, but definitely worth it to me :)

More to come soon.

And by soon, I actually mean soon, not 6 months ;)

xo

rue

My sanity

It's something I question quite a bit.

Especially, when it comes to this house.

Case in point, my latest venture in un-remuddling.

The bathroom you see below looks perfectly fine, doesn't it?

Well, to my eye it just didn't look right.

Of course, I knew there had been some updates to it through the years. For one, the newish sink and toilet didn't match the 1930s bathtub. I happened to find the base of the original matching sink in the side yard.

I'm still looking for a matching top to go with it.

Picture this in pink-ish brown:

image via google

No toilet out there though.

The second thing that bothered me was that the tile happened to be from the 1950s, but I'll get to that later.

The third thing was the drywall.

In case you're not up on your drywall history, it's existed for a very long time, but it just wasn't commonly used until after WWII. Lath and plaster was much more common and the walls in my home are no exception. If you're curious enough to learn more, you can read more about it 'here'.

'So, what could it be covering up?'

That's the question that nagged me for almost 8 years, until one day about a month ago, I thought to myself...

'Why not just tear a little piece off by the outlet. Worse case scenario I could just patch it and forget about it.'

Cute wallpaper?!

And that's when it all started.

Okay, so I can fix the trim around the cabinet.

Why not try the other wall?

ah oh...

Okay, so I'll figure that out later.

How about the sink area....

And so it went and here I am.

Or was, to be honest.

The walls and ceiling are almost done.

You know what took so long?

These:

Those, my fiends, are the remnants when you take off drywall.

It leaves behind an evil hard glue that won't come off with anything except a hammer, a chisel, a sander and a scraper.

And if you're not careful it'll try to take the wallpaper with it.

You know what else it leaves behind?

Four billion screws and nails.

It's not fun.

at. all.

But, it's so worth it.

I found three layers of paint in different shades of tan-ish pink underneath the sink where it's never been wallpapered, so I know the wallpaper isn't original, but I love it anyway.

I think it's from the 50s, which was when the tile was redone.

Speaking of..

I also happened to find a tile in the side yard, that just happens to match one of the paint colors I found in the bathroom.

It all makes so much sense now.

My little 1930s bathroom, got a makeover in the 1950s and then the last owners changed out the sink and toilet and added the drywall.

So, I'm doing my best to take it back to when it was redone in the 50s.

It'll be like the rest of the evils had never been done.

And you'll never guess what else!

I know who the owners were in the 1950s, but I'm not telling you about Fred and Pearl until next time.

You're also going to have to wait for pictures of the finished bathroom.

Or at least as finished as I can get it.

Who knows when or if I'll ever find those missing bathroom fixtures.

xo
rue

Catch up

Since my computer went down right before the holidays, I though I'd catch you up on the goings on here.

Christmas was lovely.

But it was Annie's last Christmas living at home, so it was also bittersweet.

I acquired a vintage roaster from the 50s, just in time to make a beautiful turkey for Christmas dinner.

It worked!

Browned that puppy right up and happened to be the best turkey I've ever made :)

Who gets excited about a roaster?

This girl!

We went on a couple of ghost town trips (which I'll post about later).

And there's been a few projects around here, like putting the kitchen door back where it belongs...

and a few other things ;)

All of which i'll get into detail about later.

I'd get into it now but, you'd be here awhile, so you have to wait ;)

Be back soon!

xo

rue

The other bathroom

You've seen the upstairs bathroom, which is across from the living room, on the main level, between the den/guestroom and my daughter's room (which you may never see lol).

And I've shown you the lovely paint job the old owners did to the tile downstairs...

Well, after months and months of avoiding it doing other things, I finally finished it.

As you can see, they changed the tile at some point under the window and tried to match the pink. I'm guessing the window wasn't original and that's why, but who knows.

I still think it looks better than that awful green.

I have more to do in there, but I thought I'd share the whole tiny room anyway.

And when I say tiny, I seriously mean that you can almost use every facility without moving ;)

It's off of my bedroom, which I think was the maid's quarters, and it's through my extra closet. Honestly though, I have no idea what it was used for originally, because it also leads to what I think is the root cellar. 

I know that sounds confusing, but trying to figure out what the downstairs rooms were for is even more confusing to me ;)

Anyway, let's go in...

See how little it is?

The shower has the original tile and shower curtain bar from 1930, but the knobs were changed in the 1950s.

Yes, I know that pink tile was popular in the 50s, but it wasn't uncommon in the 30s either and the plumber confirmed it, when he was working on the shower head that wouldn't work, when I moved in.

There's three knobs, but I forget what the top one does, since I share the upstairs bathroom with Annie for the most part and don't use this shower.

Anyway, the plumber explained it, but I've since forgotten.

It just turns on when I clean, so I don't worry about it ;)

I have no earthly idea what the white marble covers and I'm not about to tear the thing apart to find out, but if anyone knows, please let me know.

The toilet has been replaced, but I know the inlayed wood toilet seat is old.

The flooring is original too :)

Next to the shower:

On the other side, you have this weirdness:

A 1930s sink that has been fitted into the wall.

Very odd.

It's also really short, so I'm wondering how tall the maid was.

Original 1930s medicine cabinet and 1950s? light.

And the little shelf behind the door:

This has to be one of the oddest bathrooms I've ever come across.

Anywho, I haven't decided to keep the yellow and white paint scheme for sure, because it was a quick clean up and I'm thinking about some 1930s looking wallpaper instead.

All in good time though.

I have many more pressing things to do.

Like say....

Finishing the backyard.

Painting the window trim on the outside of the house.

Painting the whole outside of the house and outbuildings.

Painting the den.

Painting the upstairs hallway.

etc.

My life is mostly painting.

I sometimes doubt that I'll ever have a nice manicure again.

Sigh.

Oh well, the finished product always makes me happy and it's good for this home that I love very, very much :)

xo

rue

Yet another un-remuddling

The "brown paint lovers" that used to own this house also liked painting tile and apparently the sides of bathtubs.

The other day I decided to take care of the bathtub in the main upstairs bathroom, which also serves as the powder room.

This is after I already started scraping the paint off:

Thank goodness I remembered to take this picture or you wouldn't have seen the ridiculousness.

This is what it looked like after:

I was seriously worried that in the middle of scrapping the paint off that there was something really wrong with the tub.

Obviously there wasn't.

These people need their head examined for covering up a perfectly good vintage tub.

Seriously.

Anyway, it looks soooooo much better now.

I thought I'd show you the rest of the bathroom while we're in here.

Before I show it to you, let me just say that the lighting is horrible and it's small so the pictures won't be that great.

Also, the idiots drywalled over the lath and plaster instead of taking off the original wallpaper. I hope to take it off one day and am hoping the wallpaper is still intact, because it's really cute. I found a sample when I took off the plug cover on the wall, because I'm nosey like that ;)

The other thing that irritates me is that the base of the sink that matches the tub is out in the yard, where they used it as a planter. God knows what happened to the sink portion. Ugh.

Anywho...

Here's the view when you walk in:

Original tile, towel rack and soap dishes.

The potty.

The sink area:

And well that's it.

The walls when I moved in were painted a gross green color, so I painted it white with yellow trim. I'm not sure if the yellow will stay, but it's definitely a lot better than the green. 

Hopefully one day I'll find that matching sink and maybe even the matching potty.

Wish me luck, because I think I'll need it ;)

xo

rue

A little bathroom un-remuddling

Remuddle:

"To remodel a building or room in a way that obscures or destroys key aspects of the original design."

Learn more about it here, here, and here.

The last link is from a blog, on a website, called The Old House Guy and is written by someone after my own heart. So much so that I've actually shed tears when he's describing what has happened to the old houses he features.

I don't know him, I just stalk read his blog, because I'm a little intimidated by someone with that much knowledge on my favorite subject.

Anywho......

Today, I have just a little un-remuddling project, that's been a pretty easy fix.

The last owners thought it would be a fabulous idea to paint part of, what I think is, the original 1930s pink tile in my downstairs bathroom green along with the walls.

Within the first few months I was here, I painted the walls white and the window trim yellow, because it looked like a dark green hole in there and it was a quick fix. 

My mom almost changed her mind about me buying the house when she saw the downstairs and this was one of the reasons. 

I'm not kidding. 

It was that bad.

I'm not as easily thrown though ;)

Eventually, I'll get to the rest of the scary part, but for now here's the tile that I had already started scraping today, before I grabbed the camera.

I'd been neglecting this room, until today when I got a bug up my butt to actually do something about it.

This is what I do when I'm bored and sick.

Anyway, I'm actually happy about two things... 

That they didn't tear out the vintage tile 

and 

that they were dumb enough to use latex paint to cover it up.

Yay!

Had they used something else, this would have been a much messier job.

I finished the top part today and I plan on finishing the bottom tomorrow.

Looks pretty good, huh?

I feel sooooooo much better knowing that I'm finally turning this bathroom around and I won't have to cringe every time I go into it.

I have a few other plans for it too and as soon as it's done, I'll be sharing it with all of you :)

xo

rue

My Cottage Tour

Click on the words highlighted in green to see more :)

Front garden

Living room here , here, and here.

Dining room here and here.

Kitchen ; here, here, here, here, and here.

Mudroom

Den/guest room

Office

Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Dressing room