The Bumpy Journey to our Bathroom - photo collage

As nice as this bathroom remodel turned out, I have a heart pang and a longing for the sweet, original 1933 art deco bathroom -- complete with black and white subway tile and mini-hexagonal floor tiles. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of it.

...Okay, this first photo is of the bathroom as it looked when we bought the house (gulp...)

The previous owners had painted it a sort of army-olive sage green. They have a good eye -- it was just adorable.

Remodeling this room was our first project when we moved in. This collage of 4 photos shows 3 progress pics and the last frame is the finished space.

We were planning on Ken's 88-year-old dad moving in with us, so we tore out the tub to put in an easier-access shower.

Of course, that led to re-doing the tile. And the floor. And replacing the toilet. And re-painting. Twice. First, with a spearmint-y green that turned out to be a bit TOO spearmint-y. Then finally settling on this gorgeous Benj. Moore "Almond Beige". Which is a misnomer if I ever saw one, because it's more of a raisin color, or a mauve-y mocha than Almond Beige. We also added a door to the adjacent bedroom, which was to be his (and is now my quilting studio).

After the bathroom was almost done, his dad decided to stay put in the assisted living place. It was a good decision in retrospect, especially for his dad. But I still miss that sweet original bathroom (sniff, sniff).

We took the room down to the studs and joists and found that the floor joists had several large notches cut into them. This weakened the joists such that they would not have supported the tile installation. In fact, our contractor wondered how it even had supported the old tub that used to be where the shower is now.
The photo in the upper left hand corner of this collage was taken mid-remodel. The rest are of the finished space.

The other hidden blessing in the remodel was that the contractor was able to correct a serious plumbing problem inside the wall which was a huge 'This Old House' disaster-in-the-making. We were able to make the repairs easily once the wall was open - AND much more affordably than if we'd not discovered the issue in advance of any inside-the-wall, middle-of-the-night plumbing explosions.