To our home’s successor,

We spent the first couple years exclusively using the downstairs bathroom as it was in a better state than the upstairs bathroom despite it’s inconvenience. After showering several times, we started to notice the state of the walls. There was (and at this time, still isn’t a ventilation system in either bathroom, which led to some pretty nasty looking wallpaper…. To this day I will never understand the logic of putting wallpaper in a high moisture room like a bathroom. January of 2020, we started to strip the walls of all the wallpaper. Most of it came off with ease, some required a little more persuasion. (Scrapers and some liquid wallpaper remover) We washed the walls and ceiling and gave the entire room a coat of a mold-killing white paint.

This alone did wonders for the entire room, so we decided to try and freshen up the room a little more. We stripped and sanded down the green paint on the cabinets and painted them black as well as the window trim and baseboards to match. We also painted the radiator in place which would later explode and be removed for a period of time- but more on that later.

May of 2020 we stripped the door of the nasty green paint which took significant persuasion. It appears they painted straight over the varnish that was on the door and unfortunately it was difficult to remove one without also removing the other. Once we got down to bare wood we sanded to remove the scrape marks and the wood graining was so striking we decided to keep its natural color as a statement. We finished the wood with a few coats of shellac clear coat and topped with a wax coat.

In hindsight- shellac is not the smart choice for a bathroom with high moisture- We are hoping if we maintain the wax finish it should keep the shellac clear and shiny.

Next up was replacing the broken sink faucet. We still have no idea how it was corroded this badly, but it needed to go. This was our first time and no matter how many youtube videos you watch- things are never as easy or straightforward as they look for others. So while this install did not go quite as planned, and we needed to make some questionable choices- we also anticipate this bathroom being entirely redone at some point in our care and will make sure the plumbing is done correctly at that time. For now- it doesn’t leak and does the job. 

Lastly it was time for finishing touches- 

In July of 2020 after the pandemic hit, we bought some decorative cast iron shelf brackets- spray painted them black and since lumber prices started to climb and material was limited- we found some stair treads at home depot and decided they would work pretty well for our shelves. So we cut them down to size, and did our best to put in a bullnose finish on the exposed edge despite not having a router. We then painted the shelves black and gave them a few coats of shellac finish. (again perhaps not the best location for shellac but they have held up okay so far)

We think it turned out really nice and we’re glad we have a guest bathroom we aren’t embarrassed for everyone to use now. 

Fast forward a few months to November of 2020- The radiator exploded which should not happen to a forced hot water radiator but unfortunately what can go wrong does. Our best guess is that one of the fins had a defect in it and finally gave way under the water pressure. We were able to get a plumber to come remove the radiator in short order and cap the supply and return pipes. At this time- we still have not reinstalled the radiator or any other heat source there- but it is on our list. Once we removed the radiator- we realized part of the wood baseboard was missing from behind it. We were able to make a pretty close match and paint the remainder to give a more seamless look until we’re able to get a radiator back in place.

All in- this bathroom took us about 7 months of inconsistent work but it was extremely worth it!

Footnotes: Paint Scrappers: Hyde Contour scraper Paint Wall Color: Zinsser Mold Killing Primer and Perma-white satin finish , Paint Trim Color: Rustolleum black semi-gloss, Ceiling Paint: Behr ceiling paint- no color added, Door Finish: Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac – Clear Wax: minwax paste finishing wax Cabinet Paint: Rustolleum black semi-gloss, Faucet: Kingston Brass Centerset Shower Curtain Rod: Zenna Home Shower Curtain: Amazon Shelves: Home Depot Treads Shelf Brackets: Amazon- unfortunately no longer available.