becky haycox

[want to read from the beginning about my bathroom redesign? then click this post!]

Let’s just get right to it, shall we? You remember this:

Now dig this:

To say I am happy with this transformation is an understatement. The joy of removing carpeting from a bathroom, forever, is heady. The whole thing isn’t done (shower stall needs to be dealt with and toilet replaced and a couple of odds/ends to be done) but I’m fine pausing here and taking a big breath.

Paint: Valspar Rugged Suede in semi-gloss for the vanity ($6 for two sample cans); Valspar Filtered Shade in semi-gloss for the walls ($34 for one gallon with built-in primer; only one coat needed, sort of). Rugged Suede and Filtered Shade! The ceiling was left its original sand color, which helps to integrate the I’m-too-poor-to-replace-it faux marble counter.

Tile: Midnight Slate Copper (unbranded) 12″x12″ from Lowe’s ($1.68 ea). Grout: Mapei Sanded Grout in Pearl Gray, $14.

Knobs: Gate House 1-1/4″ in brushed nickel, $21 for 10. Rug is from Cost Plus, borrowed from my bedroom. It’s not quite the right one for here, but that’ll do for now, pig, that’ll do. Baskets are from the artist’s private container collection.

Ikea FRÄCK Mirror ($4.99). Now I can see myself up close, eeek! And birthday flowers. Lots of plants got I for my birthday, I like that.

Looking opposite the vanity. Try to imagine, a new, sleek, low-flow (and non-leaking) toilet here. Soon!

Flower pot is a birthday gift from my friends Brad and Joe, the first friends to give me a present from my Pinterest Board!

Shelves: Ikea FABIAN ($6.99 ea), using narrower scrap wood (instead of the supplied, too-wide boards) and installing the brackets (intentionally!) upsidedown.

Small frames: Ikea RIBBA ($6 for 2).

Tins: Ikea TRIPP Storage tin with lid, set of 3 ($3.99).

Art: Vintage scrap of map found among my wrapping paper. “Listerine” print by Andy Warhol (cut from a magazine). “Pills” original print by Jordan Crane, bought at Bizarre Bazaar in LA in 2005. Thrifted planter. Toilet paper by Ralph’s.

Large frames: Ikea NYTTJA Frame ($1.99 ea). Super cheapie in price and quality. Which is okay, it’s just a bathroom — I’m not going to live in here. Maybe I’m going to live in here.

Art: These are a couple of scraps of fabric designed by Heather of skinnylaminx, a super talented South African textile whiz!

Hardware: GRUNDTAL towel double rail ($14.99), GRUNDTAL toilet paper holder ($4.99)

Don’t look over there! Oh, no, you saw. Hello, prison shower, looking as bad as ever. I may have an inexpensive solution to make it slightly less horrible. In the meantime: eyes closed when looking to the north!

I sewed a single curtain panel and hung it with clip-on curtain rings (Ikea Stockholm Blad fabric, $7.99/yard, Martha Stewart Living Pewter Clip Rings 7-Pack, $8). Jeana’s vote for fabric (Kajsastina) came a close second, but this one felt like the right one, color- and pattern-wise. The greys in this room are a little complicated, and mushroomy-taupey colored fabric seemed to pull them all together.

The window ledge is wide enough to host a tiny plant party. Why yes, that tall one is housed in a ceramic replica of the Bonaventure Hotel. Thanks, Attaboy Vintage, for fulfilling my weird planter needs!

Curtain rod: Signature Series Large Ball Telescopic Rod Set 28-48” Satin (from Joann on sale, $12)

Bakelite mirror and antique glass dish from Attaboy Vintage! Tray by Ross; I’ve kindly hidden my night guard that usually lives there, for photographic purposes. You’re welcome.

Before I let you go (and before the budget breakdown), how about some hot before and afters?

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

Paint and supplies (paint, primer, sandpaper, spackle, dropcloth, dusk masks, TSP, etc.) $82

Drawer stuff (drawer liner, divider bins) $17

General hardware and flooring supplies (mollies, wax ring, screws, threshold, etc.) $31

Baseboards $14

Tiles 49 tiles total (2-ish left over) $83

Fabric 1yd for $8

Home decor/hardware (frames, tins, shelving, towel rails, TP holder, etc) $90

Free (borrowed/used from friends OR stuff I had already): Large paint roller, brushes, painting edger, buckets, grout sealant, knee pads, most tools, all the time my friends and I put in (about 30 hours-ish over five weeks, including a 10-day pause while my floor committee recuperated from a cold)

- – - – -
GRAND TOTES: $325 (or thereabouts, not including a future $150 for new toilet/hardware and $?? for a shower stall solution)

Many, many thanks to the people I cajoled and/or threw money and/or food at to come help me: Jeanie, Carla, Kim, and Jeremy!

Master Timeline (new and improved)

1. Remove hardware and buy replacement hardware (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
2. Paint drawers and cabinets, walls
3. Replace hardware  (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
4. Rip up carpeting, assess what kind of prep floor needs for tiling (handy friends will help)
5. Remove toilet (handy friends will help)
6. Purchase last round of expensive crap for the floor (adhesive, threshold, seal, grout)
7. Tile floor (handy friends will lend tools and set me started)
8. Touch up drawers, seal
9. Grout tile
10. Install baseboards
11. Install old toilet (again with the handy friends)
12. Seal tile
13. Buy material, make curtains
14. Artwork and decor
15. Install threshold (I’ll get to it, I’ll get to it)
16. Figure out an affordable way to make shower stall look better (replace glass only? or take out the door and do a curtain??)
17. Have shower stall power cleaned (hire expert — they use acid!)
18. Notice how this list just got longer and longer and longer?

• See the whole redesign photoset here

Previous bathroom posts:

• bathroom redesign 01
• bathroom redesign 02
• bathroom redesign 03
• bathroom redesign 04

6 comments

Last night we went to see DEVO at the Hollywood Racetrack. Lamar, his friend R and I got there good and early to bet on ponies, eat, and for those two to buy energy domes…

(Sorry baby for the awful picture, but the energy dome figures hugely in the events to come) Lamar and I were watching a horse named Jaco Red (picked for the similarity to “Jocko Homo”) and some guy interrupted us while the race was going on, being all “can I ask you guys a question?” Fortunately Jaco Red lost quickly so we gave this guy our attention.

Before we knew it we were being trotted to the winner’s circle, interviewed for the track TV (I think I said “yeaaaah, Devo!” a couple dozen times). The winning jockey seemed a little miffed that someone else was getting all the attention. So I put him in my pocket to settle him down.

Lamar’s quick-thinking friend Dan took a snap of us on the big screen. Not long after, I got this text:

It’s Kendra! Are you at the track and did I just see you on the jumbotron w a friend wearing a hail satan shirt?!?

Hilarious! Kendra is a friend and former colleague who I haven’t seen since 2003! (For the record, it’s a “Hail Miroslav Šatan” teeshirt)

After our big debut, two things happened. Famous artist Coop looked at us (hi Coop! too shy to say hi to you!)  and we were given backstage passes.

Being a lawn jockey for big laughs. We accidentally went upstairs when leaving the winner’s circle. The fancy section is a whole other world. So fancy and so not for us!

(photos brought to you by liberally stealing them from others’ Facebook accounts)

Once backstage, stuff like this happened. Oh, just holding hands with Mark Mothersbaugh, leader of the most influential band/art movement in my life.

Get in there, Bob 2! (don’t ask me what’s up with the silly making fun of devil stuff. i don’t know)

Booji Boy and short shorts. Out of his fanny pack, Booji Boy grabbed handfuls of superballs and bounced them into the audience; before that, other members spun mini Frisbees into the crowd (after rubbing them on themselves).. upon closer inspection, they were pitas with “Devo” written in Sharpie on them. Ha!

The music sounded perfect. The big lightup display was fantastic. I’m going to have to end this because I sound 17 and silly.

One of the best nights ever.

4 comments

This was written on May 4.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop, trying to complete two work projects that are due at the exact time when “(Just Like) Startin Over” starts on the too-loud speakers.

Just the two chimes that start the song sends my stomach down to my knees. This song, along with “Imagine“, were the two songs that were in seeming constant rotation after John Lennon was killed. That was an experience I still can’t write about, the second worst thing that had happened in my young life up to that point, right after my parents’ crumbled marriage.

I’m feeling similarly blue today. Not so absolutely grief stricken as those horrible days in December 1980, but still blue. Adam Yauch and the Beasties were not as towering figures in my aural life as the Beatles, but they made a mark, as musicians and humanitarians, as someone who grew and improved in front of our eyes. For years! For years, the comfy and weird old Beastie Boys were there. And yes, MCA was the cute one.

For all its flaws, Licensed to Ill really started helping me take myself way less seriously, music wise. And then Paul’s Boutique, bam! — a great record in a banner year. Then a few years later, at a Seder in San Francisco, my friend Dave asked us, so have you heard this? just before turning around and putting on “Pass the Mic” … and, well, that was a fine and thrilling moment. And then those UPS outfits. And the video for “Sabotage”! It goes on and on, a delightful twirling ribbon of weirdness and rock solid sound.

As for the other side, I have to steal Tristy‘s words here. She says it best.

 I love the way the Beastie Boys changed and grew over the last 30+ years, from some semi-misogynistic brats to more spiritual, lady-loving, beautiful freaks, while always making excellent music. I also really appreciate how open and authentic Adam was in sharing his journey with the cancer that finally took his life. He was so real in talking about it and that really moved me deeply.

Amen.

1 comment

[want to read from the beginning about my bathroom redesign? then click this post!]

As I mentioned, while in Phoenix, I shopped at IKEA. What else to do when your handyperson is sick but to spend more and more money?

I managed to knock off every hardware/decor item off my list (except the weirdly-configured switchplate), but the big excitement was the fabric, some of which was on sale, most of which are out of stock in California, and all of which were affordable.

You’ll have to wait and see which pattern won for the bathroom curtain. (from left: Patricia, Kajsastina, Majken, Stockholm Blad)

After I got back, and with Jeanie feeling better, I returned to the task of wheedling, finally getting her and Carla over to finish up the tiling.

Jeanie feeling the holy vibrations of the beautiful tile.

Carla using the nips (snort) to cut the tile for the weird angles and corners.

While they toiled, I kept the wine glasses refilled, told dirty jokes, sang Elvis Costello songs, and took inappropriate pictures.

That night, I posted a big “Thank you Carla and Jeanie!” on Facebook. Almost immediately, my friend Kim posted the following:

Dang! I wasn’t invited :-/ I am sure I could have been helpful…somehow…

She was serious! I wrote her and said if she was available Saturday, there’s some groutin’ and baseboardin’ to do. She said she couldn’t wait. What? People actually like to help with this crap?

I actually got into the spirit and got to grouting the day before Kim came, all by myself! Even though the night before I had a dream that I accidentally used chocolate syrup instead of grout compound. True story. Anyway, I forged ahead.

First this happened. Stupid ripping bag of grout.

Then this happened. Lookit me, I’m grouting! (it’s supposed to look like that, really) Every step of this process gets messier and messier.

And then this happened! My beautiful floor, dappled by the morning light. Try not to look at the thrashed vanity paint job, whoa.

Then Kim came over. And we made some measurements and jetted to the local home improvement store for some hot baseboard action.

Baseboards are a pain in the ass, but a much different pain than the messy, shit-getting-everywhere pain. Just a pain of measuring and sawing, but once that’s done, the rest is relative cake. Ew, relative cake!

Baseboard!

I decided to reinstall the old toilet, which was a mistake for a variety of reasons. The hardware was old and crumbly, the toilet was wobbly, tank leaked.. all these problems got fixed but it would’ve been miles easier to just bite the bullet and shell out the kesh for a new toilet now instead of later. Dumb.

But then we wouldn’t have these shots.

Kim scraping the old wax ring off the Demon Sewage Hole. Yum.

Proof that I actually worked! I’ll tell you, I am not a fan of having my face near a toilet in any circumstance.

Oh, we’re getting so close. I then hired my friend Jeremy to put up the hardware, since my hands have stopped working, and I have a birthday cold, too.

Shelves and a smile. You can tell how much he loves the photo interruptions!

And this, my friend, is the home stretch. Except for the Stalled Shower Stall, which is going to have to wait, everything is tantalizingly close to done.

Next post, full money shot reveal! If As soon as I get it done!

Master Timeline (new and improved)

1. Remove hardware and buy replacement hardware (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
2. Paint drawers and cabinets, walls
3. Replace hardware  (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
4. Rip up carpeting, assess what kind of prep floor needs for tiling (handy friends will help)
5. Remove toilet (handy friends will help)
6. Purchase last round of expensive crap for the floor (adhesive, threshold, seal, grout)
7. Tile floor (handy friends will lend tools and set me started)
8. Touch up drawers, seal
9. Grout tile
10. Install baseboards
11. Install old toilet (again with the handy friends)
12. Seal grout
13. Caulk baseboards, touch up paint
14. Install threshold
15. Buy material, make curtains
16. Artwork and decor
17. Figure out an affordable way to make shower stall look better (replace glass only?)
18. Have shower stall power cleaned (hire expert — they use acid!)

See all bathroom redesign pictures here

Previous bathroom posts:

• bathroom redesign 01
• bathroom redesign 02
• bathroom redesign 03

2 comments

Hi, hi, it’s my birthday. Due to various circumstances, it was very low-key but quite pleasant nonetheless. The only BOOOO is that I seem to have contracted a cold, which cancelled some key planned activities, including

• having a picnic with my darling manfriend
• fulfilling my birthday wish of getting a little drunk
• getting a mani-pedi to repair the horror of chiseling, grouting, paint touch-upping, and clawing frustratedly at my face
• putting barbecue all over me
• writing a “state of the union” style blog post ala 2011

I cannot complain. After a wonderful phone convo with sis Annie, the lovely manfriend and his mom squired me about town, gently. They fed me soup and gave me lovely gifts. Here’s the front of the birthday card Lamar’s mom gave me. The inside will appear at the bottom of the post.

I’m glad I got to go out a bit last night, so I didn’t feel like Ms. Feeble 2012. In addition to good food and conversation (and bread pudding with a candle!), my friend Shana fed me, as in fed every bit of my dinner (a brie salad) to me. It was weird, decadent, and fabulous.

I can’t complain. My friends and family love me, we’re all happy the odometer has ticked another year, I share the date with Freud, Orson Welles, George Clooney and Bob Seger. Hooray!

If you’re reading this, I hug you. You’re my friend and I’m happy you’re here.

And now, the punchline. This is the funniest card I’ve gotten. The more congested my head, the dumber the joke I like.

1 comment

I had a much needed micro-vacation to Phoenix. Apparently everyone I know can’t not make fun of Arizona, judging from the many “be sure to bring your papers!” jokes from far and wide. I didn’t let it bother me. I was a tourist, and therefore lived in a “who cares about politics?” bubble that got me through this and many other trips through controversial lands — such as Manila during an Aquino regime coup attempt and Singapore, always. Don’t hurt me, benign dictators, while I pass through, eat, and snap pics!

Besides, Phoenix, as I lived there only as a child and adolescent, will always feel unreal and be soaked through with nostalgia at every turn.

Our bank! As fantastically 60s as ever. I learned to mismanage money from a very early age in this location!

My neighborhood was the neighborhood for spaceage midcentury flights of fancy. I remember this house well; I used to sell lemonade in front of it. It looks like, after having been long neglected, that it’s getting renovated. Hallelujah, some people that get the beauty of retro-modern in Phoenix at last. I don’t want to talk about the monstrosity that has replaced my gorgeous childhood home.

The saquaros were in bloom, funny fancy ladies in their flowered hats.

That’s Camelback Mountain, that was the view I grew up with. While I was driving around, a roadrunner darted in front my car, such a cliche Arizona sight I laughed out loud. Apparently, roadrunners aren’t as plentiful anymore. Sad Meep.

I unwisely set out to Papago Park in 93 degree weather and flipflops. I stared at Hole in the Rock (look at the tiny people!) before my hydration levels got to blinking-red low.

Okay, and I went to IKEA.

Water misters, not Spend-All-Your-Money Serum. I think. More on my purchases later!

I wandered around Tempe with my dear friend Jo Ann, who was a colleague of my dad’s from back in the 1950s. When he moved from Massachusetts to Phoenix for work, she followed on his recommendation. This Iowa girl loves the Southwest. She said “when I stepped off the plane and into the soft, warm air of the Phoenix evening, I knew I was going to live here the rest of my life.”

We went by ASU and the Gammage Theater (sorry my pic doesn’t do the Frank Lloyd Wrightiness justice.) I saw many shows there during my youth, including Up with People and Sammy Davis, Jr.!

My friends Valerie and Lori and me at the Phoenix Improv Fest. It was a fun two nights of improv, although the shows, in my humble opinion, went way too long. That may have had to do with the large sippy cups of wine (pictured) that one (ie, me) was allowed to bring into the theater. Over and over. I got too shy to schmooze too much with all the improvisers there but I have a feeling I’ll come back for the fest again. Lovely theater, great downtown, very well-run event. Standout shows included King Ten from LA, Umlautilde from Phoenix, What If? from Minneapolis, and Midnight Society from Austin. Plus, Saturday was a prom night for many and I got to be all scandalized by the skimpy teengirl fashion in the area.

Stay tuned for a Very Special Episode of the Hamblog, Phoenix style.

1 comment

[want to read from the beginning about my bathroom redesign? then click this post!]

Things that confound and confuse me during this endless bathroom redesign:

• How do I wear a mask without my glasses fogging up?
• Why is the pouring of the paint from the can to the tray the most awkward, messy, lame experience? Why hasn’t this been troubleshot generations ago?

Things I’m grateful for:

• The dumpster at my place of work
• My amazing friends, Jeanie and Carla — the “handy friends” mentioned throughout this process. They are clever, experienced, patient, and kind. And have lots of tools!
• The hot dog stand outside of the home improvement store; often, it’s the only way I can motivate myself to spend yet more time and money in that godforsaken place.

Go and get some grout and then you can have a meaty treat.

Remember when I complained about how messy painting was? Tiling a floor is like painting, except instead of paint everywhere you have a sticky, mortar-like adhesive everywhere that must be quickly wiped off. And instead of a simple plan (prep, paint) there are complexities (cutting tiles to fit weird spaces) and complications (tiles break instead of being cut, weird angles, NEVER enough tile bought).

Adhesive treats on my feets!

This stuff gets everywhere. Everywhere.

Laying out, trying to minimize weird angles to cut. Not a good idea to step on the tiles in this state. Crack!

Scoring/cutting device decided to break tile instead. Crack! Getting closer to another trip to the home improvement store!

It’s not like it’s the most complex task in the world, but it’s just so chaotic, chaos with a ticking clock. Jeanie did a very good job of keeping me moving, keeping me from going catatonic and/or loony.

And then, just like that, it starting looking like this.

I know, right? Just like my most beautiful dream.

Oh, but so not done. We’ve got odd-size tile cutting, more adhesive, then grout, then caulk.. then.. then..

I think I’ve decided to keep the toilet out of the room and just do my business in this hole.

Then of course there’s the matter of my prison shower. But I may have a solution: as long as I don’t ever open my eyes when facing north while in my bathroom, I’m totally cool. Let’s go with that.

Update: and here we sit, broken hearted. There’s been a delay in progress, due to Jeanie and a rhinovirus colliding hard. Two-week delay, at least! Here’s hoping that we can get grouty soon!

Master Timeline (new and improved)

1. Remove hardware and buy replacement hardware (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
2. Paint drawers and cabinets, walls
3. Replace hardware  (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
4. Rip up carpeting, assess what kind of prep floor needs for tiling (handy friends will help)
5. Remove toilet (handy friends will help)
6. Purchase last round of expensive crap for the floor (adhesive, threshold, seal, grout)
7. Tile floor (handy friends will lend tools and set me started)
8. Touch up drawers, seal
9. Grout tile
10. Install baseboards
11. Install new toilet (again with the handy friends)
12. Seal tile
13. Buy material, make curtains
14. Artwork and decor
15. Figure out an affordable way to make shower stall look better (replace glass only?)
16. Have shower stall power cleaned (hire expert — they use acid!)

• Go to bathroom redesign 04
• Check out the full redesign photoset

Previous bathroom posts:

• bathroom redesign 01
• bathroom redesign 02

2 comments

I am heading to Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow in order to visit a couple friends and to check out the Phoenix Improv Festival. I’m flying out and driving back. Why? Thank to a hot tip from the Boyf, Hertz is offering $5/day rental cars if you’re traveling from Phoenix to California these days.

I guess cars get built up on Phoenix this time of year, not sure why. It’s much like the buildup of sunglasses at my office during winter/early spring. It’s sunny when I commute in the morning, but dark when I leave, so the shades get forgotten. I recently showed my friend Dave (much to his amusement) the unbelievable stash I unearthed from my desk — including two identical pairs (but I only bought one pair! are they replicating?)

See? Perhaps something is similar with the cars. I don’t know. I don’t care. I just wanted to write a blog post. I miss having things to blog about, things that aren’t bathroom- or sad stuff- related.

In other (sort of connected?) news, this week has been Project Becky Week. The stressful cloud under which I’ve been living has taken a toll on my self care, which I kind of knew, but didn’t realize the extent to which I’d slid. That is, until I saw a video of myself from late last year, with a new cut and color and looking very fit and dewy and rested and .. uuuhhh. So hairs have been removed and/or colored and/or chopped, adequate sleep has been obtained, laundry done, exfoliation completed, walks taken, etc. I’ve also reached out to an organization dedicated to caregiver support, Talked It Though with some friends (not to mention Wept Hard on Boyf’s Shoulder), and basically tried to get my mental ducks in gear. I know that’s not the right saying. Bear with me. Bears in gear? Bears in a row?

So yeah. I’m not out of the woods yet, stress cloud speaking, but I am looking forward to being away, gawping at saguaros, clapping at some improv, squeezing friends. See you Monday.

1 comment

Last night I watched, raptly, Absolute Wilson — the documentary about Robert Wilson, the singular artist. I hadn’t given him much thought lately (no fault of his), but the graceful clumsiness and gorgeous weirdness of his stage pieces felt so delicious and fresh and exciting to my weary eyes.

As I continue to interact with humans whose brains are wired in an infinite variety of ways, I appreciate how he’s been to develop new languages (almost always non-verbal) with people that need other languages in which to express themselves (just like him). Fascinating and exciting.

Click the pic at the top to read an interesting essay on Wilson.

Onto the next inspiring gent. I’m a little late to “Caine’s Arcade,” as I tend to avoid anything that contains the concepts “viral” or “flash mob,” but it’s worth it, oh how it’s worth it. I mean, a kid who DIYs a game arcade out of cardboard, we can just stop there, that’s the coolest. The video is cute and there are tears commanded out of the watcher, but I also feel a little sad, and not just at the loneliness of a 9-year old, or the implied financial straits the family appears to be in. It’s the sadness at knowing that this kind of unbounded creativity is rare here in the US anymore. I remember DIYing my entire entertainment life when I was that age — building a clubhouse, using my dad’s typewriter to create a magazine, creating a circus, a play, an elaborate alternate persona. That was just how it was done, right? Or at least for neglected sort-of only children?

I also cringe at the flash mob, the news team, the song written about the arcade. It’s the same way I feel about tourism — the desire to connect with something interesting is the very thing that can ruin it.

But that’s just me, being a curmudgeon. Caine has a scholarship now, and presumably is unburdened by the bigger issues his sudden popularity brings up. To my tortured brain, at least.

And instead of overanalyzing, I’ll just take away the extreme excitement — and incitement — I get by watch people create, create, create, because they have to.

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It is the end of the second weekend of bathroom shenanananigans (see part one here) and I am pleased at my progress, appalled at the time/mess/expense of this project, in awe at how very filthy I am, and a little curious as to when, exactly, it all will end.

Did I mention there’s a toilet in my shower?

Things I’ve learned so far:

• Painting is exhausting, dirty, and time consuming. Prep work, the endless prep work, is the one thing that has brought me to tears (so far). More on that in a bit.
• Until it’s over, I will be in a constant, continual loop from my home to the home improvement store then back again.
• Bathroom cabinets can cost up to $4,500!

Enough of that. How about some before pictures?

Small, carpeted, not nice. Prison-like shower stall behind the door at left.

Water wasting toilet, cheapo storage and accessories, disgusting carpet.

Prison shower.

Sad, filthy, horrible.

As Apartment Therapy puts it “There are very few home décor choices to which we are absolutely one hundred percent opposed in every case, but wall-to-wall carpet in the bathroom is one of them.” PS, the white rug is hiding a huge hair dye stain.

Huge, dumb, old drawers and counter. And disgusting carpet.

The drawers got the treatment first.

Better! But there is going to be hours of touch up.

Like this. Painter’s tape sometimes does not work, sometimes it likes to rip off your paint.

Wall paint prep begins after wall scrubdown (with TSP). Frustrating part of the process, this is where the overwhelmedness started.

Stupid screw stuck in wall and no way to get it out with the tools at hand. Deeply annoyed at the sloppiness of previous work and installation.

Gross and crumbly. I kept discovering more and more cut corners, slapdash work, bad choices. The room is like a high-turnover rental unit.

I took out the medicine chest (ew) but am putting it back, since, as I discovered, recessed medicine cabinets with any style at all are kill-me expensive.

Trying to get the baseboards off pushed me over the edge. Tearily making a phone call to my handy friends, they reassured me and promised to come over the next day and lend a hand.

Calmer, I proceeded to do the only 100% fun thing of this ordeal. I ripped out the carpet!

Old, OLD linoleum underneath.

Level subflooring under the lino. Score!

The next day, my dear handy friends came over, ripped out the rest of the baseboards, pulled up the tackboard and lino, and removed the toilet. And then put it in my shower.

They were amazing. This would have been a very rocky and/or expensive phase if not for these fantastic friends.

We made an plan to have one of the handy friends to come over on Wednesday and show me how to get started with the tiling.

Tiling already! Indeed, the room is totally painted, with my very own paws. I’d take another picture, but seriously, these paws are sorer than they ever have been. So SO much spackling and sanding and prying and twisting and rolling and brushing. For those of you to whom a project like this is a no-brainer weekend trifle, I salute you with my gnarled hand. And then I ask you to come over and help me already.

Master Timeline (new and improved)

1. Remove hardware and buy replacement hardware (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
2. Paint drawers and cabinets, walls
3. Replace hardware  (knobs, TP  holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)
4. Rip up carpeting, assess what kind of prep floor needs for tiling (handy friends will help)
5. Remove toilet (handy friends will help)
6. Purchase last round of expensive crap for the floor (adhesive, threshold, seal, grout)
7. Tile floor (handy friends will lend tools and set me started)
8. Touch up drawers, seal
9. Grout tile
10. Install baseboards
11. Install new toilet (again with the handy friends)
12. Seal tile
13. Buy material, make curtains
14. Artwork and decor
15. Figure out an affordable way to make shower stall look better (replace glass only?)
16. Have shower stall power cleaned (hire expert — they use acid!)

• go to bathroom redesign 03
• see ALL the pictures

Previous bathroom post:

• bathroom redesign 01

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