Thursday, August 29, 2013

Bathroom of Horrors

When we bought this house, we knew it came with its challenges. One of these challenges came in the form of a half-bath and it's wallpaper. Not just any old wallpaper but floral, 1995 wallpaper. Wallpaper, that unbeknown to me, had grown redwood-like roots into the drywall.
To tackle this mess, we first went to our new favorite store, Home Depot, and bought Dif (wallpaper removal chemicals) and a scoring tool called PaperTiger. Following the directions on the back of the Dif bottle, and a few youtube videos, this seemed like a spray and wait kind of job.

First, let me tell you that scoring the wall is a very tedious job. You cannot score too deep, otherwise you have to fill holes in your drywall. On the other hand, if you don't score deep enough, you just wasted a solid 30 minutes of your life.

After scoring, we sprayed the Dif (what I like to call the ectoplasm from Ghostbusters) and let that sit in the scored wallpaper. Sheet by sheet, we tore off the first layer of wallpaper and then followed up the same process, of scoring + Dif, to remove the adhesive residue left behind.

Once the wallpaper was removed, we finally started to see the potential this small half bath had hidden away all these years!

After another trip back to Home Depot, we bought a new faucet ($50), faucet supply lines ($13), new vanity with matching mirror ($300), 1 gallon of Behr paint ($22), and new vanity lights ($40) some miscellaneous items (~$20).  In total, we spent just under $500 dollars to take something hideous to something heavenly.

We removed the old clamshell sink by heating up the old caulk with a hairdryer, removed the supply lines and drain pipe from the P-Pipe, and repaired the wall where the caulk had been.

Fresh coat of paint, aligning of the new vanity with the P-Pipe, some more caulk, new vanity lights (be sure to turn the circuit off to the bathroom), and some paint fights with the wife (I know, cliche) we had our new half bath!

All-in-all, I learned a lot about plumbing, found out my wife is a better project manager than worker bee, and that in the end, everything is worth it. Hope this gives you the encouragement to take on a project in your home!