Fourteen Steps To The Blue Door: My Dirty Little Secret

Summer draws to a close, though the weather is continuing warm and dry. I've had a few months being busy with other things, but my attention is now turning to my dirty little secret.......my bathroom.
The rest of the house is largely clean and liveable even with a few less urgent reno jobs pending. These will slowly get done over the winter...........but the bathroom needs to be done yesterday! I've been kind of putting it off because (a) it functions; (b) it's the only one I have and no bathroom for a few weeks is a daunting, but not insurmountable problem; (c) Plumbing is an arcane art. I need help with it. All that notwithstanding, now is the time to bite the bullet (I am tired of apologizing for my bathroom)

So here's my dirty little secret - the "before" pictures:

Actually, it's not dirty - I keep it clean, but it is so dingy that it looks dirty and it is the last room that still smells of lingering cigarette smoke when I walk in. At some stage, someone thought it was a good idea to knock through a second door from the bathroom into the laundry area - totally unneeded and a waste of space in a small bathroom. My first job will be to remove this door and restore the wall. I'll be taking up the old vinyl on the floor, putting down sub-floor and tiling it. Haven't chosen colours as yet, but it will be light. Then I'll be ripping out the laminex walls around the bath and replacing with tiles. Tiles also around the base of the walls instead of skirting boards. The old glass shower screen is going and being replaced with a new one. New hand basin.........of a more appropriate smaller size. Ceiling fixed and painted. I'm leaving the basic configuration as it is: shower over bath and hand basin in the same place to avoid the expense of moving plumbing. But I'll be splashing out to get the bath professionally re-surfaced. Not inexpensive, but it will be worth the expense! I've been in touch with the company that does it locally and they said it's the last job to do after everything else is done. Freeing up wall space by removing the redundant door will give me more room to add open shelving for towels etc.......with the added bonus of space for pantry shelves on the other side. Win-win! A touch of luxury will be a hand-made substantial wooden shelf next to the new hand-basin and around the corner. And heated towel rails. I have a friend with lots of practical building experience to help me with some of this work, so I'm hoping I won't be bathroomless for too many weeks! I start today.

Here is my back garden with lovely summer alfresco corner. I love it!