On Tap Now!

Last time I talked about our hall bath sink, the husband and Little Man had just encountered the problem with the screws holding the old taps in place. They were rusted in place and no manipulation with our collection of wrenches, pliers and vise grips got them to budge. Gnnnnnnhhh ....

So we tried rust solvent ... slathered it on and waited.
Frankly, I'm not sure how much that helped.
In the end, the husband had to chip away at the rusted parts and finally managed to pry it apart enough to remove the old faucets.
Yay!

 [Inkybinky checking out husband's handywork - she is insanely fascinated by sinks]

Installing the new ones was a breeze and they are -lovely-!
They work so much better than the old ones, and of course they are shiny, new and sparkly!

Now I really have to check into having the sink professionally refinished. It got banged around a bit and now looks really worse for wear. I'll keep you posted how that goes.

[The menagerie follows me around all the time. Obviously you never know when Mom will start cooking dinner 

.... or turn on the sink ...or flush the toilet, and it's good to be nearby when that happens. ]

That sinking feeling

 Here is where we are at with our new cross handle taps for the vintage sink in the upstair's hall bath

[Husband and Little Man assessing the situation]

Yeaaaah ... not good.

There are a few rusted screws that are giving us a hard time.

I'll keep you posted.

Promise!

Master Bath: a sink, with feeling!

Good morning!

I just wanted to let you know that today's entry will be featured as guest post Over at Nette's "This Dusty House"Blog. You can check it out here:

"This Dusty House" is one of my absolute favourites, and checking in on Nette and her latest project is on my daily to-do list.

We both share that we're writing renovating blogs, not decorating blogs. While we occasionally take a break from the bigger DIY projects to toss in an adventure in hanging curtains, spray painting accessories and upholstering a chair, we're still up to our ears in bathroom remodels, total kitchen gut jobs and more drywall dust than we probbly ever wanted.

So hop on over and find out what's going on with this:

[Peekabo - I see you!]

Housewarming gifts

I know! We haven't moved in yet, but we already received our first housewarming gift from our neighbor across the street: an antique cast-iron pedestal sink!

[Before: dirty but not bad]

I'd originally planned to re-use most of the fixtures already present in the existing upstairs bathroom; they were dirty but functioning and not too old. The water closet is a Kohler, the vanity a standard blue or orange box stock vanity. Armed with paint I went to town:

• removed gobs of old caulk and re-caulked the bath tub
• spray painted the bath tub fixtures a nifty Oil Rubbed Bronze color

[fixtures sanded, then primed and spray painted]

• replaced the cheap-o shower head with a rainfall shower head
• spray painted the frame of the mirror cabinet Oil Rubbed Bronze color
• ordered a curved shower rod with liner and hooks (we're going to re-use our existing fabric shower curtain that is pin-striped in blue, taupe, brown and white)
• bought a replacement towel rod
  
• painted the whole room in "Cloudy Day" grey
• painted the built-in closet white
• painted the trim and the ceiling in Behr Ultra "Pure White"

[vanity with a coat of automobile primer and orb spray paint]

I also gave the existing vanity a fresh new coat of white paint and in a moment of craziness spray painted the entire cultured marble top, faucets and all, with ORB spray paint as well. It really turned out pretty cool. Then our neighbor asked me if I had any use for this sink :o)

[Introducing: The Sink]

It's perfect! It's in great shape and really only needs a thorough cleaning, like the rest of the bathroom. It's amazing how the pedestal sink opens up the space. Luckily we have a humongous built-in closet in the room and can easily live without the storage space a vanity provides.

[Looking good there!]

Today the curved shower rod I ordered from Overstock arrived in the mail which means we're one step closer to a finished bathroom.

Maybe I should drag my steam cleaner out to the ugly Duckling tomorrow and rather than paint some more trim, spent a few hours cleaning this room to within an inch of its life... Well, I better wait until the electrician is done. I don't know how it escaped us but there is NOT. A. SINGLE. OUTLET in this bathroom. Not one. So we're adding one ...and I guess that means I'll have to touch up some paint where they bust through the wall.