Bathroom... finally!

Some of you may remember that a year ago John and I had our rusty, leaky metal bath replaced with a brand new one. At the time, we decided that we'd repaint the bathroom again, keeping some of the Desert Bake colour we'd used the first time, and painting the main wall Cherokee Smoke.

Here's a refresher of what we were dealing with when we moved in...

Here are the walls totally painted in Desert Bake (not quite to John's liking)...

And now, three years after moving in, this is what we have now!

As you can see, we've kept the original 1970s floor tiles and matched our colour scheme to them. This is partly because we can't really afford to pay someone to jackhammer up two-inch thick concrete, and because we actually quite like them!

There is still a little bit of work to be done. Some of the walls need a second coat of paint around the edges, and the ceiling still needs to be done. Eventually we might agree on a wall-mounted towel rack, and the shower head really needs to be raised (as the height of the new bath means it's a tad low for John). Still, I'm rather satisfied with the improvement compared to what we once had.

Renovation complete!

Well I arrived home today to find the house keys sitting on the side of the bath – all done!

We still have some plans for changes, such as repainting (this was the first room we painted after moving in, so it’s a little bit dodgy), new towel rails and a new mirror, but the big part is over!

Thanks to Paul Carta from Tamara Creations for his wonderful work. It’s turned out so much better than we ever expected, and is still in keeping with the original design of the bathroom.

Bathroom - nearly there!

Well the bath is in, the plumbing connected, the waterproofing completed and the tiling done. Now all that needs to be done is the grouting!

With a bit of luck, by Wednesday we’ll be able to shower at home again. What a luxury!

Bathroom renovation in progress!

When we bought our unit two years ago, the whole place was pretty structurally sound... except for the bathroom. Thankfully original 1970s mosaic tile floor was in great condition, but the shower/bath was another matter. The steel tub had previously rusted through around the plug hole, resulting in a substantial leak into the garage. The previous owners had done a patch-up solder job, but we knew it would only be a year or two before we had to rip the whole thing out.

In the meantime, we decided to get rid of the peeling beige paint and replace it with something a little more interesting - a colour called Desert Bake by Taubmans! John's not keen on the whole room being this bold, so we may end up re-painting the main wall in something a little more subdued (perhaps Desert Bake's complementary colour Cherokee Smoke).

And now just this week, the time has come to replace the bath! We've spent several months waiting to get to the top of the tradesman's list, but at least he was willing to do a partial reno (since most people we contacted refused to consider a job worth less than $15 000). So far our old tub and wall tiles have been ripped out, and our new tub has been fitted and the plumbing connected. We decided to pay a little extra to have another steel tub so it fits with the original look of the bathroom (as opposed to an acrylic tub). It's also been difficult finding a bath that fits in the space, as we didn't want to cut into the wall if we could help it!

Hopefully within the next few days the tiles will go up, and then next week we can stop showering at the neighbour's place!