It Ain't Perfect, But...

Slowly but surely (the operative word here being "slowly"), small bathroom projects are getting accomplished. I decided to start "at the top" and work my way down, for the time being.

This meant tackling the ceiling. When I say "tackling", I mean it in the most literal sense one can without having torn the whole thing down. It was a bull to work with, and still isn't completely perfect...but, for our purposes, I'm calling it successfully completed. Woohoo!

The issue involves prep work that our predecessors completed...mmm...shall we say...crappily. My mom insists that she sees proof of duct tape (yes, that) used to try to seal up some cracks, and the paint was separating in a million spots (probably due to improper paint for a humid bathroom, but that's just a guess). I'm not sure it's a battle I can ever completely win. Here's what we were given...

My tactics, be them accurate or not, involved scraping and pulling down tape, sanding everything down, putting up mesh tape, spackling and sanding x2, priming, then painting a few coats of regular ceiling paint. Again, it's not perfect, but when the lights aren't all on, it looks pretty darn smooth and almost passable.

There are still some lines to cope with and a *chance* that the tearing/separating paint issue will come back - but just take my word for it. It's tough to get true-to-life pictures of white. :-) The second picture is the most strife with real life issues.

The next steps will be to paint the upper half of the walls with a color soon-to-be-mixed (it's been selected for a looooong time...oops!), and sanding and painting LOTS of coats of white in the open shelving closet area (and probably around the window trim - can you say "chocolate brown"?). Then comes the real work of doing paneling (I'd much rather call it "wainscoting", although it's really just a doppelganger), painting the rest of the chocolate trim (which makes it sound like Willy Wonka's bathroom, doesn't it?), and flooring (which will most likely involve having to unhook the toilet 'n stuff, ugh). THEN, on to the troubled tub area. Whew!

Just wanted to keep everyone updated and keep myself motivated (ie have some sort of accountability, hee hee). So, thanks for providing that - I bet you didn't even know you were my motivation! Well, you guys and, y'know, a very patient husband and an ever-growing belly. Those are pretty important, too. ;-)

Do you have any projects you're whittling away at, even if it takes months? Feel free to share!