For the past couple of months, the Pict home has been upside down because of a major renovation project. Our bathrooms were original to the house and, while I could live with the 1960s stylings, we could no longer deal with the stressful ramifications of maintenance. When a toilet seat broke (thanks to a sleep addled child) we had to source a vintage one and even things like the washers were non-standard sizes so we had to seek those out online. We decided, therefore, that it was only a matter of time before some aspect of the plumbing failed in spectacular fashion and that it was better to get ahead of it than to have to deal with the whole process on an emergency basis. There was a point about five weeks into the project where I definitely thought and felt like we were deranged for having done so but we determined that we should have both bathrooms ripped out and reconstructed at the same time. The time efficiencies and budget savings made it worth doing but it definitely was super stressful having six of us trying to live among that degree of chaos for a couple of months.
Just to add to the mess and chaos and clutter, our formal living room was the designated set down space for all of the construction equipment and materials so a huge percentage of our home felt like a builders’ yard. And then there was all the noise and the dust and the dirt. I eventually just gave up properly cleaning the house because it was a Sisyphean task. The dust was breeding quicker than I could ever clean and it was depressing. I had no peaceful, tidy, clean space to retreat into. It was actually really stressful but – now that it is all over – I think the end results were worth it.
I did not take great before pictures. I actually entirely forgot to take some so the photos are from our moving in day three years ago. The pink bathroom was our hall bathroom, primarily used by our four sons and occasionally by guests. The turquoise bathroom was the en suite for the master bedroom. I am sure they will give some readers flashbacks.
I hope you will agree that both bathrooms were transformed. We wanted to keep things pretty neutral because we want these bathrooms to last a long time. I pretty much never want to have to rip out a bathroom ever again. The hall bathroom is the beige/brown one and the en suite is the grey one. Also my after photos suck almost as much as my before ones because the spaces are small and I wobble when taking panoramic shots.
Incidentally it turned out to be very fortunate that we chose the bathrooms as our next renovation project because, once the tiles were gone, it revealed that the floor was disintegrating in one spot and would have eventually collapsed through the ceiling and caused major damage. Of course, now that we have brand, spanking new bathrooms, it makes the hallways look even more in need of resuscitation than before and my bedroom – always the worst space in the house – looks even more wretched. Definitely way more work to be done in this do-upper of a house but I think we might take a pause before we launch into another major project. I need time to recuperate from this first.
A Pict in PA 