Indoor Plumbing is a Good Thing

We're re-doing the bathroom.   We only have the one, so it's kind of a big deal to gut it and all.    This means that we [Eric] had to take everything out of the bathroom and start all over.    The tub, the sink, the toilet.  

And once again, I have a greater respect for the people who survived without indoor plumbing. 

Don't feel too sorry for us because I do have a studio with a bathroom.  Thank heavens.  But it's about the same distance from the house as the old outhouse was.   And it's winter.    And sometimes, you just have to go when it's dark.   And cold.   And your hair is wet because you just took a bath [in the kitchen sink.]

As I traipsed out to the studio, in the dark, with wet hair, and a pair of sweats on under my nightgown, and mismatched socks because it was too dark to care, and a shawl wrapped around my head so my hair wouldn't freeze off, I contemplated what it would have been like to be going to an outhouse instead of a warm studio.

The thought of my bare butt hitting a 35 degree outhouse seat made my intestines retreat.

I'm so glad we have the studio.  I think everyone should have a studio just in case they have to gut their bathroom.

Anyway.

This is what we found under all the wall board in the bathroom when we gutted it.

Red.

Blood red.

Intense blood red.

In a room that's only 6 x 5 to begin with.

I love red, and this is a fabulous red, but in this little bitty room it was like something from the movie Carrie.

When we gutted the kitchen a few years ago, we found the same color.   I thought it was an accident.  I figured they painted it that color because it was leftover barn paint.

Nope.    The barn was never painted.

Now we know why.    They used the red to paint the kitchen and bathroom.


There were a lot of problems with the old bathroom.  For one, we had a trick bathtub.  It was gradually disappearing.    First blue spots started appearing.   Then they darkened and darkened and eventually became black.   Coincidentally the same color black as the metal the tub was made with.   Weird, huh.    [We know it was the scrubbing, but we have hard, HARD water and never could find anything that would clean that wouldn't eat the finish.  Aggravating.]

Eric wrestled the tub out while we were at White Violet.   He was very grateful for steel toed boots, as the thing weighed about 200 lbs.  He took it to the scrap metal place and got $40 for it.     That's a lot of metal.

We have the toilet back in and working.   Yay.   The new tub is in and the goal is to get it hooked up so we can use it tonight.    The red is covered up with green board, which is a vast improvement on the red.   Vast, I tell you.

Now we're arguing over what color to paint it.    I can't decide.    It needs to be pale, pale, pale since the room is only 5x6 to begin with.    Feel free to tell me what color you want it to be - none of us agree anyway and a few more votes won't hurt.