…another new Merlin spot. This one’s also an interesting choice.
Do you think he’s actually trying to tell me something? Like, maybe he’s more fond of water than I thought.
Doubt it.
And I have to admit, without the water running, this does seem to be a rather perfect cat bed – cozy space, right under the window, tucked away…
And of course, he’s gotten to use our beautiful, newly-installed clawfoot tub before me. Cats, y’all. Cats.
More accurately, we have two and a half. But the one upstairs is officially renovated and done! It still needs some finishing touches, but I’m very happy with it.
I’m so glad we chose warm, bright colors. The green felt like a bit of a risk, but the room gets so much light, I think it really works, especially with the white tile in the shower. It just looks so fresh and clean.
And we were able to install the clawfoot tub!
We’ve set it up so that we have a shower and toilet room, and then a separate little annex for the tub, a closet, and another vanity, and I think that really works, too. It’s also an example of living in a historic home – you just have to use the space you have the best that you can.
Now that this one’s done, we’ve really only got some cosmetic work left. Painting, fixing a few ceilings that look cracked and tired, finishing up with shutters and a few small items on the exterior. It’s not much, is my point. We could do more, but with Baby Girl set to make her debut in a month, we’ve got some other stuff to focus on. 😊
So, onward, as always. It’s going to be an interesting few weeks as we wait for her to get here, but at least I’ve got a nice, pretty bathroom to hang out in, in the meantime!
I know I said I’d have October’s short story out today, and I’m working on it. It’ll be out on Friday instead, and I think you’ll like it. It’s a little different from my usual stuff.
For now, there’s this:
This is the bench in our new shower. It’s also Merlin’s new favorite spot. Merlin doesn’t like to get wet. Eventually, these two things will be in conflict with each other.
But not today, so I suppose he can have it for the moment. Silly cat.
And it’s going to be lovely.
Work on the upstairs bathroom continues, and we’re almost there!
It might be hard to tell, but we really don’t have very much left to do. And by we, I mean our contractors, because yeah, I am not skilled enough to lay tile correctly and not strong enough to carry a clawfoot tub up a very narrow set of stairs.
I’m eager for this project to be done, because next up on my list is finishing the nursery. And with less than seven weeks to go before Baby Girl is due to make her debut, it feels like we’re already cutting it close.
But, deep breaths. Everything will work out. And we’ll have a pretty new bathroom, too.
After some initial prep months ago…
…work on our main bathroom has officially started!
As you can see, we’ve gone from tired but functional…
…to barely controlled chaos.
I’m not mad about it. Hopefully it will only take a couple of weeks, and then we’ll have the space back and better than ever. It’s our last big project, so I’m excited and eager to see it done. We’ve had to pull back on some of what I wanted to do, since Baby Girl’s due date is getting closer and closer. I’m a little worried my tile choices will look a little plain, since we won’t be putting up wallpaper. At least not yet. But I think it’ll be fine. If nothing else, it will look bright and fresh!
I know I keep forgetting to post pictures of the downstairs bathroom, so I’ll try to do that this week. Trust me – the pink tile was the right choice.
So, onward! It’s going to be a busy week, y’all.
For as long as I’ve known they existed, which is basically my whole life, I have always wanted a clawfoot tub. I think they’re so pretty, so classic, and most importantly, a very comfy way to take a nice, relaxing bubble bath.
I was ecstatic when we first looked at our house and it already had one. We made plans to move it to our main bathroom upstairs…
…which we’ve now expanded and prepped for its weight.
Clawfoot tubs are heavy, y’all, and we thought that reinforcing the floor would be our biggest issue.
How naïve we were.
See, somewhere along the line in its lifetime, the bowl of our clawfoot tub got painted with standard white house paint. You can paint a clawfoot any color you’d like on the outside, but they’re meant to have a porcelain finish on the inside, which is durable and shiny. Not sure why someone painted ours the way they did, but we figured we’d deal with it. No big issue, right?
Wrong.
After weeks of trying to rent a sandblaster for an afternoon in order to remove the white paint – a seemingly impossible task that was coming in at estimates around $300 – and then receiving a quote for $600 to have that work done for us, we finally gave up. We decided to just buy a clawfoot tub that we found for $350 from a very nice older gentleman in West Virginia.
Does it feel dumb to buy a tub when we already have one? Yes. Yes, it does. But when it’s a lower price? And all we have to do is drive an hour? No, no it doesn’t.
So a couple of weeks ago we took a small road trip and picked up a new (old) clawfoot tub, which is in great shape and only needs a good cleaning. The tub we’ve already got? We’re giving it to a creative friend for a gardening project, which I’m sure will be beautiful.
For now, both tubs are sitting in our garage. Soon enough, though, we’ll have the bathroom of my dreams, complete with the tub I’ve always wanted.
Renovations are crazy.
A Virginia Writer's Diary 