it's not a real renovation unless you go to the studs

The blog has been silent, but we have not been idle.
Life is getting in the way of home improvements, but we've managed to make some progress.

2 weekends ago we did a lot of small things around the house - hanging light fixtures, new curtain rods, new switchplates, etc. A lot of little things that make a big difference.

This weekend we decided to tackle the circa 1982 bathroom:

The cheap shower doors leaked, resulting in mold/mildew problems on the corners of the tub (see black junk under the sink in the last photo). We were hopeful that it would be relatively contained and only require a small amount of repair work...

That was a nice (fleeting) thought:

The backwall of the bathroom and the wall opposite the water spout were wallpapered before the shower surround was (poorly) put up. So the wallpaper had helped to wick the water/mildew up the walls a good 2-3 feet. The painted wall didn't fair much better, given that they used regular drywall in the bathroom.

The "up side" is that the poor construction made it really easy to keep the shower surround in tact when we removed it, which will help to keep costs down on this "small"/temporary renovation (we're planning a full remodel/expansion of the upstairs in a few years).

We stopped there for the weekend, leaving us a functional half-bath upstairs (with our bedroom).

Of course all of this work is just in time for my mom to come visit again while we do bathroom work. Poor mom - sometime she will get to visit when we don't all have to share one 5x7 bathroom.

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In non-house news, I landed a TA position last week. Hopefully this will help fund a few more small house projects during the semester.