"Before" (when I moved in)
"After" (as of this weekend)
It's been a while since I've posted anything about the house. Mostly because I haven't been doing much of note. Renovations require both time and money, and I've been short on both for quite a while now.
This weekend, however, I started another major project: wainscoting in the downstairs bathroom. This isn't some cheap paneling sheets, it's 3/8" solid oak beadboard. The baseboard and chair rail were shaped from 1x6 and 1x4 oak planks (respectively). I did the shaping myself. All parts were sanded and stained, then cut to length and installed.
First of all, old houses suck. There's not a straight line or right angle in the entire place. So the corner joints don't match as well as I'd like. To be honest, it would take a team of Amish master carpenters and theoretical physicists working off of plans drawn up by MC Escher to get the corners to match up perfectly. But... considering what the room looked like when I moved in, it's a vast improvement.
If you look closely at the "before" photo, you'll notice that the floor is covered in crappy vinyl flooring. In the "after" photo, you may notice the gorgeous solid-maple floor. No, I didn't install hardwood floors (well... not entirely). The previous owners covered up the hardwood. They glued down paper liner (yes, they glued paper to solid maple flooring) then laid down masonite--being sure it was secure by stapling it down with about a bazillion staples--and then covered that with vinyl.
After pulling out the bathtub (so short my knees wouldn't get wet if I sat in it) I saw that they had cut a huge swath out of the floor in order to install the drain. They cut completely through the sub-flooring and supports. Under the toilet--which had apparently been poorly installed and leaked, causing the floor to rot--they took a skill saw and hacked out a square with they filled with cheap pine planking.
{sigh}
I salvaged what I could of the affected floor areas and had a professional re-install it along with new planks to fill the gaps.
Eventually, I'm going to have to pull out the trim on the door frames and window and replace them with new oak trim that's properly cut and shaped. That will solve some of the issues I'm having around the window. One of the doors (who needs 2 doors in an 8x9 bathroom?) will be removed completely and plastered over. But that's down the road a ways. For now, it's just sealed shut.
The only thing missing in the room is the full-sized claw-foot tub that's eventually going in there.
