the beginning of the end

We have finally begun the L.A.S.T. major house project we feel like we have to do before we can call the house 'done.'

'Done' doesn't actually mean that we won't have anything else to do on the house. Far from it! We have a gazillion projects we want to do, but we're getting down to the last of the things we have to do to get the house to appraise for a decent amount and prove that the water damage is fully corrected. This room will make it so we're able to say the whole house has been renovated and updated.

Right now, even if we had to move for some reason, we don't feel like we'd get top-dollar for our house...but once this last major project is done (and some touch-ups throughout the rest of the house are completed)...the house should be good for us or for someone else to move into (if they give us the moo-lah).

So here we go...the beginning of the work in our third bathroom. The basement bathroom.

There's a little hallway in the finished part of the basement that leads to this bathroom. The picture below shows a wall on the left that is actually the back of the staircase coming from the family room. On the right is the bathroom in question. And oh, what a beauty it is!

Every inch of this bathroom makes my skin crawl right now! ICK!
Nasty, leaky window and concrete block. A super old, nasty toilet. A little doorway that goes to the laundry room and had an old barn door looking monstrosity on it. Weird.

Quite a luxurious shower right? The holes you can see in the concrete block walls went to a sink that was directly behind here and drained into the shower. Strange! And the worst part of this is that when Michael was living in the house by himself during the major part of the whole house reno...he had to use this shower and bathroom every day because the others weren't working yet! Phew...so glad those days are behind us!

At one point in the life of our house, the entire basement was finished. But then sometime in the 80s we've been told that the sewer backed up into the house (and all the houses on our entire street)! So everything in the basement was ripped out. Whatever they had on the walls in this bathroom (maybe paneling??) had probably just been glued to the walls because the block now looks like this:

Then it's been painted various shades of icky. The paint has been the biggest problem for us in figuring out how to finish off the space. Paint molds if it gets wet. It's not a good idea to EVER paint concrete block in an old basement - especially on an exterior wall. It will make it so you can't waterproof it well without sandblasting the paint off. Such.a.pain.

We're working on some solutions and we'll share what we're doing along the way. Our goal is to spend as little as possible (under $2,000) to make this bathroom light, bright, and gorgeous! 

It's the last major project in the house and it will be fantastic to have this one crossed off the list! We have held off on basement carpet and touch-ups because we knew we'd have to deal with dust mess while finishing the bathroom. Once it's done, all the finishing touches and decorating can be done to pull the house together. I can't wait!!