Monday, November 24, 2008

Ms. Fix-it

The great thing about my apartment is that it was a shithole before I moved in, so the landlord doesn't really care if I renovate it. As far as she's concerned, she can charge more for the tenants after me.

Before moving in all my furniture, I ripped out the living room carpet, cleaned the wood floors and painted all the rooms (they paid for supplies) -- except, the bathroom.

It's a small bathroom to begin with.

For the past five months, I've been climbing in and out of the claw foot tub, only to stand on the 2'x 3' bathroom mat strategically placed over the rotting golf green turf carpeting. I had a plastic drawer setup to keep all my bathroom accessories/extra shampoos/etc., so whenever I went to the bathroom, I'd sit face-to-face with that thing.

I couldn't take it anymore, so this weekend I decided to re-tile the bathroom floor.

BEFORE:

I bought some peel-and-stick tile and a straight edge.

First, I put gloves on ripped out the turf carpet. (Who in the HELL puts carpet in bathrooms anyway.) I vacuumed and picked up some loose garbage under the tub, like an empty travel-size shampoo bottle (not mine), a plastic bowl that at some point must've been catching water, but had turned black (not mine), and an ancient-looking gold mirror compact with flowers on it (ALSO not mine.)

I went to work laying out the tiles, cutting around pipes, the toilet and doorway.

In all it took about four hours, start to finish.

AFTER:

Now I can go into my bathroom without socks and shoes on, AND taking a shower actually means I feel clean.

4 comments:

Gregor said...

Man that looks good. I need some drywalling done in my garage, you should take a look and do some estimates for me.

Unknown said...

Awesome job.

Who the fuck puts carpet in a bathroom anyway?! They must know that men have a tendency to sprinkle some here and there and before you know it the fucking thing should be reeking of all kinds of rotten.

what were they thinking...

Ric said...

Yeah... I'm thinking that might've happened with the last occupants.

BLEH.

Also notice, I got rid of the faux-wood toilet seat. Another poor style choice on their part.

Amanda said...

WOW, I'm VERY impressed. :o)

Independant woman!