The Ominous Bathroom

I love our neighborhood. It's quiet with plenty of shady trees and the homes are all sited on big lots. Ours is over three acres, with a decent sized wooded area in the backyard. The yard is so big, in fact, that it kind of looks like a park. Plus we're still only five minutes from downtown. Before you get any ideas about our opulent lifestyle, however, I have to tell you this: our house was a repo and had been vacant for quite some time before we moved in. There were raccoon handprints inside the first time we looked at it and the roof was sagging because the previous owner had "vaulted" the ceiling by removing the support beam. But the crabapple and plum trees were blooming and we fell in love…

Here's a photo of me massively pregnant with Jasper showing the backyard:



We knew it was a fixer-upper and there would be lots of work to do but Roo was only a year old when we moved in so we figured we'd have time to get everything done. We started with the major stuff: structural issues, electrical, plumbing. The end of the house with the extra bedrooms was the least messed up and although the bathroom there was unsightly due to bizarrely uneven tiling throughout, we figured the kids could live with it. It had a glass block window over the tub and when we had the windows replaced throughout the house, we discovered that the previous owner hadn't used wetboard behind the tile in the shower. Greaaaat. We intended to demo the old bathroom and retile it ourselves but, uh, we just haven't gotten around to it. I remember Bob saying something to the effect of "we just need a $100 tile saw…" but somehow it just hasn't happened yet. Still– look at that view!

Oh, wait…

Seriously, you let your kids bathe in that?!

In our defense, at least we don't use the shower… since the wallboard is wrong and the water pressure is iffy, we're gonna have to get the plumbing redone, too. And I figure if we do that, we might as well redo the vanity so we can have two sinks and less arguing when brushing teeth. Sigh.

I am shocked that Roo wanted to be photographed in her ghetto bathroom…

Obviously, something needs to happen. Soon. Help?!