bathroom rehab ~ before pics

I have 2 bathrooms in my house and both of them were in need of some updating/cleaning/overall rehab. I had been dreading it for a long time and finally decided my Christmas break from work was the perfect time to finally tackle them since it's the only time I will have 11 consecutive days at home. Today I'm going to show you the before pictures, and all I ask is that you remember 2 things: 1) the bathrooms do not look like this anymore, and 2) I am a clean person. Really. These pictures are kind of embarrassing and I can't believe I lived with them in this state for so long. So here we go...

This is the master bathroom. I realize there is nothing "master" about it, unless you count the fact that it's about 3 inches bigger than the guest bathroom. It's small and cramped with very little storage, but that wasn't my concern for this break. My concern was that shower. 

It doesn't look so bad in those first 2 pictures, but let's look a little closer. This corner was missing caulk and was growing something completely uncleanable, but you can also see to the right of that corner that even in places where there was caulk, there was still mold under it. I don't know if whoever put it in didn't do a good job, or if it just wore away over time and started letting water under it. Either way, gross.

This is the track the door slides on with uncleanable mold and grossness on it and inside the shower (on the right side), and on the left someone put gobs of caulk that pretty much served no purpose. 

I know it's hard to tell what this picture is, but at the bottom is the tile ledge the door track sits on, the track, and the bottom part of one of the doors. There is a grey strip that goes around the door and seals it so water doesn't get inside, but there was a gap about 4 or 5 inches long where there was no grey seal on this door and every morning when I took a shower it would fill up with water. I would get as much out as I could after my shower, but it was pretty much a breeding ground for nasty things that should not be living in the same space as humans. It makes me cringe just thinking about it.

Are you remembering that all of this disgustingness has been fixed? Please do. Okay, on to the guest bathroom.

Again, it doesn't look that bad until we look closer. I'm realizing I should have taken a better picture of it, but can you see that there are 2 boards around the top of the bathroom? One goes wall to wall in front of the shower curtain rod, and the other goes above the toilet and vanity making a box of sorts that holds the light.

You can kind of see the light more here

 Moving on to the most hideous shade of green there ever was. It closely resembles the color of split pea soup and I can't imagine why anyone would ever use it intentionally. The only thing I can think is that it was supposed to be a different shade of green and when it came out this horrid sickly color the previous owner didn't want to deal with getting a new can of paint so they just went with it.

But there is absolutely no explanation for the paint job. Seriously, anyone who has ever held a paint brush can manage to keep it off the ceiling. And anyone who is holding a paint brush for the first time can wipe the paint off the ceiling if a mistake happens, so I have no theories about how this mess came to be.

This is the board in front of the shower curtain rod, and it looks like at some point there was a wallpaper border on it, but rather than remove it someone just painted over it. Lovely.

In a stroke of DIY brilliance, someone put this strip of plastic around the bathtub in place of caulk. It manages to accomplish nothing but growing mold and looking atrocious. 

See?

Here we have the results of water damage, although not from a leak inside the wall. This is just from water being allowed to puddle outside the bathtub without being wiped up. Bleach will clean the floor, but the water soaked baseboard expanded and became the fat ugliness you see here.

And what in the world is going on with the white paint? It's like they got some white paint on the green wall, and rather than fixing the mistake they just painted a white strip along the top of the baseboard. Or maybe they were trying to make the baseboard look taller by painting above it, but if that was the intention I can't imagine why on earth they didn't use something to make a straight edge. This is clearly free handed, and anything but straight.

What I have spared you from is the mold behind the baseboard and the wall that just crumbled away when the baseboard was removed. You're welcome

Here we have a toilet that is just a toilet, except for the fact that it made so much noise that it would wake me up in the night. This resulted in me turning it off, which resulted in any guests at my house being forced to walk through my bedroom and use the master bathroom. Not ideal.

And even if guests were allowed to use the guest bathroom, this is what they would have seen inside the toilet. Believe me, I have tried to clean it and nothing works. Nothing like making your guests think you're disgusting and germy.

You can relax now, we have come to the end of the repulsiveness. These last few pictures are just a few more shots of the bathroom. You will see nothing else that makes you think I'm disgusting and germy.

The counter and sink ~ not pretty, but not awful

This is the last you will see of that medicine cabinet in the corner

And this has a good sanding and painting in its near future

So there you have it ~ 2 of the worst bathrooms known to man. I actually forgot how bad they were until I went back and looked through these pictures as I was posting them. It really looks so much better now, and I can't wait to show you the transformation! I'm going to start with the master shower, so check back early next week for that!