Bathroom Renovation!

We have been in this house since about 1991 and it was built in 1979 - its a brick high-set house and very solid with all hardwood frame and an original owner who was rather particular about what went into his house as it was built - I think he was away the day they did the tiling though as that is just so badly done but more about that soon. 

When we moved in we loved the house - but knew we needed to replace the kitchen and a few other things. The kitchen was redone in 2000 and I still love my black and white kitchen. The bathroom at the time was functional and suited us fine. But as time has gone on, its showing its age and just falling apart! The bath hasnt been used since my sons were little (they are almost 18 and 20 now!) the vanity unit is almost fallen apart - made from chipboard - seriously what were they thinking making a wet area unit from a type of wood that swells up and disintegrates when wet!!! Did they even think that one through? (the original kitchen was also made of chipboard!) The shower screen has a crack in the glass and the sliding door keeps falling off the runners and plastic bits are breaking off all over the place. A few of us have got stuck in there when the door jammed! We have had leaks from the shower and tiles have fallen off the walls - we realised how shoddy the tiling was when this happened as the tiles were only stuck on with a small amount of adhesive and the grout was all that was holding them all together on the wall in most places! 

So over the years we have re-stuck and grouted the tiles and changed the taps many times as well as the shower head but eventually its got to the stage that 4 adults just cant use it anymore as there is no storage, the mirror is set so high I can barely see myself in it and its just dark and depressing. So finally we have decided to get it pulled out completely and start again. I got a couple of quotes - that was an adventure in itself with waiting 3 weeks for one quote! But Im happy with the company chosen and they promise they can do it in one week and redo the toilet at the same time with tiling and a new loo!

So that brought up another thing - we need somewhere to use while the bathroom upstairs is being pulled out and refitted. 
Luckily we have a shower and toilet downstairs in the garage (put in for use with the pool) but although the loo gets used a fair bit (4 adults in the house remember?) the shower hadnt been used in years and years and again our lovely original tiler had done his magic and the tiles were all falling off the wall in the shower. One had smashed and I had removed a few more to save them from the same fate.

So I bought some tile adhesive and white grout and got a tile to replace the broken one (thanks Bunnings!) and set about redoing the wall in the shower - had to remove quite a few and that kept getting more and more as I tested and found most were only hanging by some very dry grout and nothing more. 

so a bit more was removed 

the tiles just fell off as this was the way they were fixed on! 1979 was not a good year for tiling?

The base looks damp but it isnt luckily so after a good clean the re-tiling began.

Starting to put them all back now 


















and now all done - just grouting to be done. 









Finished with a new shower head and a shower curtain - as it never had a rail or curtain - not sure why - in fact there wasnt even toilet roll holder when we moved in too! 

Today I bought a mirror and some hooks for the back of the door so we can do our hair and hang up our towels and its pretty much ready. 

Next job is to clear the bathroom upstairs of all our stuff and take out anything we want to keep and then leave it to the bathroom guys to strip out and give us a new bathroom.
For a soapmaker its pretty exciting getting a new place to test my soaps! 

2 weeks today till the new one is started! Cant wait!

Back again! (subtitle - Kmart sucks)

I was reminded today that I have this blog - its been a LONG time since I thought of it and wrote anything but I really should as I have always enjoyed writing - so I will try to do a bit more when I have the time. I have spent too much time on Facebook lately with all the groups I run. I must admit Im getting a bit bored with Facebook so I might actually do some writing here.

Anyway my whinge today is Kmart - I noticed the last time I passed my local store that they had totally rearranged the entire store - I couldnt find what I was looking for and left without buying anything. I had forgotten this experience today when I thought "I will just pop over to Kmart to see what they have" I needed a couple of things for the downstairs bathroom as we are renovating the upstairs one and needed to make the one downstairs a bit more usable.

So over I go and as I approached it I realised my mistake - but I took a deep breath and entered the store. What a mess! They had totally rearranged the layout with nothing in the same spot and it seemed half the size of the nice big open and airy store it used to be. It felt claustrophobic and cramped and there didnt seem to be any hanging signs to say where each department was, so you wander around with a dazed expression on your face and wonder if there are any staff in the store to even ask. Gone are the straight and wide open aisles and now there is a rabbit warren of curves and corners and tight squeeze walkways that make it impossible for 2 people to pass without coming in contact. There was no rhyme or reason to the set out - departments have no start or finish but just merge into another and you realise you are in another department when you start to think - where the hell am I? Just trying to find the cosmetic section was hard enough and then it was so tiny with nothing I wanted and then the bathroom section merged into another section and I gave up.

As for the registers - well where the hell had they gone? No they are not at the front of the store any more - I see a sign that says "Pay Here" in the centre of the store and look and cant see anything under it and then realise there is something behind a short wall - oh look, there is the self service ones and over another wall is about 3 registers - only one manned though (of course!) - so you have to pay here and then walk through half the store before getting to the door and what do you do when you get to the door? Have to show your docket and your bag and show the girl what you bought and check the docket - yeah that's going to work well when its busy - no way would I go there in school holidays and dont even talk about Christmas unless they have 20 people as door greeters to check people leaving.

So Kmart have ruined shopping for me (well actually I hate shopping but used to enjoy going to Kmart) Big W and Target will get my business instead... but then Target closed their local store and another Big W (well its a Medium W as its so small!) opened in its place. I have to go over to a larger shopping centre to find a Target these days.

So that is my whinge for the day.