THE BATHROOM had to be the biggest nightmare of them all surrounding The Estate. I just didn't know what I was going to do with it to make it look halfway decent and livable while not spending a lot of money.

Here's a picture from January 16th during the home inspection. I don't even know where to begin here. The only word to describe this bathroom was grimy.

Once upon a time there were cast iron radiators in here. Sometime recently they were removed. Apparently whomever removed them did not feel it necessary to clean the yellow grime that was behind the radiator or underneath it. Actually, most of the whole floor was pretty gross. I ended up spending one whole Sunday afternoon in here with a can of Comet and a scrubber and cleaned all the tile, both floor and walls. I was very surprised at how much everything shined when I was done.

One thing that's interesting to me is that even in this scaled-down picture, you can still make out the half inch overlay of EACH piece of wallpaper that the previous owners had hung up.

The molding around the window was in horrible shape. The walls in the upper part of the shower were super horrible. They're like a plastic paneling. First off, they weren't white. Secondly, they didn't match the trim around them. Third, this guy loved Caulk. I've never seen so much caulk used in one spot ever in my entire life. The bathtub had no enamel left to it at all. It was in very rough shape. Mr. Christopher D. Brown of Manchester, CT redid it for me with a kit available at The Home Depot. For $15 I have a tub that has a shine to it and doesn't look half bad.

The sink. Ahhh... the sink. This and the medicine cabinet left me saying, "What the hell were they thinking?" None of this fit with the style of the bathroom. The orange tones in the oak looked horrid with the aqua blue tile.

I think no one has summed it up as well as Mr. Joseph Macey of New Britain, CT when he said, "Paul... the Eighties were certainly not kind to your bathroom!" And he was certainly right. The medicine cabinet below was hung so low that I could only see from the bridge of my nose, down. How about that conduit connecting the plug to the light? Purdy, ain't it? Can you see the pull chain to turn the light on? Certainly neither very luxurious nor sophisticated :(

How about that beautiful drop ceiling, eh? If you look in the second picture, you can see that the conduit is now gone, thanks again to Mr. Christopher D. Brown! He also took out part of the wall for me, and replaced it with sheetrock. This portion of the wall was particularly bad and could not be patched.

I also painted the upper walls in the shower with two coats of an oil based white paint to tie everything in and at least make it all the same color. The oil base paint is good at being water resistant and holds up in the shower a lot better than what was there before which I suspect of being latex. The ceiling also came down. I painted the metal structure of it a bright white, and painted the ceiling tiles themselves black. It's an interesting look.

Mrs. Megan Adams Moran had suggested to me when she saw the previous pictures that the toilet seat lid should always be down when one takes a photograph of one's bathroom. This has advice has been duly noted.

This is an old kitchen cabinet that we had hanging in the basement I took the old piece of junk that was there before and replaced it with this. I painted it white and sprayed the knobs and hinges with a silver metallic paint. I now have towel storage.

Here's a shot of the inside of my shower. I had bought this hand sprayer in 1998 at the Rail Road Salvage when it was located in East Windsor, CT. It's as though my subconscious knew then that someday I would be in the lap of lavatory luxury in the years to come!

The Big Kmart of Vernon, CT was clearing out all its wallpaper. I got a few rolls of this wallpaper for $5 a roll. It's designed to hide bad walls. It was perfect for me!

I can honestly say that I don't miss my old pull chain light fixture at all. I started out with the big round bulbs in this, but they looked too 80's/90's-ish to me.

When I was visiting Mr. Nicholas J. Prindle, in Philadelphia PA over the winter, I spotted these green rugs at Kohl's that I thought were perfect for my bathroom! Sadly, they were full price at $25 a piece! Well this wouldn't do.

I knew someone online who was the manager of a Kohl's and he was kind enough to notify me when they were 50% off!

Not a whole lot has happened here in the bathroom over the past two years.

My sister brought to my attention how much Miss Francine Skogland of Rockville, CT likes my fish wallhangings! So, in honor of dear old Fran, I have decided to dedicate them to her, and name the Momma Fish, Francine, Skogland, and her school of children; Franny, Danny, and Manny. Since they were so alone and desolate before, I added this rather eye-pleasing plastic plant wall hanging! Perfect!

Everytime I sit on my commode, I shall gaze upward and think fondly of Miss Francine Skogland!

Other big news here in the bathroom is my new curtain that your handy host made himself on Grandma's old Singer. They're made from vintage, never-used sheets I found, still in their original packaging!

Thanks to WAL*MART I found avocado green towels and matching rugs to replace the too-brite lime green ones I previously had!