Mike Here. When we had our first walk-through of this home, one of the very first things we both agreed had to go was the glass sliding doors on the upstairs full bath. There was black stuff growing around the corners (mold? fungus? general rot?), they didn’t open and close correctly, the list goes on. The day that we closed, we both knew this needed to be the first project. When we packed up the car the morning of our closing, I made sure to pack my tool box, including a hammer, screwdriver, putty knife and razor blades. Within 30 minutes of taking possession of the property, the ugly glass sliding doors were history. We walked into the house on a mission, both taking a few minutes to embrace the feeling of being new homeowners, then got own to business. The doors came off no problem, and with each piece I would remove, I did a small victory lap with my demolition material to the garage, before heading back to the bathroom. However, after the doors, this demo took a turn for the sweaty (gross!). The frame that was sealed to the tub with silicone was a whole different story. I FOUGHT that frame. I thought I was going to rip off part of the tub I was pulling so hard. You probably won’t see it in these pictures, but by the time that I got to ripping up the bottom piece, I had sweat dripping from my forehead (good thing I was in a shower!). Eventually, all of the unwanted metal frame was gone, and all that remained was a thin layer of silicone, which I am still trying to figure out what to do with. The silicone is a beast as well, we cannot figure out how to scrape it off without destroying the porcelain tub. Also, at some point we’ll have to re-grout some parts of the tub because no amount of cleaning will remove some of the dingy leftovers. It is our plan to eventually redo this bathroom, but this works for us for the time being.
Mike: “Am I doing this right? No? I’ll just pull harder!”
Happy to be using tools again after two years.
Better, but still gross.
Much better.
Updates Still to Come for the Upper Full Bath:
- Remove leftover silicone
- Paint Trim
- Frame around mirror (Source for Idea: House of Smiths)
- Paint Cabinets (Behr: Ultra Pure White Semi-Gloss)
- Paint Walls (Color: TBD)
- Re-paint grout (Heard really great things about Polyblend Grout Renew) Source: LiveloveDIY – this woman is awesome
- Replace Hardware to match Oil Rubbed Bronze shower curtain rod
- Remove the medicine cabinet (the project I dread most in this room)
I’m sure we’ll think of more things!
