Garden Update: Late-June

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The garden’s looking pretty good since Brooke and I spent hours last weekend weeding it, so I figured I should post something before it’s hideous again.  Here in the forefront, the pumpkins are starting to look pretty good, but the squirrels dug out one of the hills, so one series of watermelon plants is down.  Hopefully we get something out of the three plants that are still there, but again, they won’t be ready until September anyway.  The tomatoes, on the other hand, are doing remarkably well.  We’ve found three or four “volunteer” tomato plants that we’ve plugged in where we lost some to hail and, thus far, they’re doing pretty well.  We’ve even got some tomato plants flowering!

Beans and peppers
Tomatoes and pumpkins

The bean plants are looking really good (the main reason I wanted to take pictures, really…), though some of the soybeans are smaller than I’d prefer.  The green beans and soup beans, as usual, are going gangbusters, so we’ll end up with a good crop of them.  I’ve staked two of the pepper plants, as they were starting to grow more “sideways” than “up-ways”, though two of the plants are still looking pretty small, so I dunno how they’ll ultimately turn out.

Herbs
Herbs

The herbs are looking a lot better now, after supplementing with some larger plants a few weeks ago.  A few of Brooke’s original seed starts are still with us (cosmos, aster, basil), but I added oregano, lavender and lemon balm.  The lettuce is looking awesome and we’ve eaten some of it already.  The sunflowers, seen in the background, are also starting to really take off.

Trees
Trees

Lastly, the trees seem to be doing alright, though their growth has slowed down.  We got 2.5 in. of rain a few days ago (finally), so I don’t feel the need to water them this week, but I had to run a hose out there to each tree the last two weeks due to lack of rainfall.  I trimmed a few of their low hanging branches the other day too, as I’d rather them grow “up” rather than “out” at this point.

Everything’s still growing!  I didn’t bother taking a picture of the popcorn, as there isn’t much to see yet.  We’ve got some plants growing, but they look pretty sparse.  It remains to be seen whether anything will come of them, but we’re treating them as more of a “test” than anything else.

Onward into July!

Garden Update: Early-May

Finally got the tomatoes in the ground...
Finally got the tomatoes in the ground…

First of all, let me say that it’s been a long time since I got anything posted up here, but now that school’s out for the summer, I should be able to post stuff more regularly.

Otherwise, it’s that time of year again when I start posting garden-related stuff.  We’ve expanded into another section of the yard, but mostly I wanted to focus on what’s growing and what isn’t.  Up top, we’ve moved the tomatoes to the larger plot this year.  Last year, we went with a similar configuration, but had the two trellises really close to one another, not knowing how well the plants would do.  Well, they did really well.  Almost too well.  To the point where light couldn’t get between the trellises.  Thus, we’ve put them as far apart as possible and will likely not put anything between them.  19 different plants are in there right now, ranging from “slicer” tomatoes to “cherry” tomatoes to “heirloom” tomatoes.

Some carrots, peas...and weeds...
Some carrots, peas…and weeds…

The other plot we planted in turned out pretty good.  The carrots are over-run with weeds and Brooke made a valiant effort (in the right foreground) to de-weed them.  The peas are moving very slowly, but there are some buds on there, so perhaps we’ll get something.  We dug up all the radishes on Tuesday night…

Radishes!
Radishes!

…and ended up with a solid haul.  There are quite a few “heirloom”-type radishes in that mix that I haven’t tried yet, as they sure look awful “root-y” to me, but we’ll see.  It was a mixed back of radish seeds, so we knew we’d end up with some different varieties.  Still, we’ve got a few gallon-sized bags in the crispers to munch on for a bit.

Blackberries and raspberries.
Blackberries and raspberries.

The berry bushes have been doing remarkably well.  We’ve seen some flowers on the blackberries for a few weeks now, while the raspberries are taking it a bit slower.  There are some starts popping up, but compared to their nearby brethren, it may end up later in the season before we get anything from them.

Trees!
Trees!

All of our trees are doing well, too!  We had to water them quite a bit early on, but it’s been rainy these last few weeks, so it hasn’t been quite as essential.  All of the tree varieties have leaves on them, though the pear trees are moving slower than the others.  The almond tree is probably doing “the best,” but the apple trees are close behind.

Back of the house
Back of the house

Lastly, I wanted to mention the back of the house, which is a bit more manicured than it was at this time last year.  I’ve been using some herbicides on the left-hand mulch to prevent stuff from popping up, so that’s making it stay pretty clean.  We were initially going to try and remove all those hostas, but we changed our minds and we’ll just have to remove the weeds from around them by hand.  We’ve also got some concrete bricks lining that bed now, so it looks just a little bit nicer.

I don’t have much going on this summer, so I’m hoping to get a lot more gardening in.  More posts to come!

Some Spring Break Work

Garden 2.0
Garden 2.0

I’m on Spring Break this week (yay!), so we’ve been trying to get some things done around the house. Though it’s been somewhat wet, we’ve been able to get a shocking amount done. Mark and Diana were kind enough to haul along their tiller this past weekend when they were here for Meg’s 6th birthday (Happy Birthday, Meg!), so Mark turned over the garden for us.

Some new plots...
Some new plots…

He also made a few more plots for us. The one in the foreground has peas, carrots and radishes in it. We’re planning on installing raised beds for herbs closer to the house, so the tilled space is a bit smaller than the large one from last year that sits next to it. The narrow patch in the background next to the berry bushes is intended for rhubarb and asparagus, as they should return each year just like the berries will. It may take a bit to get those established, so we’ll see how that goes…

Moved some appliances!
Moved some appliances!

For the past few months, we’ve also been meaning to move the chest freezer and one of our (three) refrigerators from the garage into our basement. Now that it’s warm outside, it’s kinda past the cold period of the year when you don’t want to go outside to the freezer, but oh well. The fridge will likely get used for beer, mostly, and the other fridge will remain in the garage for lawnmower beer, soda, juice boxes, and other stuff we’re likely to want when we’re actually in the garage this summer.

Garage 2.0
Garage 2.0

Speaking of the garage, we also got some organization done in there. Brooke stayed home from work today to get some other stuff done, so while she was here, we took this opportunity to rearrange a bit in a fashion that makes more sense than the way we had things. The other fridge is in front of my car now (not pictured…), and we mounted our new car top carrier on the wall over the wagons. The fridge is a bit further from the door to the garage now, which isn’t ideal, but we’ll live.

SOOOOOO much better...
SOOOOOO much better…

The real reason to get this done, though, was to open up the tool bench and organize the tools to access things more efficiently. Seriously, that table had everything piled on it for the past year or so.  The power tools and other bins are on the new shelves we picked up, and Brooke brought up the pegboard from our basement and put it up on the wall in the garage where it belongs so all those tools can be mounted and accessible.  The various battery-powered tools have their chargers working there on the corner as before, but at least now, all the tools are off the table, leaving it open for actual, you know, work.

We aren’t completely done with everything in the garage yet, but this is a good start.  The garden stuff and the kids toys still need to be organized, but it’s way better than it was.  The toys will go on a shelf between the two garage bays, and I think we’re going to put in some other shelves for the garden stuff closer to where the door is.  I’ll probably pick up another shelving unit tomorrow for these various purposes.

But hey, not too bad for Spring Break 2016, right?

Garden Update: Early October

Aftermath
Aftermath

This will be relatively short, but as I’ve been posting about this all summer (and now Fall), I figured I should present the aftermath of a relatively successful first year with the garden.

Clearly, the main garden is mostly dead.  There’s some broccoli struggling to survive, but that’s about it.  As you can see, though, the corn stalks have been pulled down (and re-ordered into decorations for our upcoming Oktoberfest party), and the pumpkins have all died off.  We ended up with something around 12 pumpkins, but only 4 of them survived to be useful.  The rest were chewed on by beetles, so we may need to do a bit more proactive spraying next year.

Slowly dying...still...
Slowly dying…still…

The tomatoes and peppers, on the other hand, are shockingly still producing!  They’re looking a bit saggy, but that’s more because they’re still growing and I’m not trimming them or tying them up.  There are absolutely some areas of death and destruction, however, as leaves continue to die off due to a lack of water.

 

Behold the death of the tomatoes.
Behold the death of the tomatoes.

The picture just above this one shows a little bit of the dying leaves in the middle of that dense forest, but still, there’s plenty of green still in there.  As of today, we haven’t had a frost yet, so the tomatoes are still coming on and there are still flowers on some of the plants.  Even some of the peppers we planted, that hadn’t made anything yet, have finally put on some full-size veggies for us to pluck.

Still harvesting!
Still harvesting!

I think Brooke’s generally tired of canning tomatoes already, so I haven’t bothered to pick the really tiny ones anymore.  I’m still grabbing the larger ones as they slowly develop, and as you can see above, there are some pretty big ones in there that are finally turning red.  I pick them when they’re starting to turn so we can keep them protected inside.

As of right now, Brooke’s canned about 24 pints of tomatoes, and there’s still quite a few bags left in the freezer to be canned (she thinks another 15 pints or so) after we’ve got more batches like these accumulated.

So ultimately, not too bad for our first year’s harvest!  We still haven’t dug up the sweet potatoes, so I’ll likely do a post on that yet.  Surely they’re done, but with the party coming up, we didn’t want to disturb that area of the yard with a ton of digging.  Soon, though!

Garden Update: Mid-July

IMG_20150716_105553011We came back from our vacation and the garden was, shockingly, not destroyed.  Definitely quite a few weeds in there that we need to take care of, but I bet it’d be worse if I hadn’t been putting grass clippings in open areas.

As you can see above (shaded, so perhaps not that easy to see…), the corn is tasseling and we’ve got a few other small rows of corn popping up.  The stalks aren’t all that all, but we’ve got some ears showing up.  Also, the green beans have some pickable veggies ready to go.  We’ll probably pick those and eat some in the coming nights, though Brooke wants to wait on some until they get bigger before she cans some.

IMG_20150716_105605644We picked some of the broccoli before we left and had some.  Not bad!  Kinda “gamey,” perhaps?  Difficult to describe, but not quite what I would expect if I were picking up a head from the store.  You can see another head in the picture above, but it’s flowering, so probably won’t taste all that good.

Also, you’ll notice the pumpkins proliferating and vining.  We don’t see any buds on them yet, but they’re looking pretty good!

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Mom was wondering about the soup beans, so here’s a picture…  I don’t see many buds yet, but like the pumpkins, the vines are really taking off, so it shouldn’t be much longer!

IMG_20150716_105625192Now that the sun has finally returned to Missouri and the rain clouds have slowed down a bit, the tomatoes are starting to take off.  There are three plants in the foreground (that we thought were peppers…), and all the plants on the trellises.  The three remaining pepper plants are still pretty tiny, so I’m not getting my hopes up for them, unfortunately.

The tomatoes, however, have quite a few flowers on them…

IMG_20150716_105646811and we even have some actual, legit, tomatoes on there!  Totally green still, but they’re getting to a good size.  Not very many yet, but we’re hopeful that the July heat (that, literally, started last weekend…as in, we hadn’t seen 90+ F temps until last week…which is crazy for July…) will start to move the tomatoes further.

More later!

Garden Update: Early-July

Main view of the garden
Generic garden shot

Just a brief update about the garden, as it’s been a few weeks.  We’re making more progress getting the concrete bricks lined around the plot(s) and hope to have most of them surrounded in the coming days.  Brooke picked the peas and dug up the carrots a few weeks ago and planted more corn in its place.  However, the rain over the past few weeks has been ridiculous.  Literally, 4 in of rain fell in 2 hrs one night last week, leaving a lake where the new corn was just about to come up in the garden.  Thankfully, it looks like at least some of the sprouts survived and we’ve got plants coming up…

Also, the green beans and soup beans are coming up well, with buds on the green beans already.

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From left-to-right: green beans, pumpkins, broccoli. Soup beans in back.

In the middle of the shot above, Brooke’s got some pumpkins growing.  After the massive rainfall, they actually took off surprisingly well. She’s got 6 pumpkin plants in right now, and obviously they won’t be making much for awhile.

Broccoli!
Broccoli!

This is probably the most success we’ve had with broccoli.  We tried it in Iowa and got a little out of it, but the heads we’ve got right now are already looking larger than we remember from before.  It’s a bit late for broccoli, we think, so we aren’t sure we’ll actually end up with anything, but it looks good, at least…

Tomatoes!
Tomatoes!

The tomatoes are coming in pretty well, too.  Really, the one side is taking off, while the other (in the back) is moving a bit more slowly.  The ones in the forefront were in the ground sooner and were also larger when they went in, so it isn’t surprising.

More impressively, this is the first time we’ve successfully grown tomato plants from seeds.  Brooke got them started on our back porch months ago and they’re doing pretty well!  We’ve also got flowers on at least one plant.  I suspect we’ll have them showing up on more soon.

Raspberries and blackberries
Raspberries and blackberries

The berry bushes are moving slowly.  We don’t expect to get much out of them this year, though at least one bush has already produced some berries.  We put some mulch around them to make mowing a bit easier, as they’re taking their sweet time in betting big enough for me to see, but they’re moving along.  Next year, perhaps…

Sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes

The sweet potatoes are also going a bit slowly.  We don’t really remember how quickly they went last year, but by the time we moved from St. Louis, it was like they’d taken over our garden.  It feels like they should be further along than they are, but oh well…they’re doing something…

Probably enough for now.  Hopefully by the time we get back from our vacation, we’ll have something to harvest!  …more likely, we’ll have tons of weeds…

The Music Room

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When we were looking at this house, the main level had an interesting floor plan: it was very open with doors between the living room, the dining room, and this “extra room” that had a fireplace.  It was referred to as a “den” on the listing, though its bay window provided enough light that “den” didn’t seem right.
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This room also had some “extras” to it, specifically some additional woodwork that was not original to the house.  They made up a bench, a toy box, and a series of “cubbies” that you could stash a variety of trinkets in.  They didn’t look all that great to us, nor did the aged wall sconces, many of which didn’t work.  When we had the electrical re-done, we kept the sconces next to the fireplace, but had the others disconnected.

We decided to christen this space “The Music Room,” as we needed a place for all our musical instruments to go.  The guitars would go up on the walls, the drums would be put, er, somewhere, and we’d also put the kids’ downstairs toys (i.e. everything that isn’t in their rooms) in here.  Generally, we thought it would make a good play space for kids and adults.  But, the wallpaper and extra wood had to go.
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Brooke decided my Spring Break was a good time to get this started, so on March 13th, she took a day off of work and took a crowbar to the wood shelves.  We found red paint on top of old layers of wallpaper behind them.  Also, some plaster started to come along for the ride.  Lastly, the floors were covered in dirt, much of which we ultimately couldn’t remove (without taking a sander to the floor…).

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The wallpaper was hit-or-miss in its removal.  We had a series of metal scrapers to use, as well as a spray bottle of dilute vinegar to loosen up the layers of wallpaper.  And by “layers,” I mean four.  Oddly, there were two layers of the same wallpaper

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…the same wallpaper, mind you, that was lined up and matched.  Very weird.  You can tell how dark that outer layer was, likely caused by decades of cigarette smoking.  These outer layers weren’t all that much trouble, but the layers beneath this were more challenging.  In total, it took a few weeks to get all of it off.  We worked our way along the larger sections as best we could in the evenings, but weekends ended up being best, as scraping on the walls of the house tends to get a bit noisy when the kids are in bed.  I stopped jogging in the afternoons after 3:00 so I could come home and keep working on it before picking up the kids.6

Ultimately, the walls underneath weren’t in terrible shape.  We couldn’t remove the painted-over sections that were behind all the wood additions, as they were effectively sealed onto the wall.  Brooke used a “screen mesh-style” sander to smooth everything out as best as possible.  She also used a mix of plaster and joint compound to fill in the various holes in the wall.  In the pictures above and below, you’ll see circular patches where a wall sconce used to be, that Brooke filled in with either plaster or joint compound.  It just depended on how large the patch was.
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We tried to be somewhat careful about the woodwork that we wanted to keep, so Brooke made sure to use plastic tarps to cover the fireplace and other sections of the room.  The existing wall sconces didn’t put out much light, so we had to rely on them in the evenings, as well as a portable light fixture we brought in from the garage.
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Eventually, after all the patching was done, we took primer to the walls.  Lots of primer.  Especially in these corners, where we were trying to cover up the red painted-over sections of the wall.  We spent a few days priming to make sure we got good coverage.  Brooke also had some plaster to fill in at points, so we had to prime over that, as well.10

Brooke wanted to do most of the detail work…though, I was up on the ladder more.  Getting around that bay window took some extra effort, as the wallpaper was somewhat difficult to remove.
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The space above the fireplace cleaned up pretty well.  For some reason, it seemed like the paint roller wasn’t working very evenly, though we never figured out why.  It seemed like the previous owners played with joint compound a bit more than they should have, and laid wallpaper on it before the compound had finished drying.  There were a few spots on these walls that featured near impossible-to-remove sections of wallpaper…12

Finally, after about a week of priming, we put on the paint.  We went with a color that would be similar to the old color, but a bit brighter.  We also chose a color that was approved by the National Historic Registry, so it should be a color that was somewhat common at the time this house was built.13

Brooke spent a good afternoon on hands and knees scrubbing the dirt off the edges of the floor.  It definitely looks way better than it did on that first day after removal of the wood additions, but it’s still pretty noticeable.  However, we’ve put some stuff along these walls, so perhaps it isn’t that obvious.  When we have these floors refinished someday (after we don’t have a 1.5-year-old dropping things on it all the time), it’ll finally go away.

Also, notice that corner in the picture above.  That was one of the worst spots, where Brooke had to put a few layers of plaster and joint compound to fill in the gaps.14

The color during the day looked quite a bit nicer than it did at night!  Brooke also made some lace (and later sheer…) curtains to go over the windows.  In the picture above, they aren’t all around the windows yet, but the window facing the porch has it.

Also on that porch window, you’ll notice the toybox is still there.  That’s a pretty functional piece of woodwork that we keep toys in, and can eventually hold blankets, pillows, and whatever else someday.  Though it doesn’t match the rest of the wood in the room, it still fits the space pretty well.

The last thing to go up in the corner pictured above was the guitar holding system.  We looked into a few options but decided to get the slatboard music stores use to display guitars.  The main reason was so that we could add and remove guitars from the wall without tearing holes in it each time.15

The guitar display worked out pretty well, we think.  We primed and painted the panels the same color as the wall and positioned it at a level high enough to keep Calvin from it (for the most part…).

…also, we don’t know where that purple bin is going to go, yet…but it looks hideous and out of place in that room.  It’s got all of Meg’s craft stuff in it right now, so we need some kind of replacement…
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Here’s more of a “wide shot” of that section of the room, now with the sheer curtains over the bay windows, a bench Brooke picked up underneath the windows, the rug we used to have in the living room and moved into the music room, and the various instruments.18

The last section to finish was the fireplace, which involved finding something to go above it, and finally replacing the functional sconces in the room.  Brooke picked up the new sconces last week and we made my Dad install them on Mother’s Day (because it was Mother’s Day…so, Mom couldn’t do it…).

We couldn’t decide what to put above the fireplace, but Brooke found this canvas print that seemed to fit the vibe and color scheme we’d set up in the room.  We may eventually replace it, but honestly, it seems to fit pretty perfectly right now, so I suspect we’ll keep it for a few years.

That’s it!  Long process, long post!  We don’t really have anything else in mind for upgrades on the house in the near future, though sometime this summer, I’ll likely get started on the kitchen, which needs a serious fix-me-up…

The New Garden

A wide shot of the garden area.
A wide shot of the garden area.

When we were looking for houses last summer, the building itself definitely caught our eye, but the extra lot next to the house was the real selling point.  If we weren’t going to live further out in the countryside, we’d at least like to have the space to grow a metric ton of produce and still have chickens like we’d had in St. Louis and Iowa.

We tried killing off some of the grass over the winter by covering patches of the property with large tarps, yet all that seemed to do was store leaves, sticks and live grass for the spring.  In the end, we ended up borrowing our neighbors front-tine tiller and renting a rear-tine tiller to get a bit deeper and pull all the sod off.  Though we’re still dealing with some grass trying to reclaim their previous home, the tilling generally worked alright.  We’ve currently put in two plots: one larger, the other smaller.  Next year, we’ll add another plot that’s the same size as the larger one, but for now, we figured we should start with something manageable.

So far, Brooke has planted peas and carrots, with radishes yet to go in this weekend.  We didn’t have much luck with peas up in Iowa, but we’re hopeful that planting them a bit earlier will make a difference.

Ultimately, we’ll put corn, green beans, soup beans, tomatoes, and peppers in the ground between the two plots currently dug out.  A third plot will go in next year, but more on that in a bit…

Spinach and lettuce in the cold frame.
Spinach and lettuce in the cold frame.

Brooke also set up the cold frame we picked up at an end-of-the-season sale in Iowa, this time with lettuce and spinach.  We tried putting herbs in it in St. Louis, but didn’t find much success.  I think we got a little lettuce out of it, but probably not much beyond the paltry salad or two.  Based on our current trajectory, I think we’re off to a better start…

Blackberries and raspberries.
Blackberries and raspberries.

As I said, we’ve got two plots going right now: one larger, one smaller.  The larger one will be replicated next year, giving us two of the same size.  The smaller one, however, will live on its lonesome, and in its twin’s place, we’ll put in some bushes.  That is, we already have put in some bushes, but more will likely grace that location in the future.  Currently, raspberries and blackberries are already in, some of which we may already harvest by the end of this year, yet we suspect it won’t be until at least next year when we start getting enough to write home about.  Ultimately, we’ll probably put some hops there and maybe some other bushes.  Brooke also has some blueberry bushes to put in, but we haven’t decided if they’ll go in this plot, or if we’ll put them somewhere else.

We haven’t picked them up yet, but we’re also planning on putting some fruit trees closer to the road, at the far side of the first image posted above.  Cherries, apples, and quince are currently on the docket, though we may add another (pears?).  I’d never heard of quince until last year, but apparently they’re a fruit you wouldn’t necessarily want to take a bite out of, yet they have high concentrations of pectin, meaning that you could add quince to your preserves to somewhat naturally produce jellies and jams, among other things.  Seems interesting, at least, and they should do fine in our climate.

Other than that, I’m all for adding more garden space.  The more the merrier.

Less space for me to mow…

The Bathroom

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This post has been “in the making” for, well, months.  When we first moved into this house last August, we knew that the upstairs bathroom was probably going to be the first thing set for a “re-fit.”  Largely, this was because the toilet (pictured above) had to go.  It must have been one of those top-fill types that used to have the tank suspended high above it, yet no such tank existed.  The toilet actually flushed just fine: you just had to fill it by opening a valve inside the tank, effectively rendering it useless to our 4-year-old (and a hassle for us).

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The rest of the bathroom was “fine,” at best.  Tiled all the way around.  Nothing too offensive.  Everything else worked fine.

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So, we got a new toilet.  One that flushed.  And filled.  Of course, in doing so, we lost some tiles behind it.  As we clearly couldn’t leave it like that, Brooke started looking into replacing those tiles.  As she tried removing a few of them, they started crumbling all around her.  To make matters worse, she removed the towel rack from the bathtub area and found that the lathe behind it was wet, suggesting that the grout had to go.  Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned “crumbling” part, re-grouting wasn’t a viable option.

So, I came home from work one day to see much of the bathroom looking like this…

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…minus the ladder, of course.  I came home in the middle of this debacle.  You can see some of the less-broken the tiles in the sink there.  Brooke did nearly all the tile removal and I contributed by hauling tiles and debris outside.  The wallpaper came down remarkably easy (though unsurprisingly, as the humidity in the bathroom made it pretty loose).

As you can tell, the plaster underneath the tiles came along for the ride, while the plaster behind wallpaper was mostly unscathed.

DSC_0094A similar story around the bathtub.  Firstly, we had to solve the tub problem so we could actually shower in this bathroom (it’s the only one in the house).  We grabbed some moisture-safe drywall and put it up where the tile used to be.

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Next, we had to replace the tile, or at least line the tub with something more water-resistant than drywall.  After looking around online a bit, we settled on fiberglass sheeting.  As you can see in the picture below, we got it done in time to give the kids a bath.

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It was a similar story across from the tub.  This time, however, no fiberglass was necessary, so Brooke just used joint compound to merge the plaster and drywall, plugging a few holes in the process.

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Not all that attractive, we know, but nothing a coat of paint (or two) can’t fix.

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After filling in the gaps and patching the ceiling a bit with plaster, we primed the walls in preparation for paint.  We decided to go with a brown-ish color, as it seemed to go pretty well with some of the shades in the floor.  In the end, we think it came off pretty well.

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Finished product in the tub!  We added an organizer to the corner and put in a new mirror that didn’t look like it was from the 1940s.  We’d still like to replace that pedestal sink sometime, but for now, it’s functional.

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The wall across from the tub looks better with some paint, right?  Brooke put up a rack of hooks for all our towels to go on.  Nice and accessible from the shower.

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The finished corner.  It’s probably worth scrolling all the way up to the top to compare these images, as we think it looks quite a bit better.  New towel rack, new toilet paper holder, some shelves above the new toilet, and the lack of tiles.

It isn’t perfect, though.  The wall under the window there is a bit rough, as it’s still the original plaster and not drywalled.  We may add some trim there eventually, but for now, it’s alright.  I also need to remove the paint on the wood frames, the doors and the window, as I suspect they’re laced with lead, but that’s a job for another time.  Perhaps this summer that’ll get done.

Much better than we found it, though!  That’s the most I can ask for.