Bathtub in the Dining Room and Remains of Vintage Wallpaper

There is a bathtub in my dining room. However, I much prefer it to the time there was a toilet in my living room.

What's wrong with this picture?

Why is the bathtub there? Because a few of the old galvanized pipes were jolted during leveling and are leaking a little.

See the holes above the pipe covers? The walls moved, the pipes didn't.

I am going to have all the old galvanized pipes replaced with PVC. The sink in the hall bath (photo above) needs to be removed to fix the pipes. Since that’s happening AND the walls need to be floated and textured again because of the cracks, I am going to have the ugly, moldy, oversized cabinet removed.

Remember this?

It's a little better now, but not much. Not only is it ugly and moldy but it's way too big for the space and crowds the tub and sink.

Since that’s happening, the tub had to be moved. Since the tub had to be moved, I was convinced this was the best time to replace the ugly, crumbling, weird, dark tile in the bathroom. Yes, it will save me money to do it all now, but it’s money I wasn’t planning to spend now.

The nursery rhyme about the lady who swallowed the fly to catch the spider, etc. keeps running through my head--except with new words. She tiled the floor since the tub was moved, she moved the tub to tear out the cabinet, she tore out the cabinet because the sink was moved, she moved the sink to fix the pipes, she fixed the pipes because they sprung a leak during leveling. I don’t know why she leveled the house. I guess she’ll go broke.

This is what the bathroom looks like without tile and sheetrock. Tres outhouse chic. No?

The left side of the photo above is where the cabinet used to be. P thinks perhaps this was where the water heater may have been originally. On the right side of the photo is the GIANT GAPING HOLE in the floor. That's the dirt under my house you see. Perfect way for a) stinky uninvited guests to enter and b) wily dogs to escape. P but boards and blankets and ladders over it for now.

Window sill has rotted out.

So what tile will I use instead? I found this 1" white porcelain hex tile. To do the entire floor, it will cost me around $150 ($400 with grout, sealer, labor, etc.) It would have been nice to do marble, but that costs 10 times as much. Even black or other colored accent tiles drives the price up.

But the white is nice.Way better than this.



And only half the floor was done plus half one one wall. Weird. I am not tiling the walls. Just the floor. The entire floor.

I'll replace that ugly cabinet with an appropriately sized curio cabinet. I have seen some nice ones on Craig's List in the $50 range.

I was considering changing the wall color when I discovered two layers of vintage paper under the sheetrock. One is white or cream with metallic silver swirls. Below that was what was probably a really cool art deco print. It looks like it was white with a black botanical print and some kind of red accent. Next to the black (photo below) you can barely make out the rest of the bleached print. Maybe the glue for the swirly print paper removed the color? It was attached to a thin fabric similar to cheesecloth.

It's got me thinking that maybe I'll do wallpaper instead of paint. Maybe a deco reproduction? Then there is this fabulous print by Grow House Grow called Ms Ward. I love it, but it's cost prohibitive. $180 a roll.That means almost $1,500 to do the tiny bathroom. Uh, no thanks. But it IS neato.

Photo by Grow House Grow