Whatever it takes to give an old bathroom a new life.

Whatever it takes to give an old, outdated bathroom new life... or it could be called...

 

Whatever it takes (okay within reason..) to get this dadgum house to sell!!

 

This week, our realtor suggested that we really consider painting the bathroom.

 

I've thought about it at least a jillion times over the last 8 years. But, to do it, you have to have a couple of days for the labor and then the smell is sooooo soooo bad, you have to be out of the house for I would guess a week!! And you have to be able to let the stuff cure.

 

So, since we no longer live in the house...today was d-day.

 

Consider this to be tutorial should you ever want to take on a project like this.

 

1. clean. This isn't a quick clean, this is a full out, scrubbing every inch clean.  Get your comet and a scouring pad and scrub every surface that you are planning to paint. Rinse. Clean with lime-a-way. Rinse. Dry.

 

2. Using 400 grit sandpaper, go over every surface.

 

3. Wipe everything off.

 

4. Get a tack cloth and wipe down all of the surfaces. This gets rid of all of the last of the residue. It also leaves your hand nice and sticky. great.

 

5. This brings you to this step... see the pictures below. a completely clean ugly bathroom.

 



This took an hour.

At this point, I highly suggest deciding that your bathroom doesn't really look that bad and that if you only got new bath towels, everything would be much better.

If that doesn't work. Prepare the epoxy.

Note... once you have activated your base you have a six hour window in which to use the quart. It's just a quart, but my is it an expensive quart, so you don't want to waste it!!

 

6. Using your brand new 1 1/2 or 2 inch tapered paint brush (don't buy the cheapest one, but don't spend much either!) start painting the grout lines. Don't forget to "feather" your lines a couple of seconds after you paint them.. you don't want heavy paint edges that you have to try to cover later!

 

7. Take a break. Actually it's gonna stink so bad that you will know when 5 minutes are up because you will be light headed or dizzy or something... the instructions say paint for 5 minutes and then go outside for fresh air for 5 minutes. THEY ARE NOT KIDDING!! I actually used my timer on my phone and set it for 5 minutes. Painting this way takes FOREVER. But better to be safe than woozy!

 

8. After a couple of hours of painting the grout lines, go back and using either a little foam roller or your brush, fill in the tiles. I liked the foam roller, but the paint is thin... so it drips. bummer. However, in the end, I used the brush more, because I liked painting a little heavier with the brush.

 

9. Paint the tub.

 

10. Paint the sink.

 

11. Close your can of paint. Put your paint brush in a ziploc bag. zip it up and put it in the refrigerator. (okay, I don't know that I would do this if the fridge had food in it. Yeah, I would, but I'd double bag the ziploc..) Now, go away from the house. Like at least a block away.  Sidenote: When I pulled up into the driveway I could smell the epoxy!!

 

12. After at least an hour, come back and start everything again.

 

After more than 6 hours of painting, I used every drop of the quart of paint. I have 2 coats on a lot of the tile, and 1 coat on some. Tomorrow morning, I'll start again. ugh.

 

But for now, I'll leave you with the in progress pictures!!

 

Yeah. It's worth it. Dadgum. I sure wish I could have done this 8 years ago!

(oh.. and on the off chance you were not feeling sorry or at least a little sympathetic towards me for having to spend a GORGEOUS Saturday locked in the bathroom smelling epoxy fumes... I did this after getting up at 4:30am and running 15 miles.) 

I'd like a rockstar sticker now.

Thanks.