Replacing the toilet led to ripping out the the porous thirty-year-old tile floor....
which led to knocking out all the tile around the bathtub...
which led to removing the "vintage" (code for old and gross) vanity....
which led to excising the drywall damaged in the process of removing the vanity from the bathroom.
As we patted ourselves on the backs and and admired our accomplishments of the evening, my husband and I were suddenly struck with the horrific realization that our compulsive demolition of the kids' bathroom comes with a consequence: namely, that what we took apart must be put back together again.
Rest assured, our foolishness will not go unpunished. Until we fix this mess, our daily penance will be sharing a toilet with our children.
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Oooh.. renovations! That sounds exactly like what happens when we replace one little thing. Good luck with the bathroom-sharing. We only have one bathroom... so I feel ya!
my word verification is "putub" as in.. Pu-tub back and then pu-toilet back, then you'll be fine.
So you get a daily punishment but that bathroom soooooo needed it. Gross!
At least you've got all those "helpers"-HAH!
What is it about boys that makes them smell? For me, it was the wallpaper in the bathroom that REEKED, so I stripped it. One day, I'll sand and repaint. One day.
Been there. Done that. We enjoyed sharing the bathroom with the girls so much that we have waited five years to do our bathroom. We're waiting for all of them to get into middle school so they can just use their gym showers instead of ours at home, and then we'll renovate more. :)
...looks like you had not only a productive evening, but a fun one! The most fun, though, will come in picking out new flooring, tiling, and counter tops! Not to mention the fixtures! ..oooo...can't wait to see the post about the process and the final results!
That is what happened in our master bathroom. And it still sits 1/2 way vacant after 4 years. I hope yours goes a lot more quickly then ours has gone.
We started our bathroom remodel in 2003. Still not done. Good luck. ;o)
Can't wait to see the new bathroom. That's one aspect of cleaning the bathroom that I hate, the "boy" stains on the tile. Grossness! Take care.
-Kiki
Watch out for pee on the toilet seat!
Sounds like one of those "If You Give a Mouse of Cookie" books...."If Give a Husband a Hammer". Good luck!
I feel your pain...too many times I've sat down to take care of business-only to get a wet fanny!!
Yuck!!
gamma
I would looove to take a hammer to our bathroom tile.. but I know there's no way I'd get around to fixing it back up for a long time:) It will look great when it's all fixed up though!
What is it with boys and toilets? I have four boys and two bathroom floors that need replaced.
Why do they have that handy dandy aimer thingie if they aren't going to USE it?
Sharing a bathroom with your children will provide motivation unlike any that you have ever known! We'll be seeing the 'after' pics very soon I think.
As a mama of 3 boys, I could not wait to read this when I saw the title in my blog reader! The smell drives me nuts and the two bathrooms they use feel like they are never CLEAN anymore.
We actually inherited/bought our stinky bathroom from the previous owners. Bleach and more bleach did not take away the smell in that bathroom. Finally we renovated it and my husband pulled up the linoleum, you would've passed out. It was wet under the linoleum w/you know what and had black mold growing for how long??? He also sawed a 2ft. x 2ft. hole in the subfloor to rid of us the smell. (I could see through to the basement) It took us a month to do it, good luck!
Ahhhh....The joys of home renovations and the World of Boys! You will LOVE the finished product, but I can guarantee you that your patience will be tested. Boys will be boys!
two words: PETER POTTY. A few more words: put a little bleach in the water for the upper tank. Puts and end to floor dribbles and up-or-down toilet seat battles!
If nothing else, that will make you finish it faster!
ya'll have mentioned pee on the floor and the toilet seat--dude I have had to clean it up off the back of the toilet and even the blinds and trash can--I don't know, maybe my son is trying to drowned bugs, or something, the only place I never seem to find it is in the toilet, seriously wondering why we even potty trained him, had we not made a big deal about him dropping his pants and peeing in our front yard I would seriously ban him completely from the bathroom.
seriously though, we had instigated a "sit don't stand" policy in our bathroom that was strickedly supervised until my son informed me one day that "Jesus told me I had to stand" and I mean how do you argue with what Jesus says?
hey just be lucky, on thansgiving weekend 08 my hubby tore apart our only bathroom, upon removing the toilet he noticed a horrid stench coming from under the house, he did a little investigation and shined some light on it to find that the sewage line broke, we asked our landlords (who were ok with us doing the remodel) to get a plumber to fix the broken sewage line, they was so much sewage under there that they (the plumber) refused to go under the house until after it had a few days to dry and we were unallowed to use the sewage line and we were not granted a hotel stay--long story short, we never finished the bathroom, we moved to a much nicer house a week before christmas, it is bigger and has a huge fenced in yard, so it worked out, but for the few weeks between the discovery and the move was horrible, I don't think I will ever look forward to another bathroom remodel
If you give a mouse a cookie...
we are in desperate need of a bathroom remodel but only have 1 bathroom so it looks like we will be holding off until we can get it all done in a day or two. when that will happen? my estimate for this blessed day?... never.
we also need to fix up our kitchen cabinets but like you said one thing leads to another, and that means new counter tops and the back splash and then the floor tiles will have to be put in and don't for get the sink and with the sink I'm sure our ancient plumbing would need some tinkering with. and I'm sure we would have to re-paint the walls after all is said and done. so yeah we haven't touched the kitchen either.
Opps. LOL It will be fun to pick new stuff though.
Two pieces of advice for those of you dealing with the "stinky floor around the toilet that won't go away no matter what I do" problem. First try this:
1 qt of peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tsp liquid soap
This mixture will remove most any smell, including skunk, UNLESS the offending substance has already penetrated into the subfloor. You can then rip up the flooring and use this mixture on the directly on the plywood subfloor. Let it dry for a few days after soaking it and test for residual odor.
If it still smells EVEN A LITTLE BIT do yourself a favor and rip out the subfloor around the toilet and replace it. Nothing worse than a beautiful new bathroom that still smells like pee!
Forgot two things - for those of you who are just starting to potty train, use the peroxide mixture as a preventative on a regular basis before you have a stinky subfloor. And, as someone else mentioned, check your walls for odor as well - you'd be surprised how badly those little guys can miss!
I'm so glad we're not the only ones. I have a six-year-old and now a one year old, but I think the oldest one missed so many times that we will never be rid of that smell. I clean and clean.
We're supposed to get our done in coming months. I'm wondering if we should just wait until the baby is potty-trained.
Great job! It is always worth it in the end.
you certainly said it best when you said the the potty never smelled quite right after potty training boys. my question is...even after they are potty trained, do they have to be full grown men for it to smell normal? or maybe at least just taller? sheesh. i hate a boy dominated bathroom. can't wait to see what you do.
I say you pull a Kate Gosselin and go to the beach for two weeks while your bathroom is fixed
But just think of how pretty and fresh-looking and non-smelling it will be after you're done! Of course it's easy for me to say, since I won't be doing any of the actual work. But I will be cheering you from the sidelines! Go, go, go! *ducks to avoid objects being thrown*
This reminds me of "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie" -- except it's people ripping apart a bathroom. But the same basic result...
Can't wait to see pictures of the finished product.
It could be worse. You could be sharing the tiny jack/jill with the kids. We got conned by my hubby's "firend" oh it will only cost 4K and 8Klater, we have no toilet, sinks, the tub isn't hooked up and the lights are not done. Saving for them now... I hate peeing down the hall in the middle of hte night.
Yeah...sharing our bathroom with our sons (17,20,21) and daughters (5,6) is the ONLY reason we haven't demolished our bathroom yet! I'm waiting for some of them to move out!
I have pictures to match yours!! Just a word of caution... it's easier to pull it apart than it is to put it all back together.
We have been sharing our bathroom with 3 kids for about 9 months now. The floor in the downstairs bathroom is done and the toilet and temporary sink work, but we still have to do the shower, finish the drywall and paint.
Good luck and can't wait to see the pictures of the finished product. Hopefully ours will be done soon.
I saw your blog featured in a magazine and came to check it out! I loved and laughed at the first post - this is exactly what happened to my husband and I when we decided to re-do our downstairs bathroom! It was worth all the work!
We did our remodel in 6 weeks, while I was 8-9 months pregnant. It is do-able, and life is much better without moldy linoleum and leaking fixtures.
I just had a moment of silence for you. I have four boys, I feel your pain and the pee you are going to feel on your bum the next time you use YOUR bathroom.
Oh the joys of home ownership! Start out with doing something small like changing the switch plates and you'll instantly see the dozens of other things that need to be done too.
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