Eye sores and eye candy

Our bathroom looks okay at first glance, but take a closer peek and it becomes (in the words of Cher in the movie Clueless) a "full-on Monet."

Yep, from far away it looks okay.

But then you look closer

You hear the shrieking violins of the Psycho soundtrack.

You see the dingy caulk and outdated sink:

the yellowing linoleum:

and the wood on the bottom of the vanity that has swollen from water damage:

Oh, and another fun surprise Dan and I discovered about a month after we moved in was that the supposedly bright white tile on the walls is actually Pepto Bismal pink ceramic that has been painted. You don't know how many times we mentally cursed out the previous owners for this crappy quick fix... especially now that some of the paint is peeling off.

It being summer, Dan and I've decided to do a few updates (namely the floor and sink) to give it a bit of a different look. The walls will have to wait since that's a huge undertaking that's not in the budget right now. Guess we'll be painting over the previous owner's (&%^!) peeling job.

We have, however, eager begun to pry up the stick-on linoleum squares, just to take a closer peek at what we're working with. Guess what we found?



I spy (very dirty and sticky) vintage tile!

We haven't finished prying up everything, so I can't say if we'll be using this or not, but I kind of like the honeycomb shape of this old school tile. It definitely fits our 1948 home.

Here are some blurry pictures of me ripping out the old tile while Dan pumped up "Eye of the Tiger". He's an eternal optimistic and was so excited that we found what may be a usable floor. I'm not sure if I'm as sold yet.

Dan threw on a gas mask and rubbed half the floor with mineral spirits, and the tile no longer feels like a human glue trap from the previous stick-on tile's residue. Also, the tiles that we do see are pretty clean looking (although more cream than snow white), so maybe we can salvage this floor? We'll see when the rest of the old tiles are uprooted. I'll take pictures of the clean floor as soon as we finish to see what you all think!

Again, our budget is pretty small, so this project will be more about smaller upgrades, not a major makeover. Guess I'll just have to go to Pinterest and drool over the dream bathrooms, like the below one from Brooklyn Limestone:

So spa-like.

And this one from Flutter Flutter:


Sigh.



Sweet relief to make up for all the other fugly pics :)