That old tub-shower has got to go. Its bottom is slippery and it’s got no grab bars. Climbing in and out is iffy. And if shampoo is involved, just standing on that slippery tub is asking for a fall.
As for taking a bath — the old glass doors have clouded up and taken the pleasure out of a nice soak. It’s claustrophobic in there now.
And so, the time has come to rip out the 1989 tub-shower and turn the upstairs bathroom into a mini spa, just for me.
There will be:
- Grab bars, the more bars to grab on to, the better.
- A shower bench at the foot of the shower where I can sit and give my feet a good scrubbing, finally.
- A shower wand, hand-held, located next to the bench. Handy.
And while I’m at it, I’ll make the rest of the bathroom attractive — and functional — with:
- Pretty tile. Lots of pretty, mid-century style tile, colorful, the kind that was in vogue when my house was built back in the 1950s. Tile on the shower surround. Tile on the floor. Tile for the baseboards.
- A Corian vanity top. In a nod to the 1990s, however, there will be no tile on the vanity top, just a seamless integrated Corian sink and countertop. No icky, germy cracks between sink and countertop. No gunk at the base of the backsplash. No grout.
- A killer medicine cabinet. Over the sink, a huge 36- by 36-inch mirrored medicine cabinet with a total of eight, count ’em eight, shelves. This will be a recessed medicine cabinet capacious enough to hold all the stuff that is now crammed into the very narrow, very deep, built-in cupboard at the foot of the existing tub-shower. An oversized medicine cabinet is going to cost me, but I’m tired of trying to find stuff at the back of a dark cupboard with a puny 12-inch opening and shelves nearly three feet deep, front to back. (What’s that thing at the back of the cupboard anyway? A retired breast pump? A forgotten urinal from when Jon broke his ankle? I can’t tell. It’s as dark as the Cave of the Apocalypse in there.)
- Bidet? For the toilet, an electric bidet seat for washing one’s privates was high on my list — at first. You buy one for $300 or $400, your contractor mounts it on the toilet, and from now on you can skip your shower once in a while. The bidet seat idea got dropped, however, when I went online and found a pair of low-tech bidet squirt bottles — two for $19.99.
- A make-up mirror, hard-wired, with a flexible arm. This will make it possible to get a good look at myself for once, should I ever decide to do that.
Yes, I know. Corian is passé — so late 20th century.
And so is tile. Tile means grout and, “Ninety-five percent of the people who come in here say, ‘No grout,'” said the salesman at the tile and stone showroom. (Which is why I’m making an exception to my 1950s theme and putting Corian on the countertop.)
Subway tiles, porcelain, quartz — all are on trend in 2024. But, like everything and everyone, they too will be dated one day.
My house was built in 1952. If my new bathroom looks dated ten years from now, let its date be 1952.
More about remodeling at our house at, “Our Garden Remodel Is Done. Come Take a Walk.” More about the interior remodel that Jon and I did during the covid year at, “Our Remodel Is Done. Take a Look.”
Wow, when you start on something you just keep going and change everything. Does it ever make you nervous to plunge into everything whole-hog? Well it’s good that you do that — just dive in. It will be part of the new you.
True. I have done a lot of home improvement projects over the past few years. In 2018, ’19 and ’20, Jon and I restored some retaining walls, did the kitchen-dining room remodel and put in a new patio in the front yard. After he died in 2021, I finished the retaining walls and outdoor stairs, replanted the back, side and front yards, and now I’m working on the upstairs bathroom — one project a year since 2021. Once the bathroom is done, there’s just the carpeting in the den that was ruined by a flood during the pandemic shut-down . . . All these are “deferred” maintenance and improvements that Jon and I had planned. So it’s not as though I’m taking a big leap into the unknown. These are all projects Jon and I were too busy to do when the kids were little.
it all looks and sounds stylish and, more important, safe.
Yes. I am tempted to put tile on the floor of the shower, but I think I’ll go with a shower pan with a nice gritty surface.
Yes. The popularity of mid-century design will come and go in the future. But since that design era is already firmly in the past, it can’t really be considered dated any more . . . btw, I’m not sure my house is technically mid-century modern. It’s in a style that was popular in the 1950s — ranch or rambler style. I call our house “a mid-century ranch house in three stories spread down the side of a hill.”
I love the idea of honoring the house’s history and original build era by remodeling parts of it to match. Mid-century modern is always in style, or at least I think so.