Before/After 2nd-floor bathroom in our 121 year old house (5-month project) [View all]

Before:


After:


It was a mess!
*Plaster walls and ceilings
*Layers of paint and wall paper
*Layers of old tile
*Hundreds of pounds of hand-poured concrete between floor joists
*Active knob-and-tube wiring
*Asbestos
*Incredibly old plumbing
*All the demolition had to be carried down narrow stairs in 5-gal. plastic buckets.

The second floor is my study/studio and storage, so this is my "executive wash room." I plan to use the second floor for my work as long as I can climb the stairs. Since I can still do fire lookout towers, that should be a while.

Our contractor specializes in old houses, and he has been doing work on our house for over 20 years. This was the last big project that we are planning on, and we finally have the house ready for our old age. When the time comes that we can't do stairs, everything we need is on the first level.

The house was built in 1905, before the street existed. It was a caretaker's or guest house behind a much larger house which has been long gone.