The house painters started Monday. Or maybe I should say, the house paint preppers. They've spent 3 days cleaning, scraping, and priming, and are nowhere near ready to paint. Maybe after a full week of prepping, we'll see some color on the house. 3 person crew x 5 days prep = one million weekends of me and Bill and Ruth time. I can't imagine how long this would have taken us. I'm glad we realized there was no way we could do this project ourselves.
The original clawfoot tub now has a new faucet and a shower!, which gives us a full working bath upstairs. We first thought the tub would require professional reglazing, but it turns out that some sanding/painting on the outside and a serious cleaning on the inside was all it needed. Shower conversion kit arrived last week and Bill set about the super-fun task of removing all the old parts and hooking everything up. Boy, does he love plumbing! Old faucet and previous "shower", a short length of garden hose with a plastic sprayer on the end: New faucet (which is so bright and shiny, pic doesn't do it justice, love it): Ready for shower curtains and final touches: It did take 5 trips to Lowes and 3 trips to Home Depot IN TWO DAYS (damn those old, non-standard plumbing sizes), but it works! In other news, I think the second color on the hallway is going to work (first one = too beige), so Bill will start on trim this week. Full final before and after pics are here .