Bathroom renewal begins....

 

 It's been twenty years since we built our home.

Twenty years since the toilet has been loosened from its foundation.

Twenty years since the fixtures have been changed.

Twenty years of abuse to the floors.

Twenty years since there has been anything different except paint color.

Twenty years of serving a family of seven faithfully.

When you start a project like this, just a simple project like putting down new linoleum in the bathrooms and laundry room, the unexpected happens.  The bolts holding the toilet down are rusted through and break off.  The hoses that carried the water into the toilet break after they are wrenched off.  The hose fittings to the washing machine, after twenty years of bad water and now good water, became cemented together and had to be cut from their faucets and then those faucets had to be re-threaded so they'd take a new hose fitting.  Baseboards that were removed from the walls were held on by rusted nails that didn't want to budge or break free.  Such has been the case since we decided to do a little updating.  

I am so grateful for a husband and sons who are handymen.  They can do just about anything.  I suppose that comes partly from necessity.  When you live 55 miles from the nearest lumber yard or plumbing store, you learn to how fix things and to make do.  Our men are smart.  They know when it's best to replace things or call in an expert rather making do.  We've been doing a little replacing when it comes to the plumbing.   Better to replace now than to have water problems later on.  And the experts were called in to lay the flooring; they did a beautiful job.

So far, the bathroom renewal has amounted to replacing the flooring and replacing some of the hoses and fittings on the toilets.  There will be more to come -- light fixtures, faucets and drains, and my favorite -- new paint.  New paint always makes everything seem fresh.

 

 The new floor, by itself, has made a huge improvement.  I can't wait to get started on the rest of it, but it will take time.  We will be getting baby lambs any day now and so my home improvements will come in spurts.