We’ve finally gotten round to fixing up our mouldy bathroom this weekend, and I think I’ve had a taste of purgatory if not hell. We’ve lived in our flat for about 3 years now and when we moved in we didn’t have enough money to redecorate the entire place, so just carried out some minor bits here and there around the place. In the bathroom we did the bare minimum, due to cost, which meant putting in a new bath,the previous owners had left a big crack in the old bath which they continued to shower in letting water leak onto the bare floor beneath. I don’t know how it didn’t cause any rot, but I’m thankful - that could have been a nightmare, and very expensive to fix.

First of all we got started by chiselling off all the tiles (that dated from the 1950s I suspect), that was easy compared to taking off all the grout that was left underneath. I hit my hand so many times with the hammer that I thought my index knuckle was broken! No lie, It was purple! We then had to take out the bath we’d put in a couple of years ago to reposition it. This meant disconnecting  the taps and drain (putting them back on is so awkward due to getting in behind the bath) . I had to chip away the concrete that was holding it in place, then put up a wooden frame to concrete around the bath that would secure it when it was put back in. Taking out the sink proved slightly less difficult (and olive is not my taste in bathroom suites).

We then decided to put up new plasterboard on the ceiling, deciding precariously to hammer it in on top of the old ceiling - I hope that doesn’t bite me on the ass by falling down in  couple of weeks. I had to disconnect the electric spot lights pull the wires out via the loft.  I don’t look forward to reconnecting them when I’m done. Removing the tiles also meant denting the plaster as well, so I had to skim the walls with plaster, of which I’m no expert.