Half Finished Project #2: The (Shower) Curtain Calls

Remember ages ago when I was complaining about how long West Elm was taking to ship a shower curtain to me? Well it turns out I shouldn't have been such a whiner, because even though I have the shower curtain now (and have for awhile) I still haven't gotten it up.

The shower curtain that's going to change my life. Or maybe just my bathroom.

So what's the hold up? It's simple really. My horrible bathroom is completely to blame.

To be fair, it's not the entire bathroom's fault (although it can definitely use some work, it's at least functional). I blame the shower doors.

The horrible, awful, broken, old, not-reliably-functional shower doors. The door situation is so bad that we haven't actually showered in here in months even though it's the bathroom that's connected to our bedroom. It's just easier to shower in the guest bathroom and not have to deal with these things.

Here are the doors I'm talking about:

Our master bathroom is itty bitty teeny tiny small.

And the issues I have with them:

Removing the shower doors was a definite must. It turns out though that new shower doors aren't cheap, so my West Elm shower curtain (while not cheap by shower curtain standards) is a bargain.

So I got to it.

Removing the doors was really easy. They were just hanging from the top rail so all I had to do was gently lift them out and they were outta there.

Heidi had no idea what was going on.

Then I had to remove the surrounding rails that were holding everything in place.

The top rail lifted out easily, but the side rails were held in place by screws. Again, I made quick work of those by simply unscrewing them. I actually used a regular old phillips head screwdriver to take them out since my drill battery was charging.

Once the screws were out though there was still plenty of caulk holding the rails in place. Using my trusty exacto knife, I sliced through it to remove the rails from the wall.

After using the exacto knife though I only have nine fingers. Just kidding! I still have ten, but that would have made quite an interesting blog post...

Once that was finally accomplished, and the rails were removed from the walls, I was left with this.

Two lines of caulk on each wall (and at the shower base too) where the rails used to be connected and a few anchors where the screws used to be. And that's where things stand right now.

Next comes the fun part. And by "fun" I actually mean the biggest pain in the butt ever. I have to scrape all that caulk off the wall (and after doing a little bit already I can tell it's going to take a while -- which is why this project is only half finished...), remove the anchors, and fill the holes with grout. After googling around it seems that's the best way to fill them.

Once all of that is taken care of and the new shower curtain is in place, I might take a stab at upgrading the rest of the space. Like that lovely wood toilet seat for example (I know you noticed that).

Of course when I say I "might" take a stab at it, I actually mean that nothing in the world could stop me from repainting those walls, doing something about that oak vanity and matching toilet seat, and replacing those crazy brass+silver towel bars.

It's going to be the grandest, smallest bathroom ever.