This was an uncleanable room. Painted stippling on the wall, tiles that were so old they had no shine left on them and were ingrained with mould. Same with the glass cubicle. And the shower leaked. It leaked for years!
I look at this now and think "22 years!" Ex-husband wasn't the type to spend money on the house (the boiler broke 12 years ago and was never fixed so, for 12 years, there's been no running hot water!).
Separated from ex, fought for five years to make the house mine (see Solicitor Saga). When it was (and ex wouldn't benefit from any improvements I made), first job, The Bathroom.
Hell, if your bathroom looked like this wouldn't it be your first priority!
And then, The Big Moment. They turned on the hot tap. Water came out! For the first time in 12 years, I had running hot water in my house. What a luxury!
It wasn't until the third day that the bath went in. I was stressing that it wouldn't fit. Ex-husband had told me I'd never get a proper bath in there.
The plumbers took the bath in. I couldn't stand the suspense and went out. When I got back .....
This pic taken from doorway (yes, the bathroom is that small). The edge of the door, when closing, misses the edge of the bath by about 15 millimetres!
But its in! Its mine!
I have a bath!
Having spend bloody hours scraping the stippling off the wall (whoever invented stippling needs to be shot), we painted the bare plaster walls white, just to make it look a bit nicer.
Plumbers had been gone a whole three minutes before I was running my Very First Hot Bath.
Delirium just isn't the word.
And he made a MAGNIFICENT job. No painted stippling, no coat of paint over bare plaster walls, PROPER shiny tiles everywhere..
I felt extremely posh. Yo world, look at me, I have a tiled bathroom!
Tiler had been gone a whole three minutes before I was lying in a hot bath admiring the gorgeousness of it all.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you My Bathroom, October 2004.
Look at it shine. Look at it gleam. Isn't it FABULOUS!
Boarding taken off door to reveal original panel feature. New chrome knobs. New chrome everthing!
Shower rail ingeneous, don't have to drill holes into gorgeous tiles, its spring loaded and stretches right across room. Very snazzy. And the shower curtain is the very height of luxury (Argos).
Plastic yellow ducks ... okay, don't go with the general colour scheme, but hey, I have a bath, plastic ducks are obligatory.
[Note to sons: "Mess it and you die!"]