No more smoke!

As some of you know, the bathroom has been my biggest frustration! How can something so small pack in so many horrible smells!? I thought that if I got the wallpaper off that the smoke smell would, at least, dissipate a little. But instead it got WORSE! So today I was determined to rip everything out - except the shower, toilet, and sink. I started taking off that nasty wood trim, Keil helped me get the cabinets off the wall, and right when I was about to rip out that ugly paneling on the lower half Keil stopped me. He said that it would be better if we left it because it does protect the wall, and getting all the glue off would be a pain in the butt. So I listened and left it.

I broke out all my safety gear and got to work. First step, was to scrub all the walls and ceiling with TSP (which is a strong cleaning agent that removes stains, grease, cigarette tar, etc), leave for 3 minutes and then rinse and repeat. Once that was done I let it dry and got some fresh air.

Next it was time to prime. I used KILZ Original Oil-Based Primer because it

• Blocks heavy water, smoke and tannin stains
• Seals odors
• Seals porous surfaces

But man is that stuff potent smelling (still better then cigarette smoke).

I put two coats on the walls and still need to put the second coat on the ceiling (I ran out of steam). But I am SOOOOO pleased with the results!

Here is what the bathroom looked like before we started:

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And here is the during and the after. Still need to take out the handicap bars, but that may wait until we redo the whole bathroom down the road. Luckily they really aren't in the way, just ugly! And hopefully after this remodel we won't need them for their intended purpose. LOL