Bathroom Repairs

Last week we had a contractor do a few repairs in the master bath. We thought it would be a quick install of new lights and a little patch up to some damaged drywall. But the project grew into a two-day affair. Here's what his crew did.

First, he recommended that the drywall damaged from shower water would best be solved by adding a layer of tile between the top of the fiberglass shower and the ceiling. Sounded good to us. It will be somewhat temporary because we hope to someday (when we're old and rich) remodel the shower and tub area of our bathroom. But that won't be for some time, so the tile works for now.

Next, he recommended that we take out the existing ball shape ceiling light fixture, as well as the broken fixture over the sinks. We had already bought two matching lights for over the sinks. He suggested that we add two recessed fixtures in place of the one globe light. Sounds good to us too.

The old ball shape ceiling light

Recessed fixture after (see second light in shower photo)

Sink fixture before

Sink fixtures after

In the after photo of the sink fixtures, you can see a huge patch area needing a paint job. Once the old fixture was down, we were amazed at the number of huge holes underneath that ugly old gold tone light bar. It was more hole than wall under there. It made us wonder about the skill? sanity? drugged state? of that electrician.

Next, I showed the contractor the two deep cracks in our kitchen ceiling. Do we repair or replace the drywall? He said it's an easy repair, and by the way, what did we plan to do for lighting in our kitchen? (A table lamp was our make-do solution). We hadn't yet found a ceiling fixture for the kitchen, so he suggested five recessed fixtures strategically placed over the three work surfaces.

Kitchen ceiling before

Kitchen ceiling after

We are very happy with all the new lighting. The kitchen is a dream to work in now. No more shadows or dark spots!