Whoever thought putting carpet in a bathroom was a good idea, should have their head examined (even if it was my dad!) 🙂 Moisture, lots of moisture and carpet around a toilet just don’t mix. Yuck! Nevertheless, when this old house of ours was built in 1972 or so, carpet was put down in the bathroom and believe it or not at the time, the kitchen too. Did anyone else ever have carpet in the kitchen? That has long since changed in the kitchen (can you imagine the gunk on kitchen carpet?), but the bathroom carpet still remained. A relic that is well past it’s prime.
This carpet has been down since the mid-80’s sometime, as evidenced by the lovely pinky mauveness of it. We all had a complete fascination with this color back then and I’m just not sure I could ever do this one again. I can’t talk much, since I installed mauve carpet in my brand new house back in 1985. I slapped myself several times over that one. 
So back to why it’s not a good idea to put carpet in a bathroom? Umm, yeah, this is why. 
I ripped out that nasty old carpet which was bad enough, but underneath the carpet pad was completely disintegrating, leaving behind a nasty orange powder that was really grody. I said ewwww right out loud to myself a few times during this particular chore.
Now we are down to the plywood subfloor and what do we have here? My dad is known as the shortcut guy (oh boy), so somewhere along the line that plywood must have rotted out next to the tub and this is what he did. At least it is flat and level, so we should still be fine laying down the new vinyl floor planks that I have planned in here. 
After working hard on this floor for about 2 hours, I ripped out all the tack strips, along with the nails and staples from the padding and finally had a somewhat clean surface. Ahhh, now we’re talking. 
I decided that all the trim in here has to be repainted, since it has been so many years since it’s all been touched. I’ll be glad I did in the long run. My dad always painted with oil based paint back in those days, so I had to use an oil based primer over all the trim, to ready it for my new latex creamy white trim paint. I’m well on my way to getting this space finished! Those pulls are getting replaced too. 
We did unload this beautiful vintage 1970’s laundry hamper to the local thriftstore. I couldn’t put it back, it has served its time too. We don’t throw much away around this place. 🙂 In fact, me and mom have to sneak things out of the house or my dad would keep EVERYthing.
Here’s a sneak peek at the new wall color, Sherwin Williams Windsor Greige and the new beadboard wallpaper. I love it! As soon as we finish in here, you will all get to see it too.
I’m excited about reinventing this space, since it was in DIRE need of a makeover into the 21st century! Yeeehawww!
The winners of the Mary Kay Andrews Summer Rental book giveaway are:
#33 Kristy
#58 Kathy (a faithful reader & blog supporter)
Congrats, ladies! I’ve already emailed you for your address, so enjoy the book!
I bet your folks are so thrilled that you moved back in with them with all the transformations you are making on their house.
Oh…my folks also carpeted their kitchen to.
Yuck! I no longer want carpet anywhere in my house. I love having none where we live now. Can’t wait to see the finished product. I know it’s gonna be a big WOW!
Hugs,
Kat
Rhoda, I can identify with carpet in the bath. The first house I bought in the 70’s had, you guessed it mauve carpet in the bath. When I pulled it up it had beautiful tile underneath.
Can’t wait to see what you do. I really like that beadboard wallpaper.
I had carpet in the kitchen in my very first house – way back in 1977. I pulled a pan of baked chicken slathered in barbeque sauce out of the oven and somehow it flipped and landed upside down on the carpet. No, carpet in the baths or kitchen is not a good idea.
Rhoda, I’m soooo excited to see what you’ll be doing to your bathroom. Guess what? We moved into our house with every bathroom donned in carpet. Who does that? We’re working our way one bathroom at a time around here getting rid of that nasty stuff. Take care.
Woo Hoo, Rhoda!! You go, girl! Can’t wait to see it when you’re finished… you’ve been busy!
Rhoda,
When we moved into this house, there was carpet everywhere, including the bathroom and kitchen. This is the house that my husband grew up in and we have renovated it. When we pulled up the nasty carpet, I told him I just didn’t think that I could do this (move into this old house!) But underneath the carpet were gorgeous old pine floors that we had refinished. I love that beadboard wallpaper and I can’t wait to see the finished project.
Rhoda! Lord what a job! I do remember carpet in the bathrooms but I am not sure if I have ever seen it in a kitchen. That just sounds unreal to me. Love all of your hard work girl….I am sure your parents are enjoying your help on these projects.
Can’t wait to see how the vinyl floor planks look. And want to know how easy or difficult it is to install. It’s what I’m planning to replace the vinyl floor in my bathroom.
I can’t wait to see the finished product! We, too, have carpet in our bathroom. So gross! It did come with the house and we haven’t been able to replace it yet. Fingers crossed it will happen soon.
Oh my parents did the same CRAZY thing! Worst part – it’s still there!!!
My Mother in law redid her kitchen in the 70’s and put carpet down for flooring. It didn’t take long for it to look pretty bad. Many people I knew had carpet in the bathroom back then too. I will look forward to seeing your completed project. I am sure it will look great, as usual.
When we moved into our house in 1993, it had five different carpets in varying shades of brown, gold, green, orange and rust! The brown/gold/orange shag was in the front entry, hall, our bedroom and bathroom. The shag was so thick that we didn’t know that we had a toilet leak for quite awhile! Thank God for the shower pan leak that got us insurance money for a new bathroom!
My grandparents have carpet in the bathroom and kitchen! Why? Just why?!
There was carpeting in the kitchen in a home my parents rented when I was a kid. Once I dropped a coffee can full of used grease in the kitchen and that was the end of the carpet. Luckily my dad installed flooring so it wasn’t an expensive fix — otherwise I would have been in big trouble.
Hey, I liked the laundry hamper!!! Just needed a good shine, that’s all. 🙂