Posts from Construction Hell

Hello, my pretties. I have once again returned from the grave...master bathroom. I spent yesterday in the clutches of evil, battling thirty years of oil-latex-oil-latex paint hell on my vanity. It's not just that the previous owners decided that latex could be painted on top of oil, but that both paints should go right on over the cabinet hinges.
Without exaggeration, I pounded each cabinet off its hinge with a hammer for the first 2 hours of yesterday morning. Then, I had to pry each broken hinge off the cabinet frames. Then, I took my new sander and chewed through old paint. Then, I wiped everything down, because oy, the dust, and put a coat of primer on it all. New cabinet drawers and doors will be arriving within the next couple of weeks. But, although I'm pretty sure I've said this before, "we're turning the corner on the bathroom" seems appropriate. I have to paint the ceiling. I have to paint the cabinet frame, and I have to find a competent electrician to wire the bathroom vent fan. Then, THAT IS IT. I swear. Really. I will NEVER do another thing ever.
Until the next thing I do.
Spending my days working in my bathroom, as exciting as the scenery is, has been a longer, more arduous and painful process than originally intended.
There is only one truly positive outcome from this experience (other than the new freaking bathroom): I have a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Even the couple of mistakes here and there (I am not pointing them out, because your eye will be drawn to them when you come to my house and see my bathroom....and when you come to my house you WILL see my bathroom, because we will be having our cocktails in its magnificent newness.) are signs of my learning curve. I learned how to patch walls, seal sinks, level mirrors, strip many coats of wallpaper, level a floor before tiling, sand and prime. And I learned these skills not in the antiseptic context of a brand new house, but in the "holy hell. What kind of crazy, drunk bastard installed cabinet drawers like this?" context of an old bathroom subject to cheap, half assed improvements.
It has been an experience, and I feel a certain affinity for my bathroom now. I feel like the grout we share--it on the floor, me under my nails permanently--will be the construction adhesive that unites us. I lost my construction virginity, so to speak, in that bathroom, and one day when my kids are grown, and this house is for sale, if I hear one person diss that bathroom, they're going to get it. If I can lift my right arm by then.