And the walls - come tumbling down!

I really love my spice cupboard.

Look, here it is, pictured closed.

And even more exciting, pictured open:

Why am I losing my spice cupboard?  Well, this whole wall will be coming tumbling down.  (Well, I hope they actually very neatly and tidily dismantle it.).  For a little context - this is the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  They are commonly removed in these sorts of houses.

So, it means no more spice cupboard.  Poot.  Where on earth will I put all my spices??  You can see I just bought some Trader Joe's Smoked Paprika!  I've always wanted smoked paprika!  And now that I have it - soon I will have no place to put it!  And these aren't even all my spices - I have some magnetic ones on the fridge as well.

And see that vent below the spice cupboard in the picture at the top?  Yeah.  That's the heat to our bedroom.  We're moving to electric in our bedroom, all so this wall can come tumbling down.

All so we can see into the dining room so I can see my little Appleseed at play while I am slaving away at dishes.  Not that we're losing our dear dishwasher.  It will stay - the wall will only come half down.  But you know, not everything goes in the dishwasher and all that.

And sure, the spice cupboard doesn't actually close (or good luck getting it open again - it sticks) - but it is so cool to have one, right?  And see how it is a different colour on the inside of one panel?  This is super old paint, and makes me think "DANGER! LEAD PAINT", so maybe it really is good to get it out of there before the Appleseed arrives on the scene.

But mostly it is all about sight lines and whatnot.  Yay!

But what is wrong with your current bathroom?

I'll tell you.

Ok, I will admit, the picture doesn't look so bad, right?  Let's look in more detail!

Starting from the top:

• No insulation.  Not just no insulation, no heating either.  Cold, cold, cold.  See those ugly tiles?  They are freezing!  Also no insulation means hella condensation when someone takes a nice warm shower.  It is flat roof above this room - one would think a little bit of insulation would not go to waste here!
• Window is old and cold and leaky.  AND - look at it!  It barely opens!  On a hot summer day when you want AIR - well, you can have that little square's worth.  Boourns!
• No room for fat people.  Like, for reals.  It is quite tight in there.
• No storage.  Ok, ok, if we hadn't been planning on renovating, we would have put some storage in by now, but for now we still use this (ghetto) plastic bin.  Not super classy.
• Sink is cracked.  Well, ok.... I suppose that doesn't matter.  But it is SO small.  I dislike pedestal sinks, except in powder rooms.  I wear contacts, you have to put them on the edge of the sink when you put them in!  I need more space, man!
• Bath tub overflow drain LEAKS.  This isn't ok.  Remember our rain in the basement?  It isn't nice to rain inside.  If you recall, it was this drain.  Sure, it could be fixed.  But it would be quite a tight job next to our toilet with no space back there.  I will be in labour in about 81 days - I will need a tub to do some of the labouring in!  A nice relaxing tub, which this ain't.  Also, the tub needs re-enamelling.  But whatev, we're getting a soaker tub in the new bathroom.
• Toilet rocks.  You laugh.  Is true.  Not the good kind of rocks.  The kind you hope doesn't mean there is water damage somewhere.  And feels weird when you're doing your business.  Super hard to fix - the floor is not level back there.  Also there is also some old paint/mud on the tiles back there, so it never looks clean.  Poot.
• And finally - the floor is ugly.  Not a reason in itself to tear the entire washroom down, but while we're at it, this will be upgraded.

Starts Feb 4th!  Hooray!  I will be posting some shots as it comes along!  :)