Fair warning, this post has LOTS of pictures. :)
For the last two months, we’ve been renovating our bathroom. And not solely for pleasure. We had a leak in the drip pan. (Don’t ask me to explain it, because I don’t know how plumbing works.) My husband found it when he went under the house for something else. :(
From outside the shower
View through the door.
One of the shower heads and the accent tile.
The useless bench!
Since the floor had to be taken up all the way to the joists, the walls had to be redone as well. But that was fine with me. I never liked the tiling in there.
As you can see, the tile is beige with darker accents (and matches the floor and tub surround, which wasn’t being replaced). I didn’t want to put the same type of tile in, nor the same color (obviously), but we still had to match the flooring. Somehow.
Here it is down to the studs. It was tiresome, dirty work, getting all the tile off. I could only do a little because the dust was so bad. My entire room was covered. When my husband got to the subfloor, we found that the original tilers hadn’t put in the proper flooring plastic thing (I forget its official name) to keep it from leaking.
Of course, before we did all this, we’d picked out the tile and scheduled the work. Thankfully, the company we hired (family friends) were very helpful in getting me what I wanted while still making it match.
And now, the final result.
Pre-floor
The accent tile (in the box covered in plastic).
All done (minus the door).
The new exterior (new, glass-only door which I LOVE). The angle looks wonky, but it’s at about 45* from the white door).
Since we have 10-ft ceilings and I wanted the tile to go all the way to the top this time, I chose a large accent tile to break up the large space. I also didn’t want the useless bench again, but I did want something to rest my foot on to shave or wash my feet or even sit if the mood strikes me, though I doubt it ever will. lol
The tiles are mostly gray, but they have a few undertones of brown so that they match the existing tile. If you scroll back to the original pics, you’ll see there are tiles on the exterior of the shower. We decided, after talking with the tile guy, not to put the new tiles outside the shower except near the floor.
I love my new shower.
As I thought about this post, it occurred to me that my bathroom renovation is similar to a spiritual renovation. Tearing down the old man with his habits and sins is just as hard as tearing out that old, glued on tile. Sometimes a lot of dust (pain) is created, and it takes time. A LOT of time. But the good news is we have One who walks with us, holds us up when we get tired or frustrated, comforts us when the pain seems to be too much, and walks with us every step of the way.
But it’s worth it. We get a new man. Ephesians 4:21-24 says, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”(NLT)
From this verse, we see that WE have to do part of the work, and then we have to LET the Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes.
And here we see that we have to show the evidence of our salvation. Phil. 2:12, “Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.”(NLT)
Being a child of God is not easy, but the work is not troublesome. And we have a helper.
And the result–being in heaven with Jesus–is worth it. :)
Have you done a home renovation or experienced a significant spiritual renovation?
Blessings,
EDIT PS. If I don’t respond to your comments in a timely manner, please forgive me. I woke with a raging headache that quickly turned into a migraine. :(
Ginger Solomon is a Christian, a wife, a mother to seven, and a writer—in that order (mostly). She writes or reads inspirational romance of any genre. Even when she’s busy homeschooling, doing laundry, or fixing dinner, reading or writing are not far from her mind. She is president of her local writing group, and blogs regularly for InspyRomance.com and at gingersolomon.com.
Hi Ginger! Thanks for sharing your bathroom renovation. Nice analogy to renovation in our lives. We live in a 1960s ranch home and have had to renovate the small bath, because of a shower leak. Fortunately our son was able to help with the job. Then we updated our kitchen, removing all the tile, replacing the counter tops, and taking out an upper cabinet to open up the area to the dining room. Dusty job, which we hired out. During the two week remodel we made coffee in the spare bedroom, since I had to empty all the cupboards. The worst job was removing the outdated wall paper in the dining room, which was glued directly onto the fresh plaster – no base coat. The 9 by 12 foot wall – took 3 months to remove. Trying various products from liquid fabric softener to all kinds of products. A lesson in patience, since I did not want to chip the plaster. Yes, I am a work in progress. Thanks be to God. Blessings.
I have done both, but the spiritual renovation was much less painful.
Hi Ginger- yay photos!! Your new bathroom looks like a fancy sauna- I’m sure you are thoroughly enjoying it. My in-laws renovated their bathroom a couple of years ago- the 35 year old house needed it!
Your analogy is thought provoking and reminds me to keep going forward, to keep open to God’s workmanship. Thanks for sharing,
Blessings:)
Love the photos! Renovations take time and patience. Even renovations of the heart take time and patience. :-) Have a blessed day!
Oh, wallpaper. UGH. There wasn’t any in my current house (nor is there now), but in my last home, I had some to remove. Thankfully, it was only a half-wall, but I HATE removing wallpaper. It is definitely a lesson in patience. And perseverance. :)
Interesting, Mary. I find the spiritual ones more painful and sometimes more time consuming, depending on my acceptance of the needed change. :)
I don’t like the home renovations, but I like the finished product, so it was worth it.
Of course, the same could be said of spiritual reno’s. The final product–being more like Christ–will be worth all the work and pain.
It sort of does look like a sauna, but definitely just a shower. :)
I expect a house that’s 35 years old is in need of more than just a renovated bathroom. Ours is about 15 though (13 of which we’ve lived here). We’ve done a lot of behind-the-walls renovating. Whoever originally plumbed this house was one of two things: 1) cutting major corners, or 2) a fraud. He/she definitely did shoddy work. :( But, we think we’ve repaired most of the troubles now. haha
This is so true, Melissa. And sometimes, in both cases, we must be willing to get messy to get the work done.
Hi, Ginger! I have never done renovation, but I sure do love to dream about it!
I’m just the opposite. I want to re-do my bathroom and put that bench in for shaving, etc., due to balance problems.
So sorry about the migraine. Normally, I have one a month, but last month I had three.
Spiritually, I’m praying for my daughter who has walked away from her faith. It is so painful to watch her and waiting on her to come back.
Keep dreaming, Paula. It’s almost a nightmare. I can’t imagine a kitchen reno or some other major room in the house. It’s incredibly difficult to work around. :/
On the other hand, it was definitely worth the effort and inconvenience. I LOVE my new shower.
Ah, the bench. I did use it for shaving, but I have the corner thing, which actually works better because it’s slightly closer to the floor and I don’t feel like I have to high-kick to get my leg up on it. The bench was seat height, but we NEVER sat on it (it held water, so it was always cold). It also took up a lot of space in the shower.
As for the prodigal child, I have one of those as well. It is HARD.
Love your new shower!! The only renovations we’ve done is putting in new flooring, but it went over the existing floor, so that wasn’t too bad!! One of my sister’s has done major renovations at her home, so I’ve heard stories!! We had to have a new shower pan years ago, but I don’t remember too much about it!
Thanks, Trudy. We’ve done new flooring as well, but the old–tile–had to be torn out first. But it only took a few days versus WEEKS. :)
Nice renovation. We had a similar problem in our shower in Florida years ago.
Love the analogy, Ginger. In my home (and life) renovations have been ongoing for a few years. Each spring for the past three years we’ve been updating the house as we could afford the renovations, first on our kitchen, then the main bathroom, and finally our en suite bathroom. I’d heard many horror stories about renovating but we found a great contractor and he made the process pain-free. Maybe that’s another part of the analogy — instead of diving in and trying to make changes on our own, we need to submit to The One who knows what we need and how the changes can best be accomplished.
Migraines are nasty. I pray yours is short-lived.
I love your new shower. We redid our second bathroom. It had a 3X3 shower. Literally we could stand in front of the toilet and two steps would take us into the tiny shower. The door banged on the wall that the shower was attached to. Yah, tough. What we did was push the shower out into the garage and made it 4×4. Wow what a difference that extra room makes. We opted not to put in a bench because in the garage where the bench would be was the electrical box. Opps. And we didnt want that 3X3 back. So I found a movable shower chair at Target. Voila. Perfect. And we chose a shower door like you. We love it.
I really love the analagie that you used with the shower renovation and our spiritual lives. Thanks for sharing this today.