Renovation Reality

The pink-poodle bathroom was at the top of the demolition list.

by Carla Minosh Renovation Reality

Unlike HGTV shows where home renovations are completed within thirty to sixty minutes, the Victorian house at the corner of Chestnut Place and Main Street in Danville has been under a transformation for nineteen years. This series explores the truth of home renewal from someone who has been there and done that.

e-creating the appearance of an exterior servants’ entrance required installing a double door that would open into a bathroom that had been added decades after the house was built. A pink bathtub had been installed adjacent to the wall where doors once stood. Perfect! My goal was to depink-ify the house, and that bathroom was on the top of the demolition list. The hideous bathroom had a stained, acoustic-tile drop ceiling with a tacky, wrought-iron ball light from the 1970s. That was only the beginning of its dreadful appearance. The small room had pink wallpaper that was stained and peeling, pink tile from the floor to about chest level around the entire room and a corner closet behind the door that prevented the door from fully opening. The closet enclosed an unattractive drainpipe from the bathroom upstairs that could be seen in all its glory when the closet door was open. It also had an off-white 1980’s toilet and a pink metal-rimmed porcelain sink set in a Formica countertop on a pink cabinet. White, molded-glass wall sconces were mounted on either side R

of the sink with electrical cords running down to wall outlets. There were also pink soap dishes and pink towel bars. The monstrous pink bathtub was surrounded with pink square tiles and was anchored by a large louvered-door closet and the radiator was covered with a pink cover. The pink linoleumcovered floor moved when anyone walked on it because the toilet’s wax seal had deteriorated years ago. Clearly, the subfloor was rotting. Oh, even the woodwork was painted pink. Imagine our surprise upon removing the first layer of wallpaper and discovering the original pink wallpaper with poodles dressed in pink waiting at the beauty parlor, Chez Chic.

Once demolition was complete, we opened up the bricked-in exterior entrance. A pair of double doors found in the attic fit perfectly into the doorway making us wonder if they were the original doors for that entrance. Though it is a bit strange to have a set of double doors in a bathroom, we made it work with the new design. It actually looks quite natural. From the exterior, they work perfectly. Because we will never use this as an entrance, we did not re-install the cast-iron stairs that in the past would have allowed the servants access to the house. The little porch is more of a balcony now than a true entrance. Best of all, the pink bathroom is history.