Apparently my house wants a makeover

I was using my downstairs bathroom last night, and I just happened to look up into the corner above the sink, which resulted in a rather sinking feeling. I could see that the wallpaper border at the top of the wall was peeling away from the wall, as well as the paint on the ceiling. It looked like the corner of my bathroom was just beginning to melt and droop away. I reached up, pulled the drooping stuff away, and was met with moldy, wet, drywall. Not a good sign.

I went downstairs, pulled my dehumidifier out of the basement, and placed it in the bathroom over night. I had figured that somehow, things were leaking from my tub/shower directly above, and I was still in a purposeful state of denial that perhaps just letting things dry out, and then recaulking up above around the shower would remedy the problem in no time flat. Ah, the sweet taste of ingorant bliss!

This morning, a bit groggy and fighting a cold, I went ahead and turned on the shower. I assumed that things were damp because of water leaking over the side of the tub in a spot where I had noticed that the caulk was deteriorated. After making sure that no water was leaking over the side, I let the water warm up. It takes a good five minutes for it to get toasty enough upstairs for me to want to set foot in the shower, so my usual routine is to turn on the shower, and then crawl back into bed for a few minutes. While enjoying those last stolen minutes in bed, the phone rang with someone who needed to talk about some stuff at work.

The whole time, I was thinking to myself, "we'll be off the phone in a minute," and of course, the water was still running. Well, honestly, 20 minutes later I realized I just needed to go in there and shut the shower off. 40 minutes later, I finished the phone call, took my shower, the whole time believing that I had successfully stymied the leaky water.

Alas, alack, it was not to be. I went downstairs, and saw that the wet spot was much worse. The drywall was oozing some pale, gray nastiness and I realized things were more dire. I was still clinging to the vain hope, however, that my dehumidifier and a caulk job would do the trick.

As I walked away, traipsing around trying to get some cleaning done, that nagging voice in my head, telling me I know better, couldn't be avoided. I went into full demo mode, ripping down the offending drywall. It was a saggy, mushy mess. And behind that was some old plaster. That stuff just crumbled as soon as I touched it, very nasty stuff. It was a gloopy, disgusting mess, (which all still happens to be sitting on the floor of my bathroom as I write--procrastinator extroardinaire, that's me!). I ripped back the plaster, revealing waterlogged slats in the floor. Those broke free with ease, and I then had a clear shot to see the inner workings of my tub upstairs.

I now know what the problem is. Not necessarily an easy fix, but doable. My shower never had a proper showerhead. It's one of those hose jobbies that screws on to the top of the tub spigot. That leaks just a little bit, and somehow, that leaky water has gotten behind the tiling and been leaking down into the first floor. I may need to work on two bathrooms at the same time--remodeling downstairs, and installing a proper showerhead, through the wall, upstairs in order to prevent this leaky state to happen again. How long this impish mayhem has been going on I cannot say. But I at least now have the info to know what the problem is. And a gaping hole in the ceiling downstairs.

The good news? I had plans this spring to redo the first floor bathroom anyway. I bought the sink, toilet and light fixtures for the project well over a year ago, but just haven't had the time to do it. This has put this to the fore. I guess my house knew the new stuff was sitting collecting dust in the basement, and so decided to give me a kick in the pants, which is really a pain in the ass. Oh, the joys of home ownership!

Time to go clean some crapola up. sigh.