rub a dub dub

I caulked the tub! Not just caulked the tub, but scraped out the barely there remnants of the old grout, sanded and scraped the tub surround, and caulked. all in preparation for painting the tub surround.

Painting the tub surround, you say? Wha you say? The hell you say?

Why yes, that would be the same reaction I got from Mr. Nice Paint Guy at the Paint Store when we asked for a paint that would give us about 2 more years on this.

Our tub is a claw foot tub, that has been surrounded by a wood platform and box framed out in beadboard (the low walls of the surround, not the flat platform). The walls are tiled about 2-3 feet above the top of the tub, and then there's painted over wallpaper. Oh, and this surround is painted, after a fashion. With flat paint. Lovely, yes?

Yeah, I think so too.

Anyway, there had been a leak from the bathroom into the ceiling of the dining room below. And my new best friend Steve the Plumber said that it looked to be from water getting into and under the surround. Now, you'd think that if you built a platform to surround a claw foot tub you might say, caulk, the joint where the surround meets the tub. But you'd be wrong my friend! Very very wrong. Of course you'd only caulk where the surround meets the tile, because duh!

And so while I was all set to follow Jamaila's fabulous caulk removal tutorial, there was in fact no need for caulk removal goop, as there was nothing but crud in the joint. This came out easy enough with a few good scrapes. While I was at it, I scraped down the loose and peeling paint on the surround, and sanded the bugger down. Of course I hit bare wood, and so primer was called for.

And so there I was, at 1:30 am, sitting inside the tub caulking the crap out of this join. I have to say it's a very nice bead.

Tonight is painting time with the oil enamel paint Mr. Nice Paint Guy at the Paint Store suggested.