Lawn mowing and soap scum

Busy day out at The Dump on Saturday... I went to the Nike run in SF with Eryn and then planned to spend the rest of the day working to get the bathroom clean and functional. That meant that I needed to get the shower useable (read: clean enough to use without getting cooties).

So, I worked on scrubbing the soap scum off the tub some more. I had made great progress with the stuff on the tiles last weekend, but the layer on the tub was persistent. It had definitely had plenty of time to accumulate! I finally resorted to scraping most of it off with a straight razor blade, which sped things up considerably. It's still not gleaming, but I think if I keep spraying it whenever I'm there, the lingering bits will eventually melt away.

After some yardwork (mowed the lawn, raked up magnolia leaves, pruned back the jasmine stumps even more with some long-handled pruners and raked the driveway smooth), I was ready to test the shower. But I had to keep it quick since I hadn't repaired the wall over the tile yet. At least it was mostly clean.

BEFORE:

Many years of soap scum, mostly deteriorated caulk, a few spots of grout failure, plus the water damaged wall made for a really ugly picture. Too bad I framed it poorly and you can't see where the tub meets the floor--that was pretty gross too.

The one advantage to all that soap scum is that it sealed the grout pretty well. The black mildew scrubbed right off instead of penetrating and staining the actual grout.

When I went to peel the poorly executed caulk from the top edge of the tile, half the wall came with it. Alas, I did not photograph that interim step. Just know that it was pretty bad.

AFTER:
Note the gleaming tiles, once again white tub, mad-crazy caulk job and the kick-ass patch job (more about that later). Mom cannot decide which is more impressive--my caulk or drywall skills.

I still need to figure out how to remove the soap dish. It's pretty much corroded into uselessness, so it might as well go away.

Here is a close up of the tub just because this is a miraculous comeback for a 50 year old tub:

In addition to the straight razor, the other product that made this miracle happen is Lysol Bathroom Cleaner (formerly Lysol Basin, Tub & Tile). I had stopped using it about a year ago in lieu of less toxic cleaning products. As much as I like the Method Home line of cleansers, I knew I need to bring in the big guns for this task. I used a whole bottle on the bathroom over the course of one week, which I think burned all the hair out of my nostrils even with the window open for ventilation. Once I've achieved baseline cleanliness, I'll go back to the nicer for me and the environment stuff.