MOUNTAINVIEW HIDEAWAY: OUTHOUSES

Bathrooms are essential in our homes these days but I can remember a time when the outhouse wasn't all that uncommon. As a little girl, visits to my Great Grandparents house in southern Missouri included trips to their outhouse. They didn't have an inside bathroom until *1965, which is about the time that my great grandfather was ill. I still remember being afraid of snakes biting me on my hiney anytime I sat down and you could completely forget about going to the bathroom in the middle of the night! I probably spent most of my visits dehydrated since I hated using that outhouse!! So what does that have to do with our Montana home you might ask? Today's entry is about the downstairs bathroom/laundry room. We had our contractor do some work for us and we are pleased with the results.

To the right of the toilet the wall had an opening. We had a plumber install a new washer hookup and an emergency shut off valve for the water lines because surprisingly, there wasn't one! Our contractor finished out the wall and crafted a door resembling the existing doors, to cover the opening.

The plumber installed a brand new water heater for us and the contractor built a platform for it to rest upon. Underneath the platform is the dryer ventilation hose.

During our trip we had a new washer and dryer delivered from LOWES and I had a "near death" experience during their installation. I had JUST had a sizing issue with a brand new dishwasher back in Texas that had to be returned and exchanged so I was fearing a repeat when I heard the guy call me into the bathroom and tell me the dryer wasn't going to fit. I had measured the opening a couple of times and I was shocked! It was quickly resolved when I pulled the panel covering the water heater out of the way and it slid in like a hand inside of a glove! We had already planned to have a new panel installed over the water heater anyway!

The bathroom has a nice sized Jacuzzi tub and we had new fixtures installed. We still need to get the motor fixed but that isn't a high priority at this point. There was a wooden shelf on the wall which just blended right into the woodwork! Not really digging the previous owners decorating style!

The new access panel that our contractor made which matches the existing cabinetry.The previous one made of wallboard had mauve colored flower designs on it. The owners had used this wall board in the bathroom and in an effort to make it go further actually had some of the flowers going horizontal rather than vertical!

A few personal touches make it nicer. I decided to go with a western theme in here so we have the denim and leather fringe valances as well as some other accents.

I covered the mauve colored flowers with brown squares made from cling vinyl. Our "Glacier NP" Pendleton guest towels hang on a new log towel holder and a picture of "Gus" from Lonesome Dove hangs above them.