One of the highlights of the 2003 renovation is transforming the bath from a baby blue box with peeling wallpaper into a baby blue box with a lavender sponge effect.

First step: scrape that wallpaper! The stinking wallpaper was probably the only thing in the house that was done well. That paper just wouldn't come off. Jim estimated four hours (for him), which was three nights for me. We'd hoped the walls would be smooth, but with a crack or two and the remaining paper that wouldn't come off, we needed to ...

... spackle! I'd hoped the spackling would be done right after I finished scraping, but a day went by, and another day, and another day, and then there was the hissy fit, and finally, a week after I wanted to paint, the spackling was done and I could paint. I kept telling myself it could be worse, I could be painting on Sunday rather than Saturday. Well, the oil primer requires four to six hours to dry in 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity, longer in cooler or wetter weather. In August, it's pretty wet, and the primer didn't dry until the next morning, so I was painting on Sunday.

The bath finally looks like the purple is a design decision, and not a cover up. The sponging was a lot of fun, although sponging a large area would quickly grow boring.

Other finishing touches included installing the towel bar, stripping the white paint from the towel hook and filling in the hole around the light switch.