In March, Val flew to Greece to study with her mom at learnlight.org. BJ stayed behind and finally gave the sanctuary a real bathroom — ceiling, floor, plumbing, chandelier, and all.
While Val Was in Greece, BJ Built a Bathroom
April 2026
In March, Val flew to Greece to study with her mom through learnlight.org. It was a good trip — a real one, the kind you need. BJ stayed behind in Forest.
And BJ built a bathroom.
We should be honest about what this building was when we found it. Beautiful, yes — the stained glass, the organ, the bones of something extraordinary. But a working bathroom? Not exactly. For the better part of two years, getting clean meant the downstairs sink. You make do. You feel resourceful for a while, and then you just feel ready for a shower.
The bathroom upstairs had walls that looked like a map of a continent that had been through something — decades of peeling paint, cracked plaster, a hole in the wall where something had given up. The ceiling had been pulled open to get at old pipes. Exposed studs, a single light fixture dangling, the old green paint lifting off in great curling sheets. It had its own strange beauty. We photographed it extensively, as one does when one is trying to convince oneself that a disaster is actually an aesthetic.
The work
BJ started at the top and worked down.
The ceiling was framed out, drywalled, mudded, and sanded — USG Plus 3 joint compound, the kind of work you do coat by coat with more patience than is comfortable. The walls got the same treatment: skim coat, sand, repeat. The old floor came up and new hardwood went down over insulation board, the stained glass windows looking on like they'd seen everything and weren't impressed yet.
The plumbing was an education. The pipes running through the ceiling told a story of every previous repair — some original cast iron, some newer plastic, none of it quite speaking the same language. BJ sorted it out, ran the new lines, and got the continuous hot water heater in.
And then there is the chandelier. A red crystal chandelier, the kind of thing that has no business being in a bathroom except that it has every business being in this bathroom, in a room with two original stained glass church windows and dark oak trim. It went up in stages — wiring, hanging, connecting — and when it finally lit up, BJ took a selfie under it with the expression of a man who has earned something.
The tub came last. A compact Japanese-style deep soaking tub, paired with the continuous hot water heater. Val's second office on busy work days, as it turns out. The kind of bath where you can think, or not think, and the water stays hot.
The finish
The walls are painted a deep warm olive green — a color that feels like it was always waiting under all that peeling plaster. The stained glass glows against it. The chandelier hangs in the middle of it all, red and entirely itself. There's a vanity, a stool, candles on the windowsills, a little shelf with a Buddha on it.
Val came home from Greece. She walked into the bathroom. It was finished.
This is what we do here — season by season, room by room. It isn't fast and it isn't always glamorous. But it turns out right.
