A Little Caulk Goes A Long Way

If you're laughing at this post title, you're not alone.


Seriously, I can't read that title out loud without laughing. I also can't hear the word "duty" without laughing either. A couple weeks ago I was in a meeting with my coworker, Kim, when her supervisor said, "Whose duty is that?" and we burst out laughing. Ohhh geez. Judge me all you want. That's how I get my jollies.


So anywho, on to the post. 


I posted several weeks ago about repainting my bathroom window frame. If you take a look at the "after" shot, you can see there are gaps in between the window and frame. Every time I took a shower those gaps were just asking to be filled, but for some reason I thought it would be a lot harder to do. When I went to Home Depot with my Dad on Father's Day, he helped me pick out the right kind of caulk and lent me his caulking gun for the job. When we were at the register paying (and by we, I mean "he".. it was only $2 after all and he was buying a bunch of other stuff) I said, "Dad, don't forget to lend me your gun." The cashier was like, "Whaaaaaa?..." I'm not sure if she was more surprised that I called this guy Dad (we look NOTHING alike) or that I was asking to borrow his gun lol I assumed the latter and clarified so she wouldn't think we were crazy. 


When I got home, I googled how to remove old caulk*, and then got to work. 


I filled in all the gaps around the window - as it turns out, there was very little caulk in the window. There couldn't have been more than a foot's worth. Unfortunately, when I was working on the bottom of the window, a huge strip of paint came off and I haven't had a chance to repaint it yet, hence no "after" shots of the window. 


I did, however, manage to caulk a bunch of other things in the bathroom while I was at it. Caulking is such a little thing, but it made the bathroom look a lot less dingy.


Here are some before and after shots:


The vanity may or may not be breaking free because I routinely sat on it so I could sit super close to the mirror to apply mascara..... Lesson learned! I apply my mascara from afar now!

This one might be a bit less obvious. I recaulked where the short side of the tub edge meets the tile. 

All in all, I caulked the window, the vanity, the tub (as shown) and the exterior of the tub where it connects to the bathroom floor. For $2, I'd say (Dad's) money well spent!

*There are more steps involved, but for me, removing old caulk basically consisted of cutting it away with a utility blade, scraping away any residue, and then thoroughly cleaning and drying the area.