Bathroom finds

Stuff I forgot to show during the bathroom process: Two matchbooks and two empty packs of cigarettes behind the wall. The putty knife I just threw in for fun. It was used so much during the demo that it looks like Andy DuFresnes rounded off rock hammer in The Shawshank Redemption.

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Houston, we have a bathroom.

Well, I couldn't have one more "bathroom" thing go on without a glitch.  I literally just spent an hour writing this awesome bathroom post and I went to publish it and everything disappeared!!!  If I wasn't so excited about this bathroom reveal, I'd say forget it and write a different one tomorrow!  I am going to do my best to re-write, but it's hard to duplicate a masterpiece.  :)  Anyway, let's try this again...

250 days, 700+ pictures and a few emotional breakdowns later, the bathroom is done!!!

 

Last time I left you with a bathroom post was back in May.  The sink and toilet were getting installed and the shower leak issue was solved.  I was waiting on trim, blinds, a medicine cabinet and some sort of storage for above the toilet.  I am not going to bore you with all the nitty gritty details, but over the span of the two and a half months it's been since I blogged about my bathroom, all of those things have gotten solved.

I decided to forgo the "storage" above my toilet.  The space was too small to force something in there that didn't belong.  I decided I could keep my face wash and other things in my future old/new medicine cabinet or the linen closet outside the bathroom.  I also knew that I needed somewhere to put the two decorative items I bought months and months ago, knowing they would someday call the bathroom "home".  And the little owl my dad got me while out of town that he thought would look good in the new bathroom also needed a little perch to sit on.  I am SO glad I did it this way instead of a clunky storage thing.
 The shelves were actually a box/crate thing that I got from the Container Store.  I planned on flipping the shallow box/create and screwing the bottom to the wall and using the edge as the "shelf".  It ended up being too big, but between my mom and I, we decided that the length and thickness of the box edges would be the perfect size for shelves.  I asked my grandpa take the box apart with his table saw and I took two of the sides, sanded them, put a coat of primer on to give them a washed out look and created shelves.  I figured finding delicate brackets would be simple, but of course  I was wrong.  Then one day I came across these old, paint-covered hinges in an antique store and had an idea. I asked my grandpa weld them at a 90 degree angle so they could be used as brackets.  I planned on leaving the cracked, thick paint as is, but after the welding I realized how gunky the paint actually was and stripped it off.  I was so glad I did because I love the dark color of the hinges and the delicate detail that was uncovered under all that paint!

 

While we're not on the storage subject anymore....my original medicine cabinet is back!  I am not sure if I mentioned this before in a different post, but my plan was always to keep the medicine cabinet/mirror and the lights on either side, original.  That almost came true. There was a minor mishap when trying to get the mirror back into its frame.  I won't mention any names, but hopefully my brothers 7 years of bad luck won't start anytime soon.  Luckily we have a family friend with a mirror business so he was able to make me a replica, sans the etched flower on the top.  And my friend Nick who did the drywall also graciously took the old, rusted, paint covered cabinet portion and made it look brand new!  He put bondo in places I never thought possible and gave it a few fresh coats of paint.  I swear, you would never know that that "box" had a stamp on the back that's dated 1952!  There were some rust spots on the back of the door that wouldn't come off so I decided to jazz it up with some patterned contact paper from Target.  As for the lights on either side of the cabinet, those guys are still original and add that "vintage" touch along with the faucet handles, medicine cabinet and hinges-turned-brackets.

The rug was from Talking Squid on Etsy.  I had seen a rug made from T-shirts months and months ago on Pinterest.  I attempted to make one myself but realized after I started that the project would take longer than the entire bathroom renovation itself, so I turned to the internet.  I love the way it turned out and would highly recommend this girl if you ever decide to get one for yourself!

The shower curtain, although not what I orginally planned, is from Target and the tray and containers that sit on the back of the toilet are also from the Container Store.

 

The blinds are from Menards and are white wood.  I decided to go with black fabric strips as accents for a little more pizazz.

 

And last but not least, this is a little something I created in honor of my Grampy.  He didn't make it to see the final reveal but was extremly excited when he saw the tiles and fixtures in their boxes.  I hope he likes how it turned out!  He always said "Be Good", so Grampy, this is for you.

There you have it!  For Old Time's sake, let's take one last before/after glance, shall we?  Oh hell, I'll even throw in some never-before-seen footage for you!

 

 

Wow, after looking back at all these pictures, posts, excuse my French, but Holy Shit!  I can't believe how much was accomplished!  Thank You to everyone who helped with this project, both physically or if I just ever needed an ear to talk or vent to!  I owe you one!

 

 

 And one final glance....

Three weeks notice (bathroom edition)

So it's been an official Three Weeks since the hellish 5-trips-to-Menards-weekend and I know I left you guys hanging last time with a measly little post on what was happening on the bathroom front, so I am going to do my best to cram the last few weeks into a few paragraphs and probably more than a few photos (as usual!).

Ok, so after the weekend from hell of going back and fourth to Menards for parts for the toilet, parts for the sink, toilet seats, and whatever else you can probably think of, the week passed with not much work being done.  Now that summer and all of it's activities has arrived, it's almost impossible to try to cram in any substantial amount of bathroom work on a weekday night after work.  The toilet and sink were in and worked like a charm...the only thing that wasn't usable was the shower.

In case you're wondering, while my dad and Jeff slaved away at the sink and toilet project, don't think I was out galavanting around.  Between my 5 Menards trips, I was downstairs painting baseboards.

The following Saturday rolled around and thankfully it was raining all day so we had the perfect excuse to stay in and be a slave to the bathroom.  Jeff graciously spent three hours working on that damn leak.  After adjusting, re-adjusting and thinking it had finally been fixed, it would drip again.  He realized that the problem was caused when you pulled the little lever on the tub spout to make the water come from the shower head. Once the shower went on, water would drip from behind the tub spout.  It's hard to explain and if you're a plumber, you probably know what I am talking about.  Beings that I don't know any plumbers, it's safe assume nobody probably cares what the deep problem was.  I am pretty sure what it came down to though was crappy, Made in China, parts deep within the tub spout.  Anyway, I was so grateful that my lovely brother spent three hours of his Saturday fixing it!  There wasn't even any swearing or any trips to Menards required!  I would have been swearing my fool head off if it was me--thankfully it wasn't, because I would have had no clue how to fix it.

While all of that was going on upstairs, I was downstairs for the most of the day filling nail holes, sanding and painting window and door trim.  Four coats (I think) later (over the course of a few days), they are still downstairs, waiting patiently to be hung.  Some tweaks need to be done before those can get put up, but they are ready to rock and roll.

After that, more miscellaneous things were done like: caulking shower fixtures, finishing up baseboard work (I even learned how to properly "schemer"<--  (I hate that word, why can't they just call it "smear"?) caulk.  I also installed the TP holder, hung a picture and the towel hook got hung.  9 hours later, I was ready to call it a day.  Come Sunday morning we were able to shower in the new shower again.  This time, definitely, 100% leak-free.  It's been two weeks without any problems, so I am pretty sure we are safe *knock on wood*.

Oh and I must mention one thing...It's kind of a big thing and I feel absolutely horrible, but I must share.  You know how I showed you the fabric I picked out for my custom shower curtain awhile back?  Well my Godmother did a great job making it and after a few weeks of it hanging in the closet, it was finally ready to hang up in the shower and.....get ready for it.......I don't like it.  Insert very large Sad Face here.  It's not like I don't like it, I just don't like it in my bathroom.  I think it's a combination of a couple things.  First, the fabric is a little heavier than a normal shower curtain and therefore, looks heavy in my otherwise, pretty light room.  Second, the pattern is a little loud for such a small space.  When you sat on the new, bigger-than-the-last and closer-to-the-shower-than-the-last, toilet, the curtain would be basically right in your face, screaming at you.  

Over the course of a few days of me debating this curtain issue, Target happened to get a new line of bathroom accessories in and I found one that was perfect.  If only I would have found that three months ago.  They also had some fun rugs that would have worked but of course, I had ordered a custom one a couple days prior.  Hopefully I won't be disappointed in the rug as well!  My track record with accessories hasn't been the greatest with this project.  I won't even mention the first garbage can and toilet paper holder that I ordered only to return the day after they arrived.

Anyway, I haven't broke the news to my Godmother yet about the curtain, but I am sure she will understand.  I am for sure going to keep the curtain in hopes that someday it will come in handy.

So let's recap:

Sink - check

Toilet - check

Shower - check

Baseboards - check

Trim (door & window) - almost check---  two pieces for the window trim need to be re-made before the trim can be hung.  Then we can measure for blinds and I can replace the green and white checkerboard sheet that is currently hanging from the window.  On the door side, I forgot that the trim wasn't as wide as it is and I needed to fill some screws with plaster, sand and paint.  The plaster was put on yesterday and so hopefully one night this week I will get around to sanding and painting.

Medicine Cabinet - almost check--- If you remember from ages ago, my plan was to keep the medicine cabinet and light sconces that sit on either side of it.  I liked the retro/art deco feel that they left in the room.  Well the lights are in and good to go.  The "box" part of the medicine cabinet needed to be re-built so my friend made that for me and it was all ready to go last Thursday.  So Thursday night Jeff calls to break the news that he broke the mirror.  There was a little snafu while trying to put the mirror back into it's frame and she now has a big crack in it.  No worries though, I did some emailing and thankfully we have a family friend who has a glass/mirror business and he's going to make me a replica, minus the little etched flower design that was on top.  Apparently etching in glass will cost 5 times the cost of the mirror so I told him to forget it.  My dad says that he knows how to etch and if I want etching back on it, he could do it.  I am going to ponder that one awhile.  I'll let you know what I decide when the time comes.  

Decorating - almost check--- I hung one piece of art that I made and I am still struggling with what to do on the wall above the toilet.  I need a little bit of storage in there for my face wash and other "womanly" things if you must know.  I have something in mind, I just need to have my Grandpa make it for me if he will.  I need to be sure it will look right though, first.  Then of course the blinds need to be ordered.  I know what I want, I just need the measurements.  Don't go and try to copy the current "curtain" I have hanging...You can't find that sheet, hair binder and thumbtacks just anywhere!

Whew!  This post has gotten long and drawn out.  Hopefully I didn't lose you.

Good News, Bad News

Some good news to report and some bad news to report on the bathroom front.

Good news:

• Toilet is in (and works!)
• Sink is in (and works!)
• Baseboards are cut, painted and are almost all up on the walls
• Shower is in working order...or is it???

Bad news:

• These four things took three of us literally all day both Saturday and Sunday to accomplish
• After two showers in the new shower, a small leak was discovered.  Back down to the basement shower we went.  It's a slow leak and hasn't caused any damage, but it obviously needs to be fixed before we use it again.
• A total of 5, count them,....FIVE trips were made to Menards in two days.  I know it's pretty much protocol when doing a project like this, but by trip four, I was annoyed and by trip five I just had to chuckle when I drove into the parking lot and my "usual" spot was still open.  I parked in this exact spot four out of the five trips.  It's like it was meant to be or something.

Tubby Love

We're makin' progress people.  We are a few (hopefully) short weeks away from the bathroom being 100% complete.  It cannot come soon enough.  The weather will hopefully take a turn for the better any day now and my yard will need some attention!
Anyway, the latest step to get completed was the resurfacing of the tub.  When I started renovating my lav, I was told it would be a lot easier to keep the current tub in there.  For one, it's the original cast iron tub and besides being somewhat stained, it was in tip top shape.  No major chips, dents or anything like that.  Number two was being that it's cast iron, it would be a pain in the hinder to get out of the bathroom.  It would defiantly need to come out in chunks because it's so heavy and that would just make another mess.  So in she stayed and I am SO glad.  No plastic tub for this girl.  All's she needed was a facial and some botox to get rid of her blackheads (stains) and wrinkles (pitting or corroding in some parts).
Somebody in my immediate family who shall be left nameless wanted to attempt to do this makeover ourselves.  I am all for doing other things ourselves, but when it comes to a cast iron makeover that could end in catastrophe, I decided to take the upper hand and call in a pro.  After doing some online surfing to find a local company, I came across these guys.  I was drawn to their site for a couple reasons.  A., They are family owned and you gotta love family owned businesses.  B.  Their website.  Their website wasn't too fancy at all.  Very simple, probably didn't cost a ton of money to build and some of their "testimonials" were actual hand-written notes that they obviously got sent in the mail or were left by customers and were scanned into the site.  How can you not love that personal charm?  Being the smart, intelligent person that I am (heehe), I decided that since this company is family owned and didn't spend a ton on their website, I figured they probably did excellent work and don't send out 100 guys a day to mass re-surface these tubs and just slap something together.  Does this make sense?  I hope so.
Anyway, I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER with the job that was done!  Steve (brother 1 of 2 (mom Donna does scheduling)) was very friendly and made sure to keep me in the loop on what he was doing if I ever had questions and when it was time for him to locate the "repair" spots (i.e., small chips and corrosion not really visible to the untrained eye), he brought me in and showed me the spots so I knew exactly what he was going to fix, etc.  It took him about four hours the first day and then the second day, he came back and caulked the seams and was done in about an hour.  It seriously looks like a brand-spankin' new tub.  I would HIGHLY recommend these guys if you have a yucky, stained tub like me or you just want to trade in that old pink, avocado or robin's egg blue tub for a pearly white one, but don't have the heart to throw a perfectly good, sturdy tub away!  :)
So enough with the chatter...let's see some pics, shall we?
I didn't want to be "that customer" and take pictures of poor Steve while he was working, so I did my best to sneak some shots while he wasn't looking and I may or may not have been kind of creepy/stalker-ish when I secretly went to the driveway and took a picture of his car!

Here are the two before shots:
Please know that the tub no way looked this horrible when I was still showering in there...A lot of the stain you see his from debris from the past 5 months of work.  (wow, 5 months...has it been that long?)
Also take note of my new shiny spout.  :)

Crazy customer takes picture of workers car...I think I should get a small rebate or something for not only promoting their work but also giving you all the information you need in this one-stop-blog post.

Shortly after Steve left--I wasn't able to go all the way in in fear that I might disturb the paint in its curing process, so I just snapped this from behind the plastic in the doorway.

Wa-la!  It's like a brand new tub I tell you!  I should have taken this first picture at a different time of day--the shadows don't do justice to how squeaky clean and pearly she looks in real life.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  The second photo (of drain area) is more life-like.

Until next time!

Measure, Measure, Cut, Measure, Cut, Repeat.

Well folks, after a LONG seven weeks of measuring, re-measuring, cutting, re-cutting, bickering, measuring, re-measuring, bickering, cutting, fighting, measuring, bickering, cutting, bickering, measuring, (need I go on, or do you get the picture?), gluing, grouting and cleaning, all of the tile in my bathroom is in!!!  Can I get a HALLELUJAH!!??
Seriously, I can't tell you how over the top, beyond words, excited I am about this major step in the bathroom renovation!!
Part of me wants to get into all the gooey, gorey details and show you all 195 pictures that I took during the tiling process, but I won't.  I'll give you some of the highlights instead (35 photos to be exact).  Thankfully, I refrained from photographing the low-lights.  You wouldn't want to witness some of the arguments my dad and I had while doing this project.  I can now see why people say "I don't think my marriage would last through another renovation".  Although we fought like cats and dogs at times, looking back at the hell it sometimes was, it was a fun project.  I don't want to do it again anytime soon, but it was still fun and I can't put into words how grateful I am to have had my dad at my side, measuring and re-measuring, cutting and a lot of the time, re-cutting, in order to make my tile look so good! I also need to give a shout out and thanks to my mom who did an excellent job on the nastiest job of all:  wiping the grout.  Not surprising, we didn't fight once!  :)  Anyway, without her help I would have probably had lumps in my grout and air pockets everywhere, but as far as I can see, it looks pretty dang good!
Alright, are you ready for the reveal?  Brace yourself people, your right index finger is going to get a workout from scrolling that little ball on your mouse so much.  Here goes:

February 4, 2012:  It All Begins--prepping the seams with the thinnset.

Placing the tile begins...the prep work for that first Saturday took about 8 hours.  I'm not kidding.

Using that level about 5 billion times and looking at the handy diagram about 2 billion times, two weekends later, we have the first part of two walls done.

February 13, 2012:  A stall at the built in.  We are not sure exactly what to do about "framing" the built in so it looks right...a trip back to the Tile Shop leaves us with these cool gray marble "pencils" used for things like this.  I'd say that not planning correctly for the built-in and the white tile frame that would have went around it was a nice, happy accident.  It gives it a little character and it totally looks like we planned it that way!  Oh, and don't worry, the tape comes off.  We just didn't want those heavy suckers sagging in the drying process and leaving us with a droopy, crappy looking built-in.

February 19, 2012:  The tape came off and we were on our way.  Next came the installation of the mosaics inside the built-in.

Fast forward to March 15, 2012:  All other tiles are up except the little mosaic strip.  Look at how even those suckers are.  All the measuring and re-measuring and maybe a few re-cutting really paid off!  

March 16th, 2012:  The mosaic strip goes in and we can call it a day!  I am so happy I may have hugged the walls on more than one occasion.

March 17th: Now waaaiiittttt a minuuutee.....you know you make me want to Grout!  Kick my heels up and Grout!  Throw my hands up and Grout!  C'mon now, Grout! 

In case you're wondering, I used Whisper Gray grout and the Subway tiles are 4"x16".

Now lets move on to the floor, shall we?

March 29, 2012:  After three days of measuring and cutting, the tiles are ready to be laid.

Note to reader:  The floor does not really look purple.  I will show you what it's closest to a few pictures down.

March 31, 2012.  You make me want to Grout!  Kick my heels up and Grout!...again.

Here's my mom and I grouting again. Me putting grout in, my mom wiping it clean.

April 1, 2012:  No joke, the tile is complete!  All it needs is a little sealer, some caulking in the corners and where it meets the ceiling and she's good to go!  I actually put the sealer on tonight (April 4) and as I was putting it on, all I kept singing was "Signed sealed, delivered, You're Mine"! --see how I changed the words a bit??  

Anyway, here the floor is in all her glory.  I am not kidding you when I say that I sat on the edge of my tub and just stared at it for 5 solid minutes.  Then I may have laid on the floor.  Please don't judge me.

Excuse the unflattering angle of my double chin. 

This is a more real representation of what color the floor actually is...

And so is this...

And here are a few other randoms.  A close up of the mosaic strip that is two feet from the ceiling, on all walls.

And the best I could do with trying to get the bathroom in its entirety. 

And for S's & G's, let's just take a trip down memory lane, shall we?  Here is what she looked like back in November right before and right as the makeover began:

Wow, even I can't believe it's the same room!

Anyway, there you have it!  Stay tuned for the final touches...paint, trim, putting the fan plate on, the sink, toilet and accessories!

Thanks for sticking though this long post!