Bathroom

So, let's get to it.

This bathroom is hard to photograph thanks to not having a window.  So, it would most likely be a challenge for a skilled photographer...which I am not.  Forgive me.  I also don't edit any photos....again, forgive me.  I did the best I could and am happy to be able to actually post another "done" room!!

Let's just remember where we started:  First we had this.

 

And then a little more of this ...UGH, when I look at these pictures, I can still SMELL that day. 

Henry worked hard (I'm not sure if he's ever NOT worked hard at anything he does).  I lugged laundry to my wonderful sister in laws because, well there was no water and our house smelled like sewage.  Henry was very, very ill the next day.

So, in this little bathroom we knocked out three walls, swapped the tub and sink areas, slightly moved and changed the door swing, found (hallelujah ~ really, it was horrible but how awful it would've been to find it AFTER the tub was installed, our floor laid and carpet was in) and fixed a major sewage issue, waterproofed, laid a heated tile floor, drywalled, painted and decorated.  We set our budget for this room at $1500 and came in under that total thanks to reusing some fixtures, some DYI-ing, Kijiji shopping and a big blunder on Home Depot's part.  Thank you Home Depot.

Now, here's the same view.

 

Am I the only one who loves the texture a great basket adds?  The brass shelf was a Goodwill find for $14.  I loved it immediately and it serves its purpose well.  I love its versatility, knowing I could set it in just about any room and find a use for it.  Besides the bath and hand towels, it holds nail clippers, tweezers, pumice stone, bubble bath, bobby pins and cotton balls.  And that beautiful snake plant I bought while in Colassantis this March.  The basket holds extra toilet paper.  The print on the wall is made by my friend Jen.  You can get one too...just head on over here and check it out!

 Since we loved how the plank wall turned out in our bedroom, we decided to plank this wall as well.  We made the mistake of using clear pine, not finger joint pine. It was warped and far more difficult to work with.  In the end, we're happy enough, but it was a lesson learned.  We didn't bargain shop for a toilet, going with an American Standard Cadet 3 model, known for it's water saving features and efficiency.  The "N" towels were a small splurge from my first trip to West Elm, at $10 each but I loved the color, and they are very nice cotton (my mother in law introduced me to quality cotton and I'm hooked).  I love the tassels and of course the "N".  They make me happy :)  

 Here is our home made vanity in action..supporting our clearance sink and faucet.  Combined cost was $62.00.  We are unsure whether we are going to keep the hampers underneath.  When we bought them I thought it would be great to have one for clean towels and the other for dirty clothes.  But now that we've been using them, emptying the dirty hamper is just one more step in an already time consuming chore known as laundry.  I'd rather us take an extra 10 steps and put them in our sorted laundry hampers in the laundry room.  Not to mention, I don't love the thought of dirty laundry sitting in the bathroom.  We may opt to have another floating shelf built and stack the extra clean towels on it instead. The hampers will find a new home in the boys' room possibly.

 Another great towel, this one is a peshtemal from Istanbul.  I've read a fair bit about the benefits of Turkish cotton.  Depending on how we like the hand towels, we may swap out our regular bath towels for all peshtemals.  We'll see.  The photograph is one we picked up from a booth in White Rock, BC during our vacation last summer.

One of our favorite things about this bathroom is the heated floor.  Our floor is a marble hexagon tile and since we are in the basement on concrete, it would've been COLD.  When shopping for the tiles, Home Depot had a price labeling discrepancy.  The tiles were labeled as being $1.67 per square foot on the shelf, and labeled $14.99 per square foot on the display.  Henry caught it, asked the flooring guy about it (while I nervously chewed my finger nails in the lighting department).  I came back to Henry with a big grin, giving me the thumbs up.  We cleaned them out...40 tiles for @ $75, instead of $675.  This made the decision to spend $350 on the heating much easier ;)  (Clearly this room isn't DONE.  Now that I see this picture, I realize we forgot to change out the last switch and outlet...they were old ones we had kicking around and clearly are a little dingy!).

And lastly, because every room should have a little fun!  Wanna slap one on your tub too?  You can find it here.  It makes me smile every time I see it and my kids think it's rather hilarious :)

And there you have it :)

Bathroom Reno Part II

Hello friends.
Good weekend?  Over here, it was good.  Very good.  Relaxing and productive all rolled together.  And the weather?  Sunday was a stunner!  Blue skies, a wee bit warmer.  We could hear birds chirping their good morning song, and walked out of church into blissful sunshine.  Lovely I tell you.

I think I'm almost ready to share our bathroom.  It's pretty much done.  I'm not doing anything else to it...I'm starting to over think, over analyze...and it's getting silly.  We're done.

DONE.

Sooooo, today I'll just share a couple of behind the scenes stuff.  The stuff that takes for.ever (especially if you're someone like me who has trouble waiting....).

First up, the vanity.  My dad is every kind of awesome.  I showed him my inspiration picture and he delivered.  The coolest part is that this was built out of scrap leftover lumber that we had already paid for, so instead of expecting a building material bill, it was "free"!  He built it, I stained it.  We're a good team, my dad and I.

 

I used Minwax Dark Walnut.  My favorite.  One coat of stain, three coats of poly to protect it from water.

Dad had a piece of steel welded, cut a hole through the bathroom wall (accessed from the furnace room) and that is what the majority of the weight rests on. 

Below, pictured is the steel on the furnace room side. 

Next up...the medicine cabinet.  Being that we don't have much storage, we knew we needed more than just a mirror...we needed function.  I think they're ugly but I've learned to look past it.  And truthfully, I was feeling far too lazy to try to figure anything else out.  It was too deep just hanging on the wall, sticking past our light fixtures and so we Dad cut a hole and fastened the medicine cabinet in.  I painted it, he installed it.  Like I said...we make a good team.

 

 This is taken from in the furnace room.  We juuuuuust had enough room without having to move water lines.  

Our sink.  Our sink was regularly priced at $149.  We bought it on sale for $89.  Then, we were in Home Depot a month or so later and we decided to check the price (because we are like that...we wander isles and check for further discounts and then go get our money back.  Anyone else?)  Lo and behold...discontinued price of $36.  London didn't have any, so we called Dad Sluys who dropped everything he was doing and high tailed it over to Home Depot because he knows my heart was racing at the thought of missing out on a good deal calmly stated that he would try to get there the next morning.  He likes to do that to me...give me little heart attacks and test my well known lack of waiting skills.

He got one.  I recovered.

We needed an 8" spread faucet.  Not very common (probably why that sink was discontinued?) and our choices were limited..at least the ones within our relatively small budget.  We set our sights on a trusty, solid, reliable and somewhat boring American Standard brand faucet.  The price was $129.99.  We waited to see if a sale would come up.  While waiting, we visited Port Huron as we regularly do and thought we'd pop into Home Depot for something...probably blinds or something like that.  While there, Henry mentioned that maybe we should check their price and see if they offered anything different.  Same faucet...clearance for $26.00.  We looked past it's plain appearance, scooped it up, paid and high fived our way out the door.

And lastly...the ceiling.  Because the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom and many other pipes, tubes and wires etc, that we need to be able to access run through this ceiling, we had to put in a drop ceiling.  Or perhaps not...I'm sure their might've been something else we could've done, but again...I didn't feel like figuring it out and a drop ceiling was the most cost effective.  I was also probably too busy counting my sink/faucet savings to care.  I just try not to look at it...problem solved!

I'm hoping to post a full reveal sometime this week ~ which should include some far more attractive pictures ;) 

Happy Weekend!

Hey there blog world!  Hope your enjoying this rainy Friday.  I love me a rainy day...especially when the rains are washing all the filth of dirt, sand, and general grungy winter remains away :)  I've been cleaning, washing, organizing and reading the day away.  Reading what you ask?  Well, let me tell you.

I started out reading this funny little post.

Then, I read through some of her other posts and ended up here.

I loved it.  Needed to read it.  Maybe you'll like it too!

Have a wonderful, insightful, blessed weekend friends :)