Bathroom #2....Check

Hey Soul Sistah~ :-)

I love checking things off our to do list. We have a long term to do list of home improvements that over the years we hope to be able to do. Some are manageable now and others are things like redo the kitchen. Thats going to have to wait a while!

Our goal this summer was to have the downstairs bathroom redone before Jay and Judy arrived. It was a good goal because it was achievable. The fun part was that I did it! Joel told me what to do and would help me figure it out but for the most part this was my project. It was great to be able to do this type of thing again and we absolutely love it now.

First I learned how to disconnect everything in the bathroom and seal up all the holes

Then we gutted it and took out the toilet, sink and vanity.


A while ago I saw how everyone was doing great things with beadboard wallpaper, so I bought a roll hoping to re-do the vanity.

I started out putting the wallpaper on both the doors and side (we had to do some modifications to the doors, but Joel did that, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures!). After letting that dry, I framed out the doors with some wood trim pieces. I was excited to use the chop saw for this one :-). Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of that! I'm seeing a trend here.


In the bathroom, I first cut out the hardi-board, and mortared it down. Then we screwed it down with about ten thousand screws. Remember, I married an engineer. That floor isn't going ANYWHERE. Also, those kneepads are from the devil. They are way more painful than bare knees on the floor. I learned quickly. Thats the last picture of me with those things on.

Then came the tiling and Joel's handiwork. He cut all the tiles for me. Thankfully there weren't too many cuts because the room is basically square.

After laying that down, came the grout. Man is that the easy part.

Over the next few days I wiped it down constantly.

I realize no one wants to see our toilet, but here is a picture I almost considered framing because it took us about fifteen times to get it in right. The screws kept turning and popping off. It was kind of ridiculous. If the toilet wasn't ridiculously heavy, I probably would've thrown it.

Then I put the molding back up, and here is my crazy nail gun face. Just keeping it real.

And the finished product
We love it, now the only question is do we put hardware on the vanity or not? Would it make it look more finished? I'm torn.

Things that made this project so much easier:
-a nail gun
-a smart husband
-a sleeping baby
-cheap wallpaper that make it look much nicer than it is
-tiles we already had and needed to be put down so we could store other things
-a sleeping baby, did I already mention that?

Next on our house renovation list is the upstairs vanity. We were able to get one on clearance at lowes for 75% off. I can't wait. Its going to take re-routing some things and we're considering doing the concrete countertops so we'll see what happens!