The Remodeling

I don't know what it is about remodeling, but it's never simple. It seems like it should be, but it's not.

This time we are finishing the last two things on my list for our house. That's it. The end. Finished. Well, except for the garage and some outside stuff. But the inside will be complete.

Those two things are the pool bath and the entry to our house. Innocently, I thought it would take two weeks MAX! OMGosh! It's been 6 weeks and we're still not done!! Of course, it never goes smoothly. There's always a hitch. One thing leads to another. And it's one hold up after another. 

Hold ups like:

1. When gutting the bathroom, Steve (our amazing go to guy---he's done all of our remodeling for the last 20 years) discovered we had a leak. So, he had to track that down. He checked the roof and gutters. He went under the house. Finally, he decided that it was from the old toilet and probably had been leaking for a long time. We don't use that bathroom much--mostly in the summer--so we never noticed

2. The leak lead to replacing the base flooring.

3. Part of the wall had to be replaced where the water leached upwards into the drywall.

4. According to the girls, the shower also leaked. That, too, took a while to track down. Turns out it wasn't anything a LOT of caulk and sealer couldn't solve. The girls wanted the shower replaced. Not happening. It's just not used enough to warrant that expense. Plus, I like the shower doors which are irreplaceable. And I mean irreplaceable because they are so out of style that you can't even buy them anymore. Believe me, we found that out when we remodeled our bathroom about 4 years ago. About all you can find now is the clear glass that you are supposed to squeegee after every shower. No way.

5. The toilet was delivered, but the water tank was the wrong one. A week later, the new one arrived which was exactly like the first one. It didn't fit either. Finally, the right one arrived earlier this week. Turns out, they did not include the bolts to attach it. That took another 3 days. 

6. The new mirror I ordered arrived broken. Luckily all I had to do was send a picture to have it replaced. Still, that took a week.

7. The vanity, once installed had a strip of wood at the bottom which I didn't like. The picture didn't show that. Plus, I didn't remember that in the store. I knew it would be a hassle to unhook all the plumbing and take it apart, but I asked Steve anyway. I want what I want! Could that strip of wood be removed? He said,"no." I especially didn't like that it left about an inch gap between the bottom and the floor. I knew it would be nearly impossible to clean under there and not cleaning under there would bug the hell out of me!! I can be a little fanatical. Luckily, my "miracle man" came up with a solution for me. He added a strip of quarter round to make it meet the floor and then painted it.

As of yesterday, it's finally finished! Not the entry, but we're close on that too. Another couple days. But in the meantime, here's the pool bath results!

Before:

 We gutted everything but the shower. The vanity was so outdated and really seemed to crowd the room---it's not that big to begin with. I wanted to open it up and make is seem a little airier.

You can see the old tile floor and vanity with hinges. We also removed the large mirror. And, I hate towel racks on the wall. I was happy to see this go.

The only thing I was keeping besides the shower was the window treatment. I've always loved it---a colorful flip flop print. Christy, my friend/designer used a striped tablecloth to make the awning with ball fringe added.

After:

It definitely seems more open to me. Wall mirror gone---replaced by a round beveled mirror. Tile floor gone---replaced by an arabesque ceramic tile. New, larger lamp to replace the little one I had before. The vanity is updated. The paint color is the same as I have on my ceilings in the sunroom and kitchen. In fact, there was enough of this paint left that we didn't even have to buy more. It's funny how different it looks on the wall than the ceiling.

I decided to change out the turquoise rug with a coral one after 25 years. I kept the vintage sandpail as a decoration, but got rid of a lot of things I had before.

 I had this colorful painting reframed and got rid of the dated, gold frame.

This frame had a shell-like, mother of pearl look to it which I liked.

Here are the shower doors that I still like. Slightly frosty and don't need any special cleaning. I swapped out towel bars for hooks.

 Same window treatment---still love that even after 20+ years. It still seems so playful.

 I kept the white wicker basket to hold the colorful beach towels. There isn't enough room under the vanity for them all. I've always joked that the reason we have pool parties is to replenish out beach towel supply because invariably, some are left behind!

In the details. I was happy with the new faucet with white ceramic handles--pretty inexpensive. 

I don't know yet what the final cost of this bathroom will be with the labor. But we did get most things (vanity, faucet, hooks) from Lowes. I got the lamp from Wayfair. The rug is from Target. All the towels are what we already had. The toilet came from Ferguson. We spent more on that because I wanted it to match the others in the house. Now, all 6 toilets have been replaced! Arabesque tile---not quite sure. When I told Christy I wanted something like this, she came back to me with this one. That could be a surprise! 

We're happy with the results. It's exactly what I was looking for--something new, updated and fresh!!

Next up will be the entry. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of this week. 

If you need any help updating, I have lots of ideas!!!