Tag Archives: renovation

06.27.13

Bathroom Update: Our rookie mistake.....

Posted by Christina // 20 Replies

Did you know we were smack dab in the middle of a bathroom remodel? We tore into it on a whim one night, and excitedly tackled the rebuild. Then we reminded you that we hadn’t given up and now I am here to tell you why.

Tile. Tile is why our progress has stalled.

At first we couldn’t agree on tile, and then we couldn’t afford it.

Then we decided to focus our attention on the outside of our house while we saved our pennies. We are still saving by the way, but at least there is a clear winner in the tile department and that gives us a goal to shoot for. We are now taking donations, kidding of course…but if you know Mr. Trump maybe send him this link.

At least we have learned from our rookie mistake. Set a budget BEFORE you start a project and don’t start it until you know you got those materials on lock down.

Luckily, T’s dad keeps us motivated when he surprises us by swinging by and Red Guarding our shower. Now we really are just waiting on that tile. Any day now. I promise.

Have you ever had a project stall out?
Do you have expensive tile taste?
Wanna come tile a bathroom with us?

04.25.13

Remember the bathroom renovation....

Posted by Christina // 12 Replies

You know, the renovation we announced here and updated you on here.
Well, we have walls. Yup, you heard it here first…actual walls.

Check out all the things we can cross off our list now. The electrical and plumbing is all finished thanks to Tim’s oh-so-handy stepdad. We also have the bench built, a shower floor, and the drywall is up and at em. I was upset about losing my foyer closet, but my excitement for steaming on the bench has quickly overshadowed that old closet. Asti is pretty pumped too.

Now we are getting to the really fun parts, but like everything fun in life…it is also the most expensive. The tile I picked out originally was a white glass ceramic tile, but after reading several reviews about the difficulty of keeping everything straight while also going through a little sticker shock has us considering other options. Like selling our first born. Kidding…kind of.

Have you seen any amazing tile lately?
Want to know how hard it is to go from your own bathroom to sharing?
Been doing any fun renovations of your own?

04.11.13

Beatrice took a vacation...wish I was with he...

Posted by Christina // 4 Replies

We introduced you to Beatrice, our little fairy friend here. Since then she has made herself quite at home by decorating for the holidays and kicking us into spring cleaning mode.

Lately though, she has been “out of town” an awful lot and I think it may have something to do with our recent renovations. You see we kind of tore out her secret hideaway to make room for a new shower bench, I know…bad roomates. I told her that when she gets back we will have a “move that bus” moment just for her. Hope we don’t disappoint.

04.02.13

A bathroom update....

Posted by Tim // 9 Replies

We have been as busy as we can be between blizzards and BBQ’s, but we have managed to squeeze in some bathroom time as well. The renovation kind not the we-are-going-to-need-an-air-freshner-kind. We have made quite a few changes to the existing layout after taking a few years to figure out what is not working. Here are the major changes.

The shower always felt cramped which was especially bad with all the grime. You can see the kickout and the low ceiling pretty well in this photo.

So we ripped out the ceiling and after careful deliberation a closet as well.

That took a lot of convincing on my part since Christina was convinced our four vacuums (yes four) would never find a home. It added over two feet to the shower and we are now brainstorming tiled benches and jellyfish tanks. Ok I am brainstorming about shower fish tanks and Christina is brainstorming about redecorating the foyer.

We also decided to add more lighting. No compromise needed on that one. With no windows for natural light we wanted to make sure we had plenty of light by adding three can lights and a fan-light combo.

We also replaced all of the plumbing and most of the wiring, thanks to a ton of help from my parents. Christina is so excited to not be standing in a puddle in her shower since we also took this opportunity to snake out her drain.

Thanks to the suggestion of some of you all on our Facebook page we are also putting our outlets in the medicine cabinet so thanks guys.

We are getting drywall up this week so the room can actually start to feel like a room again, although we are loving the ability to walk in our front door and straight to the bedroom.

Thanks to my lady for making all the graphics for this post, where would I be without her. And she was so excited to announce the winner of the giveaway, so she made a graphic….of course.

03.20.13

Bathroom pressure is never a good thing....

Posted by Christina // 17 Replies

I told you that when we went to look for flooring we magically picked out tile for the master bathroom.

We even brought the samples home, and displayed them proudly for all to see. All meaning us…and the dogs. Then something happened, I freaked out. I started thinking about staring at that tile for the next ten years, and wondering how hideous the next home owners would think it was. Will my faux wood floor be the equivalent of gold shower doors? Will this “linen look” actually just come off as dirty?

Originally we picked out “Leonia Silver” for the walls and “Sersa Black Walnut” for the floors. We had left any accent tiles up in the air….and that’s when the panic set in. We still really like both, but we just don’t think they are quite right for our space.

I started browsing. Pinning like a maniac, and rekindling my romance with Houzz.

Tim and I both agree that this room should be masculine and modern. What we can’t agree on are the finishes. We both like a couple different things that always end up contradicting. For instance, we both love the faux wood tile from our original dream team…but hate the look of it with a wood vanity. Enter gray floating vanity stage right. If only there were an Ikea closer.

Hola Option One. I have a serious crush on the Turkish Bath Towels, and a new bathroom is a totally legitimate excuse to buy some. Almost everything pictured would come from Lowes, with the exception of that vanity from Ikea.

But then again… On the other hand we also both like the herringbone trend, but aren’t crazy about it on the walls. Which leaves us with floors, which means we could have a wood vanity….but that means no wood floor clearly. And then we are left with what to do on the walls. Tim likes a manly mosaic, but I still can’t quite commit.

Are you down with the herringbone? Think I can convince Tim to let me bring some more color in? What is your favorite?

03.19.13

One trip to the hardware store....

Posted by Christina // 17 Replies

The other day T and I decided to take a little stroll though the flooring aisle at our local hardware store…you know…for fun.

We have big dreams of replacing all of our flooring with gorgeous hardwood floors, you know when we hit the lottery. Since we bought a lotto ticket that day we figured we might as well start planning. Somehow we wound up in the tile aisle, more dreaming.

Only this time, we did more than dream.
We picked out tile.

For two years all Tim has talked about is updating the bedroom bathroom. For two years I have pushed project after project in front of that bathroom because it was so overwhelmingly grimey in there that I was just more comfortable closing the door and whispering about our “problem child” behind its back. Well, bedroom bathroom…your time has come. I know it isn’t covered in Pepto pink tile and shag carpet, but it is definitely outdated and ready for some upgrades. Not to mention, the dirt. We have tried so hard to scrub that shower tile clean to no avail, scrubbed so hard that we decided it’s easier to just replace it. Can we talk about towel bars for a moment. They are everywhere in this house. Above every toilet. In every shower. Across from the toilet and on the doors. We don’t even have enough towels to keep them all stocked. Combine them with the soap dishes and toothbrush holders of yesteryear and you have a whole lotta tile fixin. All of that tile fixin made T very angry. He channeled his inner Lou Ferrigno and busted out the whole bathroom in under three hours. Tim’s parents had stopped by to bring us an exercise bike, and they decided to get in on the fun. Thank goodness for family. Now our bathroom looks a little something like this. Tomorrow I will be sharing a little inspiration for the new look.

Have you ever renovated a bathroom?
Share some tips, we are all ears.