Flashback - May 2016 - Bathroom Update (there is nothing to update)
I wrote this in May of 2016, shortly after we bought the house and long before we considered building an addition, but never published it because I was hoping for beautiful, Pinterest-worthy pictures with which to show off my home improvement prowess. <cue hysterical laughter>
When we bought this house, it wasn't exactly a fixer-upper, but there were definitely some areas that needed to be addressed. The master bathroom (keep in mind that this was a 1960s master bathroom, so it's basically a small closet with a toilet, sink, and shower stall) (For anyone who is interested, I've read recently in a couple of places that the terms "master bedroom" and "master bathroom" is considered racist and sexist by many and the industry terms are evolving in some cases. But I'm using it here because most people know what it means)So here's what the bathroom looked like. It's not terrible. ("It's TERRIBLE" - Jules)
I tore down the mirrors, medicine cabinets (plural), countertop, and sink, then spent two days patching all these holes, plus a 4'x2' hole in the ceiling from where we pulled out the old fluorescent light:
Then I painted the walls and ceiling white to let that crazy awesome blue and white tile be the focus. ("You mean to try to pretend that the horrible blue and white tile doesn't exist." -Jules)
Oh, and props to my friend Sita, because I agonized over the wall color and she was the voice of reason. At one point I was going to paint the walls yellow. A pale buttery yellow. I thought it would be nice with the blue.
Speaking of which, when I tore down that shower door, I took some of the tile with it. So that was another week of work. It probably didn't need to be a week, but I spent several days trying to find the color of grout my sister Julie described as "blue with a touch of mildew" before giving up, buying grey grout, and fixing my mistake.
There were a lot of challenges finding a sink cabinet for this space. We wanted a large, two-sink cabinet, but there's only 19" of clearance from the wall to the door opening, and almost nothing fits those specs. So we bought a smaller, single-sink cabinet, and a tall, narrow, shallow cabinet from IKEA for extra storage. Which required the electrician to come back and rehang the vanity lights because we had him center it before, and now we couldn't fit the high cabinet there. So that was a fun. My primary goal today was to install the bathroom sink cabinet.
Drywall anchors: check!
Predrilled holes in cabinet: check!
Screws: Aren't long enough. Dammit.
Nothing a quick trip to Home Depot won't fix. And by "quick trip", I mean that I found the screws I needed right away and then spent an hour and a half looking at other things. I'm finally home and I'm revving the drill like a street racer at a stop light when the battery dies.
Fine.
While that's charging, I'll just install the new faucet. I've never done this before, but I know I'm going to need silicone. We were at the in-law's a couple of weeks ago and found an unopened tube of silicone and a brand-new caulk gun. SCORE! Except... where did I put it?
After an exhaustive search, I found it in a Party City bag (of course). I figured out how to put it in the caulk gun, but I couldn't pull the trigger. I cut the hole bigger, then bigger, then bigger, and then I discovered that the entire tube is completely solid with dried-out silicone.
Cue another trip to Home Depot.
Return with a squeeze bottle of silicone.
Read the instructions for installing the faucet. Realize I don't need silicone to install the faucet.
At least the drill's charged now.
When I finally got the sink cabinet installed, I replaced the standard knobs with these cute ceramic ones from World Market:
I found a mirror at Marshall's and we ordered some beautiful Moen hardware for the towel ring, robe hooks, and toilet paper holder.
Next, I was going to hang some shelves and a shower curtain rod and swap out the 1980s shower head with a nicer, more efficient one.
Then we ran into a problem that I still haven't solved. When we moved in, we sequestered the cats in the master bedroom for a couple of weeks and put the litter box in the shower stall. Eventually, the cats graduated to full house privileges and we were going to find a better place for the litter box but... we never found a better place for the litter box to. So here we are, a year and a half later, and the litter box is still in the shower in the master bedroom, and we're still showering in the guest bathroom.
Which also needs work.
When we bought this house, it wasn't exactly a fixer-upper, but there were definitely some areas that needed to be addressed. The master bathroom (keep in mind that this was a 1960s master bathroom, so it's basically a small closet with a toilet, sink, and shower stall) (For anyone who is interested, I've read recently in a couple of places that the terms "master bedroom" and "master bathroom" is considered racist and sexist by many and the industry terms are evolving in some cases. But I'm using it here because most people know what it means)So here's what the bathroom looked like. It's not terrible. ("It's TERRIBLE" - Jules)
I tore down the mirrors, medicine cabinets (plural), countertop, and sink, then spent two days patching all these holes, plus a 4'x2' hole in the ceiling from where we pulled out the old fluorescent light:
Then I painted the walls and ceiling white to let that crazy awesome blue and white tile be the focus. ("You mean to try to pretend that the horrible blue and white tile doesn't exist." -Jules)
Oh, and props to my friend Sita, because I agonized over the wall color and she was the voice of reason. At one point I was going to paint the walls yellow. A pale buttery yellow. I thought it would be nice with the blue.
Speaking of which, when I tore down that shower door, I took some of the tile with it. So that was another week of work. It probably didn't need to be a week, but I spent several days trying to find the color of grout my sister Julie described as "blue with a touch of mildew" before giving up, buying grey grout, and fixing my mistake.
There were a lot of challenges finding a sink cabinet for this space. We wanted a large, two-sink cabinet, but there's only 19" of clearance from the wall to the door opening, and almost nothing fits those specs. So we bought a smaller, single-sink cabinet, and a tall, narrow, shallow cabinet from IKEA for extra storage. Which required the electrician to come back and rehang the vanity lights because we had him center it before, and now we couldn't fit the high cabinet there. So that was a fun. My primary goal today was to install the bathroom sink cabinet.
Nothing a quick trip to Home Depot won't fix. And by "quick trip", I mean that I found the screws I needed right away and then spent an hour and a half looking at other things. I'm finally home and I'm revving the drill like a street racer at a stop light when the battery dies.
Fine.
While that's charging, I'll just install the new faucet. I've never done this before, but I know I'm going to need silicone. We were at the in-law's a couple of weeks ago and found an unopened tube of silicone and a brand-new caulk gun. SCORE! Except... where did I put it?
After an exhaustive search, I found it in a Party City bag (of course). I figured out how to put it in the caulk gun, but I couldn't pull the trigger. I cut the hole bigger, then bigger, then bigger, and then I discovered that the entire tube is completely solid with dried-out silicone.
Cue another trip to Home Depot.
Return with a squeeze bottle of silicone.
Read the instructions for installing the faucet. Realize I don't need silicone to install the faucet.
At least the drill's charged now.
When I finally got the sink cabinet installed, I replaced the standard knobs with these cute ceramic ones from World Market:
I found a mirror at Marshall's and we ordered some beautiful Moen hardware for the towel ring, robe hooks, and toilet paper holder.
Next, I was going to hang some shelves and a shower curtain rod and swap out the 1980s shower head with a nicer, more efficient one.
Then we ran into a problem that I still haven't solved. When we moved in, we sequestered the cats in the master bedroom for a couple of weeks and put the litter box in the shower stall. Eventually, the cats graduated to full house privileges and we were going to find a better place for the litter box but... we never found a better place for the litter box to. So here we are, a year and a half later, and the litter box is still in the shower in the master bedroom, and we're still showering in the guest bathroom.
Which also needs work.
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