My Bathroom is Begging for Help

I have been postponing writing this post for awhile. Primarily because I assumed that once I write it, I will have to begin working on it. Motivation to succeed.

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Anyway, since the holidays aren’t hectic enough, I thought I would throw this on my to do list for the month of January. As I have mentioned before, we are planning to build our house from scratch beginning (hopefully) in the spring of 2013. I am so excited/nervous/anxious/thrilled/dreading it, but that is another post for another day.

In order to build our house and actually move into it, we will have to sell or rent our current abode. Sounds simple right? Buy land, sell current house, buy new house….if only. Our current house has been very good to us. We bought it as a fixer upper so that we would be able to add value through DIYing updates and then resell it at a later date. Fortunately, that has always been the plan. Unfortunately, we tend to get sidetracked. With my husband being a Technology Education instructor and a carpenter on the side, it seems that he is always working on other peoples projects and our big projects are hard to fit in. It’s a good problem, I know, but it does tend to mess with the timeline.

So, we have already updated many many many many things in our current house, and I’ll try to rewind and update you on some of those in the future, however, the elephant in the house is and has been for awhile, our bathroom. When we first moved in it was painted white and badly in need of a paint job. I painted it a great Asparagus green (sorry I have no idea what brand or what the exact color was). We then started refinishing the doors and cabinets. We sanded, Doug stained, and we refinished the majority of the woodwork. We then began adding new trim, but got stalled after trimming out the doors.

We have since decided, after living in an untrimmed, green bathroom with cracked tile, an unframed mirror, and a yucky open light bulb just hanging from the ceiling, that this room needs more help than paint and trim.

I’ve got big plans. I absolutely.cannot.wait. for an updated bathroom. Did I mention that we have only one bathroom? I absolutely can wait, and have been for several months, for the mess and the work that comes with projects of this size. Suck it up Erin, is what you should be thinking right now. I feel like the girl in the Halls cough drop commercial, I could use a pep talk! 

 

So, onto the plans. We intend to take out the cracked tiles and if possible replace them without having to retile the entire bathroom. Is this my favorite tile in the world? Absolutely not, however, keep in mind we are updating to sell, not creating my forever home. Side note: when faced with decisions about materials/time/money for our current home, I will always choose cheap. It’s just in my blood, I can’t help it. Don’t judge me. Doug, on the other hand, let’s just call him “Mr. Pefection”. He is a firm believer in doing things right with quality materials, spending more to ensure a lasting and quality product, if you can’t do it right don’t do it at all…yadayadayada. So, for this house, I would say that most often we meet somewhere in the middle. Hence, we are not going to start out with the intention of replacing the tile (because Erin says it’s too expensive), but if we cannot execute the extraction/implantation of the cracked tiles well, Mr. Perfection says we will have to get all new. A happy compromise. 

Next we will paint the bathroom this shade of off white. I’m giving this new Valspar paint and primer in one a try. I have never used the paint and primer, so I will give you my review as projects become completed. I fully intend to do one coat of just primer over the lovely green first, and then hopefully just one coat of the Valspar. We shall see. I chose this paint color because it is very neutral, neutral sells, as all you HDTV’ers must know. Also, the bathroom is large, but because it is the only one in the house, I want it to seem very large and open.

Finally, I want to somehow fix my tub/shower. It is stained and has a porous finish on it that makes it really hard to clean. I have heard about refinishing a fiberglass shower shell, however, more research is in order to see if that is a feasible option for us.

There are a few additional items on my list, in no particular order, here it is:

·         Fix tiles

·         Paint

·         Trim

·         Add shelves above toilet

·         Frame mirror, my inspiration is Bower Power’s awesome mirror redo found here, and add a new light fixture

·         Shower/tub help

                                                   

I am also thinking that I will need to come up with a nice way to highlight the window. It’s a very high window, so shades/blinds are not necessary, and I love the natural light it gives, however, it needs….something. Any suggestions? I might have to fall in to the black hole of Pinterest for a few nights for ideas.

All in all, it seems so overwhelming, but I know that breaking it down little by little is the key. I just have to keep in mind that we are moving toward the ultimate goal of building and every little bit is a step forward.

So, now that I have a plan…..it’s about time to get moving. I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a very Merry Christmas!