Bathroom Renovation

In 2007, when we bought our house, one of the things I said was a must-do was a bathroom re-do. Well, we all know that bathroom renovations are often complicated, time consuming, inconvenient, and expensive!! Nonetheless, it was one of the only things that I really didn’t like about our house.

Initially, I painted it a nice warm and bright color, Periwinkle Dusk (you can find it at Home Depot in their Behr paint line). That helped ease my discomfort with the bathroom.

What was the problem with the room, the layout was ALL WRONG. The tub/shower combo was taking up so much space that it left room for an itty bitty sink and toilet. I knew if the layout was different, then there could be SO MUCH more room in there.

Our neighbor, Frank, is a contractor and he does AWESOME work! I came up with a layout for the bathroom and I asked Aaron if we could just ask Frank to give us a quote. Aaron agreed (I’m sure he now wishes he could take that back!).

The four things I knew would make this work or not were:

1. Could he even do what I wanted done
2. How long would it take
3. Of course, how much it would cost
4. Could Frank and his team do it during the middle of August while we are away

Frank came over and did a quick run through.

1. He said he COULD do what I wanted, which actually kind of shocked me because the toilet needed to be moved over about 40 inches. So, number 1 – ✔
2. He said it would only take 10 days….I was like, o.k. 2 weeks at least! But still, totally doable. Especially if we could arrange to have most of it done while we were away. So, number 2 – ✔
3. This was the one I was most concerned about. While I’m not going to give you an exact amount, mainly to protect Frank, just know he gave us an AMAZING deal! Basically he was willing to just do the whole thing for the cost of materials. I was floored. So, number 3 – ✔
4. Yes, they could do it the middle of August. Mind you, it was the middle of July when we got the green light. So, number 4 – ✔

Now, with all of this information, I was like “Aaron, we can’t pass this up. This is such a good deal.” But, I had to get my butt in gear and order all the things we would need.

Since I already had basically everything picked out, I just had to place all the orders and pray that everything would come in, in time.

Now, Frank said it would take 10 days, I was thinking “there’s no way.”

Well, we left on Saturday and his team started working. They don’t work on Sundays. I’ll have you know that by the following Saturday, when we were to return to DC, the bathroom was COMPLETE!!! It only took them 7 DAYS!!! Unbelievable!

Now for the reveal:

BEFORE

Old, flooring that’s crumbling. A floor that is slopped so much that we could’ve had a slip-n-slide party in there!

Our itty bitty sink with a lot of rust!

Our toilet. Notice the placement of it…and then where it moves to. Moving a toilet, from what I understand, is one of the most complicated things to do in a bathroom.

Please bathroom genie, bring me a new bathroom!

DURING THE RENOVATION

The bathroom…..exposed. This is showing how the toilet is being moved over.

Of course, in order to move the toilet, they had to cut a MAJOR hole in our kitchen ceiling. No biggie. We couldn’t even tell it had happened when we returned home!

Things are happening!

While I really enjoyed the Periwinkle Dusk, it was time for a change. You’ll notice that we went with exposed brick, which I LOVE! Exposed brick is definitely the thing to do in the city!

AFTER

Welcome to our new bathroom!

I really wanted the pedestal tub, even though I knew that it works best to have a pedestal tub if you can have a separate shower. Nonetheless, we went with this interesting design. It takes working out a few logistical details to make it work, but it is AWESOME!

This is how the curtain looks when you are taking a shower. It’s actually kind of cool.

I kept the periwinkle in the towels and the rugs. Love, love, love the exposed brick.

We now have an adult size vanity!!! So exciting.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. For those who have stayed as guests in our house, take note, you can now close and easily lock the door! Sometimes it’s the little things!

Advertisement