It took nearly 11 months.
I thought, we could have had a baby in that time (we won't ever). What else could have given birth, you ask? A quick Google search yields:
- dolphin
- horse
- premature giraffe, black rhino, walrus
- llama
- whale
- zebra
All of the above animals could have spawned young in the time it took to redo our bathroom.
That said, I am so excited at how it turned out! Below please find before and after shots of the eleven month loo.
Before:
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| Full frontal. This is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in. Carpet, toilet straight on, sink to the left, tub surround to the left. |
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| Closer picture of the tub surround and toilet. |
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| Sink in its own little nook. Notice how wonderful the wallpaper is. We had a fight over keeping it or not. Puleeze. Dangle ball lights scream "contemporary." |
After. Brace yourself, it's quite a difference.
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| New loo straight on. Notice that the shower is now against the back wall (no tub). The toilet is to the left. The sink is to the left in the same spot as the old one. No carpeting, no wallpaper. Notice to the right the doors to the built in drawer/shelf. |
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| With the shower curtain open so that you may see our tile work. White subway tile with a line of brownish glass along the top third. |
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| We put a shampoo nook in the shower backed by the brownish glass tile we used. |
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| No hanging ball lights. Replaced vanity. Added a nice mirror. |
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| Changed the wall color to add a splash. |
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| My brother and master carpenter made this built in shelf with drawers. |
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| When we removed the wallpaper and as we got down to the original plaster walls, we found this wallpaper. It was too cool to abandon so I saved a piece and had it framed. Pretty fragile stuff. |
Side-by-side of the before and after for effect:
Certainly, the loo didn't come together without some problems that still need attention. For example, Jamie hooked the toilet up to the hot water rather than the cold water. He needs to go to the basement to fix that. In the meantime, going to the loo at 3 am is nice. When you lean back, the toilet is warm.
When we were painting the walls, Jamie said to me, "You're lucky I let you paint these wild colors." My reply, "Aren't you cute thinking you have a choice."
I have wanted a floor with those little white and black tiles forever. I think they look awesome in a bathroom and I'm right. They look fabulous in this room. It took some time to convince Jamie but he came around. He agreed. They were actually easier to install than either of us expected.
Jamie did the bulk of the work on the front end. I helped gut the room but he had to do the plumbing and electrical (with friends who are experts including a licensed electrician), flooring, and walls. I became the tile master. I could wield a trowel to spread the mastic like nobody's business. I was very level-headed making sure everything was uniform. (That was supposed to be funny because I manned a level when installing the tiles.)
The two of us designed the loo. Jamie is an engineer and I am a pain-in-the-ass. My mantra for him, "less thinking, more doing." Let's get a move on and get the shit done. Eleven months, man, for a small loo.
Oddly, we didn't fight when we were in this little space working together. We knew what we needed and wanted to accomplish and did just that. I am so happy and proud of us.
Vanity, subway tile, brownish tile (discontinued), floor tile, toilet, ceramic tub base all from Lowes. Paint color: Valspar La Fonda Teal.
We have used quite a few of the La Fonda colors offered by Valspar. For whatever reason, we gravitate to them. One of these days we will have to visit this house as the colors are based on an historic house in Santa Fe, NM. And it's alleged to be haunted.
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