Bathroom - GO TIME

Ok, so there may be things dumber (too harsh?) than starting a bathroom reno on the only bathroom in one's home when you're 35.5 weeks pregnant. Maybe. But alas, we have found ourselves in this position, and we're going for it.

We brought in a bunch of contractors to take a look at the job and got quotes from 4. They ranged from (in our opinion) outlandish to preposterous ($12 - $16k WITHOUT materials!).  Guys, we're talking about a room that is a little over 6' x 8' at its very widest/largest points. Yes, it's a gut job (going down to the studs), but seriously?

We talked with Rush's parents, who recently re-did every bathroom in their home, and Rush's dad completely agreed that we were being quoted some ridiculous #s.  His handyman is proficient in all things bathroom, so we hatched a plan to actually bring Rush's dad and Pat the Handyman out to complete the bathroom.  Again, probably dumb, but we couldn't figure a way around it.

Now for the "before" photos.  Ugh, it's kind of embarrassing.  Nothing about this bathroom is what we want, but it's been passable for the past 5 years.  The house is 60 years old and still has the original plaster walls in the bathroom, so that sort of necessitates gutting the room and starting at the studs.  There's some water damage from before we replaced the roof, and the ceiling was not prepped carefully and probably suffered due to the super cheap (and 'jet taking off' noise level) fan.

Barely big enough to even take a photo

Cheapo vanity that I hit my head on whenever getting something from below

Water damage in the plaster

Ceiling damage due to condensation and bad prep

So what are we going for with the remodeled bath? So glad you asked. I have Pinterested the hell out of this bathroom project.  

Original inspo photo:

Via

Revised inspo:

Via

So we're doing a white subway tile (oh-so-original, I know) with a darker grout and a herringbone tile in a dark wood/slate pattern.  We're going to do a wainscot around the bath and all new fixtures with a more modern look.  Again, nothing is going to get us featured in a design mag, but it'll be a really nice update. We will likely be selling the house within 6 months and feel like the changes will give us an edge when we do.

So that's the news for now. I'll post some updates when we get underway (Monday, 11/3).  Can't wait!!!

I'm that guy...

You know the guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the dad who sprays Windex on everything because he thinks it fixes everything?  I'm that guy.  Except in my world, it's vinegar.  Plain old white vinegar.

Our water is exceptionally hard.  The water heater lives outside in a special metal cabinet, and we have no place to put a water softener without building a new cabinet --- not something we feel like taking on.  Along the way, I discovered what an incredible cleaner white vinegar is, so I buy it by the gallon+ (thanks Costco!) to descale shower doors, the crud around faucets, windows even. Its uses seemed endless...

I dropped off my Mom's sewing machine at the repair shop and am relying on my old machine as back up for the sewing class I'm taking.  As it happens, I use the same bobbin case in both machines, so I had to pull out a back up.  I put it in the old Brother and it started SQUEEEEEELING.  I practically took the machine apart looking for the source only to decide that it was the bobbin case.  A little rusty, it looked pretty much perfect, but I decided to give it a cleaning.  Spray, spray with the vinegar and a little bit of scrubbing and whaddya know?  No more squeeling.  

Vinegar fixes everything.

Bathroom

I mentioned that I asked for the bathroom to be painted for my birthday, but now I'm thinking I should have asked for this!

Via Solid Frog

Our bathroom walls are not in good shape - very uneven.  Covering 'em up with tile would sure help!  But we should probably attack the sad, sad tile in the shower before this.  Aaaaaaargggg.  How can I be so tortured by such a tiny room!?