Our Finished Bathroom

 It has only taken 6 months, but I'm happy to report that the bathroom is finally complete!

And a few before & afters...

I'll be adding sources soon {which could mean next month}, and some of our suggestions on how to renovate a bathroom on a budget.

My hubby and father-in-law worked tirelessly on this bathroom: 3 consecutive weekends of work, including 1 long weekend, and installing & reinstalling the tub after the tile had been grouted {story for another day!}. ALWAYS read the reviews on an item you are about to buy. If more than 1 person (or all 11 reviewers) have the same problem, chances are you will too. Lesson learned.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Linking up with:
DIY by Design
Savvy Southern Style
DIY Showoff 
A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Liz Marie Blog
It's Overflowing 
Thrifty Decor Chick
A Stroll Thru Life

Bathroom Artwork

I'm that girl who dreams of having more walls. There are so many things I want to hang up around our home, and honestly, we're out of wall space.

So when we renovated our bathroom this fall, I knew I would have another opportunity for displaying some great artwork.

Two years ago, when cleaning out my husband's grandfather's house, my father-in-law came across this piece of artwork and thought it would be something I would like. I loved it immediately, and have been keeping it in a safe place ever since. I love the colors, the aging of the paper, and that it is something that has been in the family for almost 90 years. The back of the artwork is signed, with the date September 6, 1924, and we're all pretty sure it was originally painted in Italy.

Not wanting to chance using the actual artwork in the bathroom, and having it be damaged with the heat & humidity, I set out for a way to use this original piece of art...without actually using it. My simple (and cheap) solution? A color photocopy!

When I shared our bathroom reveal a few weeks ago, we were still missing a few key pieces... one of them being artwork for the frame next to the vanity.

As soon as I saw this print from Megan Balli on Etsy, I knew it would be perfect for our bathroom. The colors were gorgeous, and it reminded me so much of Vermont. I had to have it!

Megan was amazing to work with, and quickly set up a listing for me in a 4x6 size. It was shipped the next day, and as soon as I got the package, I ran upstairs to the bathroom to see how it would look. Even A pointed to it and smiled. We love it!

I'm already trying to figure out where else I can squeeze in a few more frames, just so I can buy more of Megan's work. It's all gorgeous!

{Bathroom Renovation}: The Reveal - Part I

Today is the big day... part one of the Bathroom Reveal!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... but in case you can't tell, WE LOVE IT!

I'm working on a source list & price breakdown, all to come soon. I also have a lot of in-progress pictures to share... and a good story, including how we had to replace the tub twice, and how a pipe burst in here during Hurricane Sandy. But looking at the finished product, I could almost forget those things even happened! (Sorry, babe - I know you can't!)

In the next few weeks I hope to have all the final touches in place, and will share them as we go!
• Artwork for the frame above the outlets
• New mirror (you can see the picture here)
• Window treatments (so that I can stop flashing the neighbors in the morning)!

And in case you can't wait for the final recap, you can see all the before pictures, here.
 
Linking up to:
Savvy Southern Style
DIY By Design
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Live, Laugh Rowe
Its Overflowing 
Kelly's Korner
Liz Marie Blog

Weekly Dose of Random

• Remember when I said A was going through his 18-month sleep regression? Ha! Oh no no, that was not the 18 month sleep regression. This, is the 18-month sleep regression. Wednesday night, he was up 6 times, crying. Yesterday, he cried during both naps, and ended up not taking a second nap. He's only slept thought the night 3 times in the last 2 weeks. When reading askmoxie.org today (my go-to sleep site), I felt relieved to know what was bothering him. But I was not relieved to read that this can last for weeks or months. Months?!

• We’ve hit a bit of a roadblock with the bathroom. It turns out our tub has an “invisible crack” – exactly what the name implies, there is an unseen crack, causing the tub to leak directly from the center of the tub, while it is full. This means that the tub doesn’t leak during showers, but does leak during bath-time.

So, what's next? We’re replacing the tub this weekend. Replacing the tub = removing rows of our freshly grouted tile = not a happy hubby. But, we’re doing what we have to do… because being mad about it will not change the fact that there is a leak into our downstairs bathroom.

• It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is my new favorite movie. It brings back so many memories of my childhood, and I love seeing A’s face when I turn it on. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t blink for the 25 minutes it is playing, and he actually let me cuddle with him while it’s on. Win - win.

• Because I’m loving our bathroom, even if the tub has to come out this weekend, here are some more recent pictures. I’m so looking forward to the mirror being delivered, and getting artwork & hooks on the walls. And I’m also secretly excited to organize the vanity. Container Store, here I come!

• I love Beth Anne's blog, Okay, BA. You can read this weeks posts on Babble, here. I love that she is a working momma, and that she keeps it all in perspective, and that she is real. She doesn't pretend to have it all together, and admits when life is hard... and what I love most of all, is that she can still laugh about it all.

• Don’t forget to enter the giveaway at Dear Baby Owen – enter before midnight, tonight!

• Last but not least, a picture of my baby boy, who is so not a baby anymore.

I could eat him! (which is why I had to pin this).

Source: etsy.com via Jillian on Pinterest

Have a wonderful weekend!

{Bathroom Renovation}: Before Photos & Sneak Peek

Before I share some sneak peeks of the new bathroom (we're not really done, but we're almost there!), I wanted to share some pictures of the bathroom... the whole bathroom... pre-renovation.

I'm a little embarrassed to show these pictures in blog-land... but this bathroom was our reality for the last 3.5 years. Oh my goodness, I can't believe it has really been that long!

 

While I did nothing to retouch these pictures, I did clean the bathroom before I took them. That ring in the tub? SO gross. I have tried every product known to man on that tub floor, and nothing. So every night when A took a bath, I'd have to cover the rust ring with a bathmat. That heater that is rusted out? Total baby hazard. And those hotel vanity lights made the room feel like we were on a Broadway show.

I do realize how blessed we are to live in a beautiful home, but this bathroom was in serious need of an update. Here is a peek at the bathroom (as of yesterday). Please excuse the bad iPhone picture...I'll be posting more pictures this weekend!

Oh, and don't forget to enter the Bella Carta Boutique Giveaway over at Dear Baby Owen! And I'd love if you followed Bella Carta Boutique on facebook, too!

Still Here

I was a bad blogger last week. And I'm not going to be a good blogger this week, either.

If you've been reading over the last few months, you know that our bathroom renovation began this weekend, on our one and only shower in our home. You also probably know that my son, A, is the worlds lightest sleeper. With all the work happening in our home right now, we've been shuttling back and forth to my parents house the last 4 days for naps and baths, and life is a little nutty right now. My parents have been so gracious to open their home to us, letting us come through like a tornado several times a day, and then cleaning up in our wake. They are our saving grace right now.

My in-laws were also down this weekend, to help us with the renovation. To say we are grateful for their help would be an extreme understatement. Whenever we're in the middle of a renovation, they always come to help, no questions asked, and save the day. We couldn't have done any of this, without them.

So yes, my house is a mess and we don't have a working shower. Neither one of those things will change this week, so we'll still be shuttling around to shower, and working late nights to finish up the bathroom.

Posting will be light this week, and I plan to be back next week with lots of updates, and maybe a bathroom reveal.

See you next week!
XO

{Bathroom Renovation} Progress Update #3

A few quick updates on the bathroom!

• Here's a sneak peek at the vanity. Yes... we painted it!

• We will temporarily be using the mirror from our downstairs bathroom, as we wait for this one to arrive. I won't type its ETA, because it's depressing to see that date in print.

via

• The tub and tile have been purchased, and a grout color has been picked. Picking out a grout color was a lot less glamorous than I thought it would be.

• I'm still having a hard time figuring out window treatments, and a rug. My new philosophy is that it's OK if I still have decisions to make in a few weeks. Not everything has to be "done", Columbus Day Weekend.

• Dear Mom: remind me of this post when I'm venting next week that I don't have everything for the bathroom, and that my mirror won't be here for another 4 months.

• The vanity is being removed this weekend! Goodbye, ugly vanity.

• I've started a mental countdown of how many "showers" I have left in this bathroom. Columbus Day Weekend, get here soon!

{Bathroom Renovation} Progress Update #2

I know, I know...another bathroom post!

I can't really think of anything else these days. I felt like we were in really good shape, but now that we're 3 weeks away from this renovation, I'm realizing we still have some big decisions to make.

Here's the latest design board - I would call it an inspiration board, but in reality, most of these items have already been purchased. Maybe a reality board is a more accurate name?

For some reason, the tile is reading very yellow/tan on this board. I've compared the sample to the vanity (which, is a light grey), and the tile is definitely more-white than yellow. Since it's travertine, there will be a lot of variation in the color, but I'm hoping the white & light tan undertones will be the most evident.

Shower Curtain: Thomas O'Brien for Target (I ordered mine on eBay, but the one shown above is from here)
Vanity: Martha Stewart for Home Depot, Seal Harbor Collection
Mirror: Wisteria Rustic Finish Oval Mirror
Lighting: Outdoor Lighting via Joss & Main

Here's our to-do list. Feel free to weigh in on some questions we're asking!

1) Decide on tile pattern
• do we only use the subway size? with herringbone on the floor and a traditional subway pattern in the shower?
or... do we change up the tile size by doing a bigger tile in the shower?

Just one thing to note: we have cathedral ceilings in our bathroom. So while this rendering above is very tile-heavy, there will actually only be 100 square feet of tile in the bathroom.  Our walls will not be tiled (obviously the shower being the exception to that!)

2) Pick a paint color
• I don't even know where to start... and this needs to be decided soon. We're painting in 2 weeks!

3) Buy sink fixtures
• I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for, but now I have to find it!

4) Buy shower & tub fixtures
• This has been hard. We have a 3-handle tub system, which is a little rare these days. Rather than redo the plumbing, we're just looking for a fixture that will work. Fingers crossed that we find one we like!

5) Buy new hardware for vanity
• I'm hoping a trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend will take care of this item!

Now that we're in the home stretch, I'm questioning every decision I've made so far. I know I'm not alone in those feelings, especially since I've done that with every renovation in our home. One day, I'll share the funny store about how our hardwoods came to be :)

So, readers... anyone want to share their opinion on our tile pattern or possible paint colors? I'd love the input!

Happy Wednesday!

{Bathroom Renovation} Progress Update

I mentioned yesterday that we're finally making progress on the bathroom. I couldn't be more excited! After 3.5 years of living with our current bathroom, we're ready for something clean and updated.

Here's my original inspiration board. Although we're still undecided on a wall color, and have changed our vision for the vanity, I think the bathroom will still end up looking pretty close to what you see below.

 

A few weeks ago, I also shared what I thought would eventually become the vanity. Here it is again. We're going to see this in person next week, just to make sure we love it. And if we do, it's coming home with us!

via

This weekend, we also purchased this bathroom mirror from Wisteria. I had saved this mirror long ago, always picturing it in our new bathroom. Wisteria was offering 20% off their entire site this weekend, so the price of the mirror was brought down to $80. Because it was an over sized piece, I had to pay $35 additional in shipping. But for $115, I think this mirror was a steal.

via

These are the two types of tile we're considering. Both are tumbled travertine, in Walnut. The difference is obviously the shape - the first one is 6"x6" square, and the second is 3"x6" subway. Originally we pictured the square on the floor in a staggered pattern, and the subway in the shower, also staggered.

via

via

After seeing some of these pictures on Pinterest, we're now thinking of maybe doing herringbone floors, and a traditional subway tile pattern in the shower.

Source: grayowldesign.files.wordpress.com via Jillian on Pinterest

Source: atlantahomesmag.com via Jillian on Pinterest

 
It seems so real now!

:)

{Home Tour Friday} - Laundry Room

When I started typing the title to this post, I felt a little ridiculous. Am I really about to show pictures of my laundry room? In blog-land?

The Virgo in me actually loves to see other laundry rooms - so many bloggers have created amazing spaces for laundry, ironing, folding, storage and cleaning. Our room isn't quite that big, but I am proud of the transformation!

You have already seen our dining room here; the bathroom/laundry room is directly off of that room. With a little boy and a dog in our house, this room get a lot of use.

As you can see, our washer & dryer are normally hidden by curtains. Closing those curtains allows me to hide the mess that normally sits on top of the washer & dryer

Here are some pictures from the bathroom/laundry room renovation. I'm not sure that I have a picture before we started demolition, but suffice it to say this bathroom was almost as bad as our full bathroom. While it would have made sense to do the larger bathroom first, renovating the half bathroom was all we could fit in the budget after we bought our home. You can see the a little bit of the original wall color, the original vanity and the two (very different) floor tiles the previous owners had chosen.

Because we were unable to use the engineered hardwoods on the riser for the toilet, we chose tumbled travertine. OK...chose would be the wrong word. This tile was left over from my parents home renovation, so we took it from them. It just so happened to be just what we were looking for!

The little door you see in the last picture is the entrance to our crawl space. We framed it out and painted it the same color as the new beadboard so that it didn't stick out quite as much. With some paint, new floors, tile, beadboard, and a pedestal sink... we had a brand new laundry room. I love how this room turned out!

I'm linking up with
Kelly's Korner - SUYL Laundry Rooms 
Debbie Doo's Newbie Party 
It's Overflowing 
A Bowl Full of Lemons

{Bathroom Renovation} Inspiration

I despise our bathroom.

This is the only picture I have of it. It's not a room you want to take pictures of. I'll be sure to take more before we start the renovation, but for now, this is it.

This picture certainly doesn't show you just how awful our bathroom is. The walls were never patched or taped properly before it was painted, so there are rough spots and nails popping out everywhere. The baseboard heater in the back? Completely rusted out on each end. All the fixtures are gold, the tub and shower are a bath-fitter insert with the worst caulking job you've ever seen. The tub also has a giant rust-type ring in front of the drain. I've spent hours trying to get rid of it, to no avail. I've tried every cleaning product known to man. The medicine cabinet doors fall off all the time, and have worn out in the most used spots. Oh, and that white tile... Have I mentioned we have a chocolate Lab? Between my dark hair and his, the floors are always a mess. And they also have black permanent marker all over them (from where the previous owners meant to cut the tile, but didn't, and installed it anyways).

For the most part, I find it therapeutic to clean. When I have the time, I enjoy it. Most days, I have to talk myself into cleaning this bathroom. It is that bad. As much as I clean it, it never feels clean - that's the worst feeling!

Here are 2 new bathroom inspiration boards. Most of the inspiration came from Pinterest (you can see my Bathroom Renovation board here). Paint colors are still very undecided; I'm very torn between a neutral palette with color in artwork & accessories, or a dramatic color on the walls, with very neutral accents.

One of my favorite bathroom renovations comes from Lindsay from Life of Splendor (found here). Their bathroom was the first one I had seen, where I wanted to take the whole room and move it into my house. Their bathroom is also set up identically to ours, so it was easy to picture how the changes they made would look in our home.

The bathroom has huge vaulted ceilings - probably 12 feet at it's tallest point. However, the footprint of the bathroom is small: 8ft x 5ft.  In order to make the room feel larger, we thought board and batten would draw the eye up the wall, and make the room appear larger. With our current 12"x12" floor tiles, it is very easy to count 8 deep and calculate the size of the room. Not that I think people do that when they walk into a bathroom (ok, maybe I do), but subway tiles on the floor will help the feeling that the room is deeper than it is.

Our goal is to do this renovation in the fall. We will most likely have to move out of the house for a few days, since this is our only full bathroom. In the meantime, we're shopping for:
Mirror
Antique Dresser
Tile
Tub
Shower, Tub & Sink fixtures
Shower Curtain & Linens

We have already purchased these lights, from Joss & Main. They are outdoor lights, but when I saw them, I thought they would work perfectly in the bathroom:

Source: jossandmain.com via Jillian on Pinterest

I'm currently searching for the perfect dresser to turn into a vanity. Last year, I saw 'the one' at an antique store not far from my house, but the bathroom wasn't on the top of my list that day. A whole year later, and I'm still thinking about that dresser! It will turn up, one of these days.

I'll be sure to keep updating as we make progress on the bathroom shopping list!

Happy Weekend! 

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner (SUYL - Bathrooms)