Because someone might care

This is for my sister that lives in a totally different country, called OHIO.  She and her family were the last people to use our guest bathroom before we gutted it.  I am sure they will be sad about some of the changes that we have made, but change is good.  Here are a few:

Upon entry of this bathroom you were greeted with a fabulous vanity with a teal counter top with doors that were crooked and a storage mirror thingy above the sink.

The original shower was sandwiched between the vanity and the toilet.  It had white tile with a strange pattern, with a glorious glass door with steel bits that were corroding.  The floor was fiberglass and stainy.  The shower head leaked and the mixing valve was cracked soooo... you either had very hot shower or cold one.  Very relaxing, I know.

 On the other side of the shower was the toilet.  It was a pretty large area for the toilet but it had no light at all.

Here is a view from the doorway.  I forgot to mention the ceiling fan/heat lamp/light that was so loud it started to scare our kids to turn it on or that awesome storage unit at the end that didn't close properly or the hollow core door that would scrape the heat vent when you tried to close the door for some privacy.

That bathroom rocked!  Why would we change it at all?  I like change, even if it means removing a lovely gold and yellow linoleum floor and Travis just likes chaos and dirt.  This bathroom was first on our list of bathroom remodels.  We knew it would be the most time consuming, it might cost the most, and it was the guest bath so it would be good practice and we would need a completed bathroom to use for when we remodeled the master bath.  We had some ideas in our head, we had a lot of tile in our garage and I was pretty sure that I could do it for around a grand.  So I tore it apart.

This was by far the easiest part of the project, but after I opened it all up we knew that we couldn't keep that layout.  It was a waste of space, but I wasn't sure what the cost would be to swap the location of the shower and toilet until I knew what was under the floor and if we could do it ourselves so we rented a jack hammer.

Once it was opened up and we spoke with some pros.  We knew it was doable but the budget needed to increase.  Our shower size was more than doubling and electrical was being moved etc.  I simply pulled a number out of the air and called it our budget, $3,000.  I knew the most expensive things were going to be the fixtures and the vanity.  We shopped around and purchased everything first, so I would know how much was left in the budget for any tools and materials.  We found some rock'n deals!  It was a long few months.  I seriously had never tiled ANYTHING before.  I had seen it done before, talked to some pros and rookies, and had watched enough online tutorials that I felt like I could figure it out.  So I dove in.

It looked like this at the beginning of Oct and I am sure Travis' parents thought I would never finish.  I was starting to question it myself, I also knew we wanted it done right and with three kids, the bathroom was not my highest priority.

I woke up this morning thinking about other things in our house that needed serious attention, I guess that means the bathroom is officially out of my mind.  Well not out of mind completely because I did go downstairs to use the bathroom just so I could put my feet on the warm floor.  Here are a few pictures of the finished product.  And a few descriptions of what we did.

We had the ceramic tile (we bought this from my parents over 3 years ago when my Mom changed her mind about her bathroom tile)  so we just purchased the glass accent tile.  We did two horizontal borders of this around the shower, in the back of the shower cubbies and on the ceiling.

We chose oil rubbed bronze fixtures.

NOTE: Brailee, when you turn the shower handle to warm now, warm water actually comes out of the shower-head.  I know you will miss that unpredictability from the previous shower, but it is better trust me.

We also had a bunch of random river rock that I scored from my dad from a few remodels that he has completed over the years.  We put this on the shower floor.

And most importantly we heated the ENTIRE floor, yes, even in the shower.  Cold tile is for weirdos that have never tried it.  I woke up to 27 degree temperatures this morning, I love the heated floor.

We found this vanity for a steal.  I was originally going to make one, but we found this vanity, granite top, sink and mirror for less than the price I could build one.  Thank you discontinued pricing.

Travis found some towels and the perfect picture.  We are a bit partial to photos taken of the northwest, this is the McKenzie River.

The walls look like a different color in each picture but they are stardust from Benjamin Moore.

Ta-da!

My favorite parts of the bathroom are the little things: fan timer, towel hooks, soft close lid on the toilet, and painted door hinges and stop to match the ORB fixtures.  It is the little things people... seriously, how many times do I walk into our bathrooms and find the towels on the floor, the fan on when it should be off or off when it really needs to be on.  I love how the tiled shower ceiling flows seamlessly into the sheet rock texture.

We only hired out one project, re-texturing the ceiling and walls.  I was TIRED and worried that it would take me at least 3 full Saturdays to texture.  That would make this project extend out another month and I was not confident in my skill level at all.  Vern is my new best friend.  He gave us a cash deal that was half the cost of the other guys. He was in my bathroom for 2 days and he did a fabulous job and has more skills then I could ever dream of.  Otherwise, we did this all ourselves. 

We went over budget by $504.27.  I could have saved over $200 if I hadn't crashed the rental trailer and $275 if I didn't hire Vern.  But for a budget # that I pulled out of thin air, I am pretty happy.  Especially when I look at the quote that I got from a tile guy that was going to do the original shower.  He wanted $3,500 to tile the shower and floor and I already owned the tile people, no fixtures, no plumbing, no heated floor.  WHATEVER!  I am pretty sure this bathroom would have cost us at least $15k to hire out.  It is not perfect, but we are happy.  There are a few things I would do differently, but we are DIYers so I guess we are learning as we go.

One down two to go.  But I think I will take a break from the bathrooms until the new year.  We have a cook-top that needs to be installed and pans that need to be purchased.