Renovation

One advantage to having a full week of snow days was being able to finish a small-scale remodel of our front bathroom.  Finally!

We actually started this project way back on August 15th, but between being busy with work and dealing with my heart issues that cropped up soon after that, we accomplished very little over the ensuing months.

There is still more to be done.  The medicine cabinet, mirror, and light fixtures all need to be replaced.  I'll have to find out how to remove a variety of nail polishes, sticky residues, and dried epoxy glues my children and ex-husband left stuck on the surface of the sink over the years.  I'm not happy with the dark blue towels, so I'll be searching for some nice medium-blue ones. 

But those details will wait until I have more time and more money.

For now, though, I'm happy with the great improvement over how this tiny little half-bathroom looked back on August 15th!

The room is so small it makes me claustrophobic, so I left its cleaning to Mark and, later, the kids.  I avoided this bathroom as much as I could.  It gradually began to look like one of those bathrooms people submit to home makeover shows: "Can this bathroom be saved?"

When we first moved in, the walls were painted pale blue.  However, over time the scrubbing of little boy splatters off the wall near the toilet wore away the paint, revealing the ancient wallpaper underneath.  Looks like a public bathroom in a subway station, right?

 

Mark and I actually bought paneling for the bathroom many years ago, but this and that happened, and it never got installed.  It collected dust while leaning against the wall in my office.

Then in August Jacob's friend Chelsea said she was in the mood to tackle a painting project.  I suggested the front bathroom. 

Chelsea and Jacob gave the walls a fresh coat of blue paint and put up the panels, which resemble white tiled walls.  It looked much better and we purchased more supplies to complete the job, but it just never happened.

Over Christmas break we picked up where we left off.  This time Jacob got the cupboards painted.  At right he is painting the inside of the cupboard a deep red.  (It looks like blood to me, but that was his decision.)

We thought long and hard about our color choices.  There was quite a bit of debate between Jacob and Dylan, who use this bathroom most.  In the end, they agreed to a red, white, and blue theme.  I think it turned out pretty well.

We already had blue ceramic tiles down on the floor.  My brother Darryl put those in for us a few days before he and his family moved to Missouri more than 5 years ago.  Then Mark and I put dark blue grout between the tiles.  Thus we knew blue had to be part of the color scheme!

During the snow days we completed the trim, the base boards, the touch-up painting, installing the new toilet seat, and hanging the new towel racks and toilet paper holder. 

At last, it is finished!  Now I no longer need to cringe when guests ask to use the restroom!

I thought the boys were pretty bold in their choices of colors, especially the rich red.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but as it turns out I really like the look.

The brown stain on the floor in front of the toilet isn't anything nasty.  When Jacob and Chelsea were working in the bathroom, she soaked the floor around the toilet with bleach water.  Unfortunately it bleached the color out of that portion of grout, which bled over onto the surrounding tile.  One more stain to figure out how to tackle.  Hopefully the staff at Lowes or Home Depot can help!

It feels good to have this project completed!

Now we just need to finish my bathroom, which we started remodeling over Labor Day weekend. 

It never ends...