Hydrangeas and Harmony: The Big Bathroom Reveal

AKA... it took over a year but we finally completely finished one room in our house!

When we first looked at the house when it came on the market, this is what the bathroom looked like. I didn't even go into the room. It was nasty, seriously nasty. We knew that if we got the house, this bathroom would be a total redo. Here's a glimpse into where we started:

nice peachy fixtures and trim

weird bathroom soffit and broken curtain rod

Rather old tile with a peachy border and some really old, crumbly wallpaper

At least the toilet seat had been replaced at some point. *shudder*

The tub worked but the diverter was broken. (I'm not mentioning the scuzz or mold issues.)

"Fancy" marble topped vanity and huge mirror

Notice the water-damaged piece by the floor under the sink

Itty, bitty linen closet with very shallow shelves.

If you click on the pic of the linen closet to enlarge it, you might notice the bright blue carpet color in there. Sort of Cookie Monster-ish. We think that was the original color. Now scroll up and enlarge the pic of the sink..... what color do you see? Ah yes.... that nice shag carpet is more of a grayish green. Gray because it was super dirty and green because it was alive.

Fast forward a couple weeks..... we got the house! We had 4 days after settlement before we moved in to get this bathroom completely done. We've done home renos before.... we honestly thought we could do it. We didn't even come close! Here's how it went down:
The first night, Micah got suited up in one of those full body painting suits, mask, and gloves and removed all of the nasty carpet in the house. All the carpet and his protective gear went right into the huge, roll-off dumpster we had rented. Then demo began..... we went down to the studs. This part took 3 days and that was with a couple of friends and their tools helping.

We discovered that the water damaged vanity was more than just a little leak. There was mold behind it, so we had to cut out that wall on the dining room side (a 4'x8' section) and clean it all with bleach.

The drawer on the floor is covering the sink drain hole.

Since we had a working 1/2 bath in the laundry room, we focused on getting a tub and shower working in this bathroom. The tub fit just fine but Bass had to reframe part of the wall before installing it. (AKA... delay) We went for about 2 weeks without a working tub or shower. Some of that time, we were still in our old house but then we resorted to showering at the neighbors or taking sponge baths. A friend stopped by with her kids to see the new house and her 6 year-old asked if we were camping. Yeah, pretty much. Have I ever mentioned that I hate camping? :)
Bass was able to get the tub in so we could sort of squat down in there to bathe but it was better than nothing. The next step was to tile the surround but we had some serious issues with figuring it out so in a late night fit of desperation, I said to forget the tile and just put in a surround instead. I was a little sad to give up the gorgeous tile I had spent hours choosing but we were able to return it to Lowe's and get a surround with no issues.

The surround went in and we were finally able to take a shower! Have I ever mentioned how much I love a nice, long, hot shower?? :) Bass was able to get the shower completed right before he left for a week-long business trip. He was gone for an entire week.... right before Christmas. It was not good.
We went to church Sunday morning before he left for the trip and a friend asked how the house was coming. It was so bad, I just broke down in tears. Her eyes widened and she said, "Wait here." She came back with a guy from the church who does construction for a living. He offered to come and help do whatever we needed. So while Micah was away, he came and drywalled the entire bathroom for us. (Another friend came and installed our new kitchen/laundry room flooring and my dishwasher.) We had only been at this church for a few months so it was such a blessing to have folks who don't really know us just jump in and help. The Body of Christ is amazing!

With walls and a ceiling now, I decided to go with a rustic decor scheme at this stage. Don't you think that the cardboard window treatment helps set the mood? LOL

Part of drywalling, included positioning new junction boxes for 2 vanity lights instead of 1 and adding 2 GFIC outlets.

We put the vanity lights on a dimmer which is wonderful for early mornings. You can sort of ease your way into the morning. We also replaced the shower fan with a fan/light unit.

At this point, we still had no toilet or sink in this bathroom! After the walls were taped, puttied, sanded, puttied, sanded, puttied, and sanded, I finally got to paint. Then it was time to tackle the floor. Micah was a little apprehensive about doing the floor since it was his first attempt at tiling. But I think it turned out fantastic. I think if we had more experience it would have gone faster but we got it done. Our two snags were that we couldn't use my Dad's hand tile cutter because it only cut up to 12" tiles and our tiles are 13". We had to make a run to a tool rental place to get a wet saw cutter. (Which was really nice!) Then we ran out of grout mix so I had to book it to Lowe's to get more.

Once we got the floor in, we were able to replace the door! All of the plain slab doors in the house will eventually be this cottage style 2-panel door. We went with oil-rubbed bronze hinges and hardware.

Apparently somewhere in this year-long process, I got tired of taking in-process pictures. I can't imagine why. :) We installed the toilet (which leaked because they had a batch of toilets where the bolts where installed incorrectly.) Bass had to take it off, turn it over, fix the bolts, and then reinstall it. We put in the new vanity. This only took us 3 tries. The first one was broken so we went and exchanged it.... got the 2nd one home and it was broken too! The third time, Home Depot actually delivered a new one to us and took the 2nd broken one back at no charge. The third one was NOT broken.
We put in 2 new vanity lights and the shower light/fan unit. We installed an Ikea Pax closet in place of the linen closet that got removed. We added trim (crown, baseboard, casing), mirrors, a shower curtain, decor, and lastly a blind! So here it is in all it's finished glory...... drum roll please.... The Main Bathroom!

See our organized linen cabinet here and under the sink here; vanity drawers are here. The shelf above the toilet was from Goodwill.

The prints and frames were from Michael's; The towel racks from Bed, Bath, and Beyond;
The towels are from JC Penney.

The basket is from Michael's; The mirrors are from Christmas Tree Shops; The lights, hardware, and faucets are from Lowe's; The sink accessories are from K-Mart; The Chinese Psalm 23 plaque is from Goodwill.