Big Reveal

Bathroom Remodel: Part 5 Do you remember this? This is where we started. Could this win ugliest bathroom in the world? Um, I think maybe it could. Drum roll please...............here it is now......Ta-Da!!!!!!! New tile on the floor--check. New snowy white painted beadboard on the walls--check.

Cute white tiles on the tub/shower surround--check.

Sunny yellow paint on the upper part of the walls--check. Cute new accessories--check.

I L-O-V-E it! It's been completely done for a few months now and still, everytime I walk down the hall, I take a peak in to see just how freakin' cute this cottage-y, beach-y, vintage-y bathroom is now that it's all done. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!!

Yes, that is a door you see at the far end of my bathroom. This is what they refer to here in FL as the "pool bath". It has a door which leads to the screened porch, which then leads out in to the backyard. However, I do not have a pool! And as far as I can tell, there has never been a pool in the backyard. Wishful thinking on the part of the builder, I guess.

Rub a Dub Dub

Bathroom Remodel: Part 4 This installment moves on to the re-tiling of the tub/shower surround. And once again we're working on a budget here people, using as much of what I already had to get this done as inexpensively as possible. So here we go.... These white tiles were left over from the guest bathroom shower surround at my parents house (when their bathroom was tiled way back in 1993). Here's the kicker though, they were just plain white shiny shower tiles. Nothing that gets outdated. Ever. So....perfect. I'll take them. And use them up. Every last one of them. The photo above is one of many practice layouts that were tested on the living room floor. It's not an easy task to make tiles that you have on hand fit in to a 30 year old bathtub/shower surround. But I made it work and here are the tiles going up. Yes, some of the tiles have a diamond embossed pattern on them. I sprinkled them in to add some extra cuteness. Well, that and, if I didn't use them, then I wouldn't have enough tiles to cover the entire surface!!

And at the end of Day 1, here's all the tile up on the wall. Just need it to dry so the grout can go up on Day 2.

Now, of course, a spa-like bathroom with natural stone tiles and a pebble floor would have been great to have, but my house is just not a spa-like type house. It's more of a cottage-y, comfy, kick up your feet, don't use coasters for your drinks, kind of house. So a classic white bath/shower is a perfect fit. Frou-frou stone tiles would look out of place.

Well, here it is all finished. Can you even see it? Have you ever tried to take a photo of white tiles? With white grout? With a white shower curtain? And a white ceiling? Did anything show up in your photos? You can kind of see it in this photo. Maybe. Here, squint, and get in really close to the screen. See anything? Can you make out how straight those grout lines are? How perfectly the tiles all fit? Are you impressed with my first vertical tiling job ever? I sure am! And from what I've been told, this shower is fantastic now. Yay! Mission accomplished.

Here is an odd instance when taking a photo with no flash in a semi-dark room after the sun has set might actually yeild more detail than taking the photo in the daylight. Odd, yes, but it seems like it may have worked. Maybe. The photo above (which makes the tile look sort of a golden tan color, but trust me, it's as white as it comes) was taken with my iPhone. Does it help at all? Hmm...not so much, huh? Oh well, I gave it my best shot. Just imagine it, okay?

Any guesses????

Here's a puzzler. Anyone know what this contraption is? There are no labels, no carvings, no identifying marks of any kind anywhere on it. It's made of wood and metal. Has a handle which spins the round piece in the middle. The round piece is a cutting device of some sort because it has blades.

The piece in the picture below actually sits down directly on the top of the round blade-y thing. Providing some type of "shoot" to drop things down for them to reach the round blade-y thing.

See the blades? They're on both sides. Total it stands just about knee high. Maybe allowing for someone to use it while sitting in a chair???

I have no earthly idea what it is. A cabbage shredder? A cotton cutter? A Medieval torture device?

Side note, I found this on the side of the road on trash day. Something told me, go pick it up, even though you don't know what the heck it is. It's cool. And what if it's worth some money? And what if it's the last one of it's kind? Maybe I should call Antiques Roadshow? Or the guys from American Pickers? Do I have a real treasure on my hands here?

Project Progress

Bathroom Remodel Part 3: The remodel continues.....and I was really, really bad about taking photos while I was in the middle of this project. But this project was exhausting. And a bit stressful. Have you ever completely gut a bathroom before? Take it from me, don't do it, unless you have to, like I did, because my bathroom before looked like Steak & Shake! So, here we are working on the floor. This bathroom was completely done on a budget. The lighter tan tiles were "leftovers" from my kitchen, so they were free. The darker tiles are a terra cotta color, and they came out to only $1.00/each. Bought them on sale at the Home Depot. The checkerboard pattern came to be because I was being resourceful with the tiles I already had. I ended up with just 2 extra light tan tiles. Perfect! And I only had 4 or 5 extra terra cotta tiles. I love projects with little to no waste.

Once I figured out the best way to lay out the pattern to make the most of the tiles and make it the most visually pleasing, it was easy to do. You'll also notice some beadboard panels going up on the walls. The beadboard was a bargain too. I found some solid birch stain grade panels (so you know their better quality) on clearance at Lowe's, all the way back at the end of 2008. All 10 5'x8' sheets stood on leaning up against the wall in my spare bedroom for nearly 12 months before they were used, but so worth it. The panels were purchased for just a third of the regular price. Score!!

Remember that hideous shiny black tile that once lined these walls? Well, rather than ripping out the drywall and starting fresh at the studs, I opted to install the beadboard to cover up the mess the tile left behind. It's a look I've always liked in baths and I really like it when it goes up higher than the usual chair rail height. This was installed up to my eye level--60".

Here's the tile all secured down. Drying and setting, waiting patiently for it's pretty new grout.

And another shot of the tile floors and beadboard walls. At this point, I'm loving the bathroom and can't wait to get finished with this project so I can "show off" my new space. Or rather, not have to hide this bathroom from all of my guests, always hoping that anyone who came to my house didn't have to use the restroom while they were here.

More beadboard. Measuring out the baseboards.

And once again, I forgot to take in progress photos of the grout installation process. But, grout is messy and I was down on my hands and knees, one hand on the trowel, one hand on a damp sponge, and no free hands for photo ops. Grout it grout, it's not exciting, and I'm certainly not a pro enough to even offer up pointers on how best to do it. My advice would be "just go for it", make a mess, and just clean it up with water before it dries completely.

You can see here in the photo above (and the photo below) that I chose a grout that was a bit darker than my terra cotta colored tiles. This is a the main "public" bathroom in my house. This baby's gonna get a lot of use. And I am not a girl who likes to scrub light colored grout every other week trying to keep it clean. I prefer to spend my time doing fun things, like other home improvement projects! A slightly darker grout was the best route for me....and it looks really classy.

More photos.....

The vanity is back in this one, atleast temporarily. The bottom drawer is missing in this picture, but this is a dry-run to make sure the vanity and the baseboards are all going to fit nicely. So far so good. We're getting close to done.......

Demo Disaster Area

Bathroom Remodel: Part 2 This project was a mess. Have y'all ever tried to get tile off a wall when the tile was put up directly to the drywall with the sort of cement that should only be used to bond tile to a concrete floor? I don't recommend trying it. But, the tile needed to come off, I'm too cheap to hire someone to do it, so here goes nothing... In the midst of this project, right about when I got to here, a piece of the broken tile sliced down the side of my finger. I'm sparing you the visuals of the blood spattered walls and floor. Trust me though, it was not pretty. And it hurt like the dickens. Stitches probably would have been a good idea, perhaps along with a tetanus shot, but I opted to just wrap it up really well and kept right on truckin' along.

Taking this tile down off the walls was not an easy task. I would love to call up the person who put the black shiny tile on the wall. I have a few things I'd like to tell them.

Before the floor tile came up, the vanity and toilet had to come out. Vanity--easy peasy, Toilet--not so much. Even emptied of all the water with the back removed toilets are heavy. Luckily dad was there to help. Thanks dad!

The tile was stuck to the floor really, really well. Rather than leveling the floor in a proper way, these tile installers opted to use globs and globs of cement. Some of these tiles had, oh, I don't know, inches and inches of cement underneath them. Ugh, sheesh!

This looks all nice and clean, right? And since there's only 2 photos of the floor demo you might think that it was simple and sweet. Not so much. Don't let the lack of photos fool you. The lack of photo documentation is due to the hard work required to get this all up. And at the very end, it was still necessary to rent an electric jackhammer thingy from Home Depot to get the final bits of cement up off the floor. It was tough, tough, tough.

Oops, not sure what happened to the in-progress photos of the tile coming down in the shower, but they seem to be missing. Oh well, how many tile demolition photos do you really need to look at anyway? My whole goal here was to save the tub. It's the original. Nice baked porcelain finish over a metal (tin, maybe?) base. It's heavy, only had just 2 tiny little dings, and it would have cost a small fortune to get a replacement of this quality. So the tile removal in the shower required a bit more finesse. And a thick layer of drop cloths covering all bits of the tub to protect it from the falling tile shards. Tub came out unscathed, whew.

Last photo. All cleaned up and ready for installation of the good stuff!!! Hold on tight, this is gonna be good!

Color My World

Like many of my do-it-herselfer friends, I have a very messy, very crowded, cabinet where I store my leftover and unused paint. Luckily, I have a nice metal cabinet, that can hold quite a bit and really takes a beating, in my garage. It's set aside just for paints, stains, and all the extras that go along with them. I'm a big supporter of re-using everyday objects that might end up in the trash, like these glass jars saved from jellies, jams, pickles and spaghetti sauces (washed out of course). No need to throw them away. Pop them in the dishwasher with the next load and you're all set. Leftover glass jars make great containers for the little bits of paint that remain in the bottom of the can after you're finished with a project. Those partially filled cans take up a lot of space. And after a while they start to rust and ruin your paint. If you're like me, sometimes you don't get the lid banged down tight enough on the top of the can and then the paint dries out. Not good. Glass jars with screw on lids, very good. And you can label each jar with a Sharpie, so the paint is just as easy to find as it is in the can (if not easier). When you transfer paint out of the original container, always make sure that you write the brand name and the name of the paint color on the jar. I like to add the name of the project as well, to make touch ups a breeze. If the paint man gives me an extra sticker label when I buy the paint, I'll save it and stick it on the jar. Works great. Side note: here's a suggestion for labeling your paint cans, for all the paint not ready to be transferred to a smaller jar. Since the lid tends to get messy over time, write the information about the color, project and finish on the side of the paint can. This trick also makes it easier to find the specific paint you're looking for when you stack cans on top of each other for storage. And here's what the cabinet looks like now. Nothing fancy that's for sure, and not even a huge change, but it definitely is cleaned up and will be much easier to get to the necessary paint for all my future projects. I do think even with my consolidation of the paint that I'm about to run out of room in my paint cabinet, but those Oops paints are my favorites and I can never seem to leave the home store without at least one! I see a second paint cabinet in my very near future....

Showering at Steak n Shake

Bathroom Remodel: Part 1 My house, which I've lived in for almost 3 years, was built in 1979. By the looks of it, this bathroom was remodeled sometime during the late 80s. Who does this to a bathroom and think that it looks good??? Really?!?!? Let me put this in perspective for you. This is the "main" bath in the house, serving both everyday drop-by visitors, to those guests who stay for a few days, to those who may reside in the house and not have the privilege of using the master bathroom (which is in need of it's own makeover soon!!).

Here's what we're dealing with: 4x4 black shiny tile waist high on every one of the walls, and 12x12 black and white non-shiny tiles placed in a non-scensical pattern on the floor.

Really?!?!?

Oh, and it doesn't end there. There's also the lovely shower. Here they went all out, got fancy, and placed the black tiles on point rather than in rows. Nice, right?

With as hideous as this bathroom is, you might gather that I re-did it a long, long time ago and I'm just not getting around to posting about it, but you'd be wrong. While the demo started less than a month after I moved in, the completely finished product didn't appear until just the beginning of this summer. Come along with me, will you, will we take this bath from what you see here to something a little easier on the eyes.