Bathroom Redo

   If you have ever spent time with my husband, you will eventually learn of his distaste for social media. I love Instagram and the connections I have fostered through Facebook. I experiment with Twitter, mostly as a follower of people that interest me. And this blog has been an 8 year digital scrapbook of sorts. Social media has become a daily interaction for me.

   Despite his reservations about our family's presence in cyberspace, this post has my husband's full support. Whenever we do a house project, he asks if I am going to put it on the blog, if I have taken pictures for the blog, etc. Which is ironic because I am usually so caught up in the DIY that the documenting is the last thing on my mind. Having said that, here is what I captured of the basement bathroom redo from this summer.

   This is best I could find for a before picture.

   The floor was not damaged downstairs but the linoleum that was in there left a lot to be desired. I had been swooning over penny tile for awhile so I thought this was our chance. Matt and his mom were so great, in a matter of days they patched drywall, added texture,  and painted.

   That piece of ceiling above the toilet is where I noticed the ceiling sagging and upon investigating, my entire hand went through the ceiling. I joked in my distress that the sh*t had literally hit the (bathroom) fan!

      If we were not in a rush to get out of the hotel we were staying in and we did not have a strict budget, we would have had the entire bathroom drywall replaced and textured by a professional. It would have been more than the insurance was going to cover and somehow I imagine another crack at this when our 4 children are older. This shower gets a lot of use!

   As I mentioned, I really wanted the penny tile. We found these hexagon shaped small tiles at Lowe's and decided to pair the white tiles with a charcoal grout. Less cleaning! Matt and I had no experience tiling, and it shows. We also felt sore for a week after this. The cleaning up of the grout really got shorted because we both were achy from laying the tile.
 
    I like the floor but we were in way over our head. I think if we had it to do again I would stain/paint the concrete floor that was under the linoleum. It was in great shape and would have been quite functional for the heavy traffic in here.

    We had a plumber get the toilet and sink hooked back up. We do not mess with plumbing around here, especially when it was a leak that started this whole disaster.

Matt hung an additional piece of molding when he replaced the baseboards so that I could have many hooks along the wall. I thought it added interest and functionality. We have never had any luck with towel bars at our house, too many boys that want to be Tarzan. Originally everything was a standard white. I liked how clean and bright it was because there is no natural light in there.

   But as we lived with it, it was apparent that we are not in the bright and white stage of life. I found a nice gray, Silver Screen by Glidden, that still kept it light. The real kicker was the shower curtain I found at World Market. It brought the whole vision I had together.

   It is hard to photograph this small space but here are my best attempts.