In Which We Renovate the Bathroom

This project.

Oh, this project.

We started this renovation in 2010, after not having a truly usable bathroom for some time.  The shower was moldy (even when I cleaned it repeatedly with straight Clorox), the toilet leaked to the living room ceiling, and, it was ugly.  So....

I hit it with a hammer.  We learned a few valuable things, including that the previous owners had thrown up tile over unsealed drywall.  Yup, that'll make it mold.  The wall in the shower came down in giant pieces because the back was so gross!

 Before.  I never really liked this setup.  If you were looking at the shower, there would be a closet to your left, which was nice for storage, but the shelves weren't wide enough for towels and if the closet door was open, you couldn't open the bathroom door.  #FacePalm.

 You may be asking yourself, "Self, what color ARE those tiles". The answer, my friends, is a combination of off-beige and off-pink.  It NEVER looks clean or fresh.  Anyhow.  Since we were going to be breaking things anyway, I decided that I wanted to reclaim some space by taking out the closet, moving the shower so that you didn't have to navigate the toilet to get in, and moving the toilet into an alcove.  Bless my father and our family friend "Uncle Tom" for re-plumbing that all for me!!

 Ta da!  This color green photographed a little funny, but this is my new, spa-inspired bathroom.  This vanity has shelves so I'll put baskets of rolled towels on the top shelf and a basket of necessities under.

 Bam! That shower just happened!  These are the same tiles as the ones on the floor and I bought them at Home Depot when they were on Black Friday Sale for $.33 a square foot.  I have learned that the wet saw and I are mortal enemies, and I'm obsessed with the river rocks we used for borders.  They were not as expensive as they could have been since I used them as an accent, although they seriously sucked up some grout!! There'll be a 1/4 round border at the top of the shower, but we literally finished grouting last night.

It's a potty alcove! With a medicine cabinet above for storage.  Ahhhhh, so nice!

Now....after a brief recovery period for both sanity and money (our long pause had a lot to do with a flooded basement that we had to completely re-do from carpet to drywall! I'll have to do before/after pictures of that, too), I think that our bedroom is next :)