When Billy left for Scout camp two weeks ago, I knew I had to do something to keep the kids and I busy. I pondered the pros and cons of different scenarios...I could go to Salem, I could go to the beach...those are the usual standbys. But, for some reason that probably had everything to do with a hormonal manic upswing, I decided to remodel the bathroom without the handiest of handymen, Billy.
You see, we have just one bathroom in our house. A very old, very small, very plain, and sometimes very smelly bathroom. It is really the armpit of our humble home, and that is saying a lot, considering how scary the basement is. We've steered away from a remodel in the past because it was so bad we knew we'd have to do an all out, tear down the walls, replace the plumbing kind of a remodel, and after our kitchen, we were DONE. So the bathroom was left alone, no breath of life eeked into it, it's cream walls as tired as we were.
But, two weeks ago on Monday morning, I dove STRAIGHT in. This is what I did:
1. Removed the existing sink, cabinet, and mirror. Given away free to some River Road passerby.
2. Repaired remaining hole in floor and wall.
3. Spackled and sprayed texture to the poorly patterned wall.
4. Painted ceiling and walls with paint I picked up on free Craigslist
5. Tore out existing moulding
6. Laid ceramic-looking stick-on tile strips
7. Cut (I USED A POWER SAW!) moulding and put it in
8. Caulked everything within sight
9. Put in new sink (that I got for 20 bucks, new, at a garage sale)
10. Painted Goodwill mirror and frames
11. Went a little crazy at Target
Now, the best part of all of this??? Billy had no idea! He left our bathroom with 50 year old yucky wood floors, damaged walls, and dirty cream from top to bottom, and came back to a still old and imperfect, YET colorful new bathroom. He was so surprised, when he first saw it he thought I'd hired someone to do it for me. Now that is a compliment!
Before (If you think this picture looks good, TRUST ME, it didn't look like this in real life):
After (Notice the floor-to-moulding-to-bathtub connection. I am so proud of myself!)
8 comments:
SHUT UP. You are amazing. It looks fabulous.
oh my gosh i cant beleive you did that!! you are amazing!! and it looks great!!
Wow! That is so awesome that you did it all yourself! I wish I was so handy! Way to go!
OH MY HOLY FREAKING HECK!!!!!!!!! You are my idol, my heroine, my absolute "I wanna be you" doll! Seriously Becs, this is just about the coolest thing in the world...you stun me with your amazingness...
everybody has already used all the good exclamatory adjectives. oh wait - mind-blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
btw, did we ever get to see pics of the finished kitchen?
youve amazed me yet again, love the frames over the toilet, can i copy you?
i swear i already commented on this...guess not. i had to come back for a second look because it's so glorious! like emmy, i'm stealing your frame idea. good job mama! i am so proud of you. you've inspired me to get my hands dirty.
I LOVE the fact that you called your bathroom "the armpit" of your house. I about died laughing... and I know exactly what you mean!
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