Thursday, July 14, 2011

Bathroom Redo: Part 2 - Shopping and Planning

Before we even began our much-awaited and anticipated bathroom remodel project, we took an extensive shopping excursion to our favorite place - Lowe's.

The Dr. told me to take it easy on the shopping, and I took his advice to heart!


Yep, I totally had a blast on that thing. We were laughing the entire time, and Tom got a kick out of making me backup just to hear that annoying little beeping noise.

Anyways, about 3 hours later we had just about everything we'd need for the entire bathroom remodel. Why make it all in one trip? We had a coupon for 10% off our entire purchase, and we wanted to make the most of our savings. Score.

Planning and gathering all the supplies we would need really cut down on the number of trips we've taken to the store in the middle of a project, and has been essential in our space-planning.

We found that the only vanity we liked (and could afford), was about 3" wider than our existing vanity, requiring that it be shifted to the left so it will be slightly closer to the toilet. This posed a problem with the mirror medicine cabinet, of course, and to be center over the new vanity our new mirror would need to shift slightly left, and the new light would need to be moved higher to accomodate our new taller mirror. These were all things we couldn't have anticipated beforehand if we had not had all our supplies on-hand and known their dimensions and size.

Plus? It's also nice to get a feel for how the room would look when we're done. And just because I can't resist, here's the vanity we chose:

{via}

Another thing we had to decide on?

The wall tiles.


Here's the deal on those: they were okay, added lots of character and were really nice...

At one point in time.

See, the tiles hadn't been properly cared for or maintained for years. Combine that with the fact that the bathroom never had a fan vent (until we installed one, that is!) and had streams of water dripping down the walls (and therefore tiles) every time someone showered, and you can imagine what the grout looked like when we inherited the bathroom. First I intended to save the tiles by simply recoloring the grout, but the grout was also missing or cracked in places, and I knew that to revive and keep the tiles it would be a hassle. Chipping out the old grout and re-grouting it all when I wasn't even in love with the existing tile just didn't make much sense to me.

So it was decided that the wall tiles had to go.

What else was going?

The floor. Goodbye nasty, dirty, ugly, cracked and peeling linoleum. We won't miss you!

In the end we decided that most things would be getting replaced or would be getting a face lift with some paint. The only things we won't be touching at all is the ceiling and the tub and shower surround.


(you can see the shower tiles and window pretty well in this old photo)

Thankfully, we love the shower! The surround has the square version of our white ceramic subway tiles that we used to DIY our kitchen backsplash, and the shower tiles had nice white grout, too. They're not the trendy subway tile shape, but hey - they're nice, white, square, and in good condition, and we want to do this bath on a budget - so they work for us!


And what made us even more excited? That we would be able to shower throughout our bathroom remodel! Yep, that's right, there will be no showering outdoors for this couple, thankyouverymuch! What can I say - the thought of crawly bugs and mosquitoes feasting on me while showering outdoors in plain view of the neighbors was just not appealing to this pregnant gal.

Oh, and the last thing that's staying (at least for now), is the window in the shower. Yes, it's weird. We know. Oddly enough, it's seems to be pretty common in older homes around here - the duplex we rented before we bought this Fossil had a window in the shower exactly like this. Strange, huh? Anyways, we have future plans to fix this little indiscretion - but for now it's staying. We'll have enough on our plate with the rest of the remodel as it is!

Once we had our plan of action we got to work with some always-fun-and-exciting demo - stay tuned!

So what about you? Are you tackling or planning any sort of major remodel right now? Do you like to gather all your supplies at once or buy-as-you-go? And honestly: would YOU save the tile?

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2 comments:

  1. Isn't the window-in-the-shower thing so odd?? I'd say 75% of the houses we looked at had the same thing. So strange! Can't wait to see everything you picked out!

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  2. Omg .... your bathroom is EXACTLY the same size and layout as my main bathroom ....

    Ive done a few renovations to it. Re-Nu'd the tub and tile. That lasted 2 years ... gotta do it again . Next i'll only have the tub painted and just re tile around the tub with subway tile.

    I love your color selection and everything you've done for that matter. My house is on a concrete slab, and was built in 1961 ... I think they built them from old Homes without indoor plumbing plans ... and realized after the fact, it needed a bathroom! Haha
    Great Job!!!

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