Wednesday 19 October 2011

SURVIVED THE BATHROOM RENO

So, I am proud to say that we are done our bathroom remodel and are still married and speaking to each other! We learned early on in our marriage that we have very different styles of doing things (like putting together furniture, reading instructions and so on). We swore to never put IKEA furniture together TOGETHER ever again. So when we (OK more me) decided that we needed to redo our bathroom we knew that it would be a test of our marriage :)

I know everyone asks why we would do this since we are renting and won't be here for probably much longer, but if you saw our bathroom before, it was starting to grow mold on the walls in the shower and was just nasty. So after talking to our landlord, he agreed to give us $2000 to redo the bathroom. I have watched to many renovation shows or something because I figured we could get this whole thing knocked out in a weekend!! They do on TV, so figured why can't we. So off we went to the store and priced out different things and decided on what we wanted to do. There was a sale so we bought mostly everything early, so we had it sitting in our house for about a week and a half before we even started. If you know me, you know that I go crazy when there is just mess everywhere. Not that I am a super clean and organized person but I just hate clutter so even starting off just living in clutter before the construction even got started was driving me crazy!

Here are some pictures of the bathroom before!!

The old linoleum dirty floor that no matter how hard I cleaned it it never looked cleaned! And the super old vanity and counter top with burns and stains on it!


The toilet and storage that we had!


Our nasty shower... just old and small and I always hated putting Ben in the tub for a bath (not that he even noticed)


Here is some of the mold and nastiness that had started to grow in this bathroom. With it being our only bathroom, I just didn't like the idea of all of us breathing in this stuff.


Here is a few of the in progress days. It made me really nervous when I saw this and realized that there is alot more work to do then you realize. Jeff and his friend Pat did all the demo and then the plumbing and then put it all back together. I tried to help as much as I could, but between trying to keep Ben out of all the "stuff" and being quite pregnant, I really wasn't much help. I sure do love Jeff for working so hard!!



I don't know why I didn't realized, but the amount of dust that happens when you redo something in your house is ridiculous!! It drove me crazy and I had a few breakdowns at night feeling like the whole house was covered in layers of dust, that I was sleeping in dust and eating dust! NOT FUN!!


So here are some pictures of the finished project... there aren't a ton of pics since my camera died in the middle of trying to get some pictures. But I LOVE it, and it makes everything so much nicer!

We put new tile on the floor which I love, a new toilet and put up some shelves for more storage then we had which I love as well!!! We painted the walls a light grey and replaced all the baseboards and everything as well.


The new vanity the Jeff and Pat built themselves ( I was super impressed), a new counter top to match the floor tiles, a new sink which I love!!


We put in a new bathtub, and then decided to tile the walls in the shower... this was a lot of work but we loved how it turned out!


New shower curtains and some new accessories and we are done!!


I didn't get a picture of it, but we did our own artwork for the one wall, and did pictures with our hand prints. It was fun and although Ben hated having paint on his hands, everyday he gets so excited to see his hands on the wall!!!

So there you have it, we are happy with how it all turned out! Even though there were moments where we were not speaking or I was having an emotional breakdown and Jeff was just holding my shaking body telling me everything would turn out and be OK, it all did and we survived this little project!! There are still a few things to finish, but we are so glad to have a bathroom back in working order.

I have told Jeff, that the next time I am pregnant and decide we should "redo" something he can tell me... "NO WAY IN HELL" and just remind me of this one and I will listen :)

So this pregnant women is super grateful for a husband that worked so hard to get it done and that puts up with all my craziness!!! LOVE YA BABE!!

Just so everyone knows too.... it will be a LONG time before we decide to Reno anything else!!!! Oh and we only went over budget by about $40!!!

4 comments:

  1. It looks so great! I think it is a great idea to do renovations on a rental--that way if you don't get it quite right, then you don't need to worry and once you own a home, you will know exactly how to do it. It looks SO GREAT! I think I've said it before, John and I are so not into stuff like this--we wouldn't have a clue! We seriously can't even hang pictures . . . our bedroom walls are still bare. And I can't believe you tackled that project in your 3rd trimester. You are the woman!

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  2. It looks awesome! I totally try and tackle way too much when I am pregnant. Nesting I guess. I'm glad you survived the mess and that your relationship survived as well :)

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  3. Wow!!! It looks SO good!! I laughed so hard at the ikea comment because we have had the same problem!

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  4. LOVE it!! Seriously....a good test of the marriage is building something....including IKEA!! You guys have a rock solid marriage...congrats on both!!

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