Bathroom Break

I think it was 13 or 14 years ago, we gutted out our upstairs bathroom and replaced everything, down to the dry wall.  We were a one-income family at the time, so we did things on the cheap.  My dad, who does nothing on the cheap, said that the materials would never last.  We purchased everything from a big box store, but it was all we could afford at the time.  In hindsight, I'm still glad we did what we did.  Guys, my bathtub was lavender before we remodeled!  LAVENDER!

At this point, everything is utter crap.  You have to hold down the toilet handle to get it to flush.  The knob fell off the medicine cabinet door years ago.  The drawers in the vanity don't slide at all.  The towel bar is broken.  Not to mention, we've raised 4 kids and 2 adults in this bathroom, and for 2 years, it was the sole bathroom in the house!  It served its purpose.

Hubby has been working some side jobs and we've been saving up to do it right this time.  Last night, we went to a high-quality hardware store to "look around."  Yeah, I came back with a whole bathroom designed.  This is how it went down:

I had been scouring the internet during the quarantine for bathroom vanities.  I thought that was a good place to start.  I could not find anything I liked, except for stuff from big box stores.  I absolutely refused to buy from there again.  I finally found something on Amazon that had great reviews and was made of solid wood.  Still, I was worried about ordering something blindly.  At the hardware store, I was able to choose my wood, the door style, and the color.  I was struggling picking out the countertop material because there were so many choices.  She led me to a remnant that was the highest quality quartz with reduced pricing.  I loved it!  To get that remnant, I had to snag it up.  So that's why I went ahead and ordered everything.  The best part is that my design ended up coming very close to the price of the Amazon vanity!  God is good, people!  I ended up designing a matching medicine cabinet, and I bet the knob will not fall off of that!

The Floor I Like

How 'Bout That Sign?

We purchased a Moen faucet and the best toilet money can buy.  Still left on my list is flooring, vanity lighting, and PVC shiplap.  I put PVC beadboard in my half bath and absolutely love it!  It's extremely durable, waterproof, and super easy to clean.  As I was in the process of picking out products, I pulled out my phone to open Pinterest.  The pin at the top of this post is exactly how my bathroom is shaping up to look!  I have a medicine cabinet in the same finish, rather than just a mirror.  Also, I will likely have a wide plank, light floor to contrast the cabinet.  Definitely over the toilet, I will have a sign that says, "Please Be Seated," or "Remain seated for the entire performance," or something equally as witty.

I'm so excited and cannot wait for the transformation!  I'm looking forward to posting pictures when it is complete.

Around The House

Finally, an update on all things accomplished last week.  It was a killer week, even though we ate out for breakfast, took a quick field trip to the zoo (hence the jellyfish pic), and of course indulged at Chipotle.

We did small tasks:  rehung the handrail (that has been in the garage for about two years, since I last painted the hallway), changed the water filters and furnace filter, broke and changed light bulbs, rearranged furniture, and a few other boring things.

We did big things like cleaning the carpet and back patio.  Wow, check out the results!  (Courtesy of Hubby's carpet and tile cleaning business.)

I painted our lower living room.  I was aiming for a caramel color and got burnt orange instead.  I was pretty nervous about it at first but I've already grown to love it.  Check out Before:

And After:

(They're both flash off pictures because I think they represent the actual colors better.)  We added the coffee table and lamp from the living room because they don't look right since we rearranged the furniture.  (Curtains were still being washed at the time of photo.)

I haven't hung anything on the walls yet because I'm not quite sure what I want to do.  I would like to display some of my photography.  I don't have any framed in the house, besides a few pictures of the kids.  So, what do you think?

Another big project was some landscaping and mum planting.  Here is a photo of my front bed:

We also planted two huge mums around our gas meter, which we're trying to disguise.  It sticks up about three feet right in the front of our yard.  We got a great deal:  mums and pumpkins all for $3.99 each!  The two tiny orange mums on the left side of the picture were marked down to fifty cents each.

So that's a little bit about how life looks around here.  Things are finally livable, although the house is not quite clean yet.  We haven't had any more rodent issues so hopefully we've eliminated them.  (I keep sanitizing the same areas over and over.  Yuk...still grossed out!)  We still haven't figured out how they entered. 

This beautiful Indian Summer is fading quickly and we'll soon be blanketed in snow.  Enjoy your Fall!