Main Bath: "Before" & "Now"

Whew.  99.9% of this bathroom is done.  Woot woot.  My hubby just made a door for the medicine cabinet, so I fianlly took some pics.  Still to do: change the light switches, paint touch ups, some art above the towel bar (?), and new light fixture (this one is being demoted to the guest half bathroom).  If someone has an idea for a cute light fixture, I'd love suggestions.  The mirror is a place holder.  At some point, I'd like to make a grey-stained wood frame for the mirror with a Scandinavian vibe. Scroll down for info on what was changed.  In a nutshell: all of it.

"Before"
Take a nice long look . . .



"Before"

Ewwwww

                                                                                                                                                                        

Now

 

Picture my mom & I took in Hungary

My mom thinks our tray looks like a fast food tray.  We bought it in France, to
set metal hairspray and shaving cream cans on. 
Marble can stain easily and a rusty can is its worst enemy.

Handmade in Finland,
nobody in my family wanted it but I thought it was cute . . .

Goodbye light fixture.  Soon.

What we did:

Hired pros to remove the old tub (I pictured it tumbling down the stairs with me running ahead of it like in the cartoons), install the new soaker tub and white tiles.  It was a package deal which saved money.  We were “upsold” on the soaker tub—it is, apparently, a good feature for resale.  But I wish I had also splurged on more unusual tile—even just subway.  The plain rectangular tile we have was oodles cheaper.  At the time, cash was tight.  I at least wanted the plain tile installed in a brick pattern, but the salesmen talked me out if it.  Sarah Richardson just recently installed the same kind of tile in an unusual pattern on “Sarah’s House” and it looked great!  I have vowed to trust my own judgment from now on.  It was hard, being so green at renovating and having an expert tell me something won’t look right.  Has anyone else been talked into/out of something they really loved?

Live and learn.  The rest we did ourselves.  We removed everything!  It was grubby, gross work.  The cabinetry and floors and toilet were filthy.  But we didn’t do the sledgehammer demo people tend to like on television.  We carefully disassembled everything which made cleanup easier.

With everything gone and the tub and tiles in, we installed vinyl flooring (removing the old stuff first), a new vanity with marble countertop, new toilet and everything else (if it looks really similar to the guest half bath, that’s because it is).  We recently made a new door for the medicine cabinet.  I’ll post more specific details about that project later.  Couple more things to do, but I don’t even care.  I just love a bath in a brand spankin’ new and CLEAN tub. 

The Nitty-Gritty:

Removing floors first = bad idea. 
It was super sticky, so we abandonned ship until we were closer to installing the new floors