It may seem like an odd place to start, but it seemed like starting small was the way to go. A project we could complete in a short amount of time so we could feel like we could be successful. It actually started a little out of necessity as well. We have two kids that bathe every night and this is their bathroom. The tub had the most God awful '80's doors on it, gold with a frosted sunset (Here's where I admit that I never actually got a picture of it before we took it down). The door was not only ugly but it wasn't functional for bathing kids, so off it went and already the bathroom looked better. Well, if you ignored the big brown stain behind the toilet. The metallic linoleum floors and the chipped gold faucet.
Here's what we were working with:
You can slightly see the door in the top picture. And do look closely at the faucet. I didn't get a picture of the light fixture while in, but here it is after I took it down. Oak, gold, tulip glass.
Step 1: Remove the tub door, fill in the holes left, and caulk the whole tub. Free, mostly. I think the glue and the caulk were about $10 total.
Lucky for me, my Mom brought me 4 cans of blue paint in 3 colors. She knew I wanted to do the bathroom blue and also my oldest son's room in blue. I decided on California paint Yarmouth Blue for the bathroom. I decided on the color based on the shower curtain we already had, which later I realized was a bit silly, but it worked out since we got the free paint.
A little background info, I have never painted a room. When I think about it, I'm a little shocked that I haven't. I painted a wall at our rental property, but never a room, so this was my first experience. I started off late at night when the kids went to bed and I chose to tackle two small walls. I taped the trim, cut in the ceiling and the edges and rolled the two walls. I eventually was able to tackle the whole bathroom and I definitely needed a second coat. The entire bathroom probably took me 8-10 hours to paint 2 coats.
Next task, pick out new towel bars, toilet paper roll, vanity light, faucet, and hardware. My mom helped us a bit and for my birthday gave us a vanity light and a faucet. I ended up returning them both because I wanted 4 lights vs. 3 and the faucet was all together and our sink is a split. I had bought a Tub curtain rod at Target and picked a great brushed nickel rounded bar. So in matching the faucet, towel bars, etc I learned my first major lesson:
Brushed Nickel is the most expensive.
We chose to go with one 18" towel bar, the toilet paper bar, a towel/robe hook for the door, Delta Nuva faucet, and a 4 light vanity. The bars and hook were easy to install - anyone can do this. The faucet was a different story.
The faucet took my husband about 7-8 hours to install. He hit a few snags because the piping was not made for modern faucets. My husband got crafty and installed a hose from the drain to the pipes instead of cutting the drain (which we have no experience doing). I would say that the faucet install did not seem like a project that I could have done, so although I was a little surprised by the time it took to install, I'm happy I didn't have to do it. In the end, just changing the faucet, changed the room for me. Even my son walked in and was so excited, look at my new sink!!
The light. This is where we ran into another snag. As you can see from the picture, for some reason, they put the electrical wire to the right, so for us to install our light we would have to move the wire quite a bit. To do this we had to extend the wire. More to this in our post on: Hiring a professional. Which basically meant that we also had a huge hole to fix, but done!
The vanity hardware worked out for us. We were selling an old dresser that I had refinished years ago, so I swapped out what was in the bathroom with the brushed nickel knobs from the dresser.
Last order of business, FLOORS!!!! New window, trim, and since the mirror was hanging out in the hallway for so long (and my kids took a screw driver to draw on it) a new mirror. Guess that's the beauty of a big renovation with two crazy monkey's bouncing around just hoping you leave a tool.
COST BREAKDOWN:
Vanity Light –
Peerless 4 light $79.00 - $58.00 (Returned one mom bought)
Towel bar – $23
something, but apparently they forgot to charge us
Toilet paper bar
– $18.48 - $1.85 (coupon)
Shower curtain
rod - $35
Shower curtain –
Free (already had it)
Paint – Yarmouth
Blue – Free (from MOM), we used about 1/2 a gallon so I'd guess around $25.
Faucet – Delta
Nura $129.00 - $12.90 (coupon) – $59.00 (Returned one
mom bought) - $50.00 (gift certificate)
Caulk - $4.97 - $.50 (coupon)
Robe/ towel door
hook - $3.97 - $.40 (coupon)
New Knobs –
Free, already had them from a dresser
Curtain – Free,
already had it
Spackle – Free,
already had it
Extra wires for
light - $8.49
Hoses for faucet
- $14.00
Electrician???
