Beginnings of a Bathroom Makeover

We just left our neighbors Vica and Adam's place. We went over there to see their stunning new bathroom renovation. Vica's dad is quite the handy man, so he helped them gut their bathroom. Check out the before and after photos here. Doesn't it look amazing? Such a smart blend of modern and traditional styles -- and I love the colors and textures!

So naturally we have bathroom remodeling on the brain.

Okay, so if you follow this blog, you've seen "before" photos of our main bathroom. It's about the length of a standard tub, and about just as deep.

The bathroom has "biscuit" colored wall tiles, an old cabinet, a dated vanity and lights, white hexagon floor tile and probably original damask wallpaper. When I walk into our bathroom, I imagine it looked exactly the same 30 or 40 years ago.

When we purchased the home.

Now. We took down some of the extra towel hangers and shelves. Hope to replace this cabinet with a dark wood one.

I almost love this metallicy wallpaper. Unfortunately it's a little antiquated looking and and starting to peel off the walls. 

Current tile floor. Can't wait for this not to be white.

Well, this bathroom is going to be our next project. Our "minimal" remodel plan:

• Switch out the tub fixtures (done - see below. Love those guys at High Priority Plumbing)
• Remove wallpaper; skim walls to make them even; paint light grey-ish blue
• Remove old floor tile (or tile over existing) with a medium to dark grey slate tile (12 x 12 size) -- I am soooo ready to NOT have a white floor
• Reglaze wall tiles in white (the tile itself is in fine shape... it's the color that's the problem)
• Reglaze tub (already white but it needs a refresh)
• Install new cabinet, sink and water fixtures
• Install new lighting fixtures
• Add an outlet (we don't have one currently!)
• Hang flat, simple mirror above vanity
• Hang medicine cabinet above toilet
• Frame water colors from our honeymoon trip to Italy

See some of our original bathroom inspirations here. Maybe we'll do that beadboard in another bathroom...

So on to our first step: replacing the leaky/tough-to-turn faucets in the tub:

Before.

After. Gah, this is going to look so much sharper with the tile reglazed white. Faucet/fixtures seen here are Price Pfister from Amazon.com ($128 for the fixtures/valves plus $46 for the "rough in" or body materials required to install). The most expensive part was the three-hour installation ($285).

And if you didn't see our AJC article about our house hunt that was published this weekend, check it out here. We had fun being a part of the article, though I never mentioned the word "disaster" in describing our new place. Even in the shape we found it in, I never considered it to be a disaster.

And Small Guest Bedroom Before/After

And the smaller guest bedroom (I guess the one that would be, errrr... a nursery if we ever got nuts and decided to have kids):

Before (it's obviously dark in this photo -- so I'll tell you that the paint was a cream color with a slightly lighter shade of cream/off-white for the trim). Floors were carpet.

After. Most everything from Ross, TJ Maxx and Home Goods. Thanks to the stepmom for the gratis curtain panels, which match perfectly.

I'll upload new photos of the master and second guest bedrooms after I go through the adventure of making curtains for them...

Built-ins: Before and After

I realized I forgot to post "before and after" photos of our built-ins and living room:

After (just kidding!)

See info about our painters and paint colors here and here. I forgot to mention that the white is high gloss white interior paint.

House Progress: Blah Blah Blah

We finally had a 'lil open house of sorts at our "new" (old) house. Like I said in the evite, if we waited until we finished renovating, it might be 15 years before we had a housewarming party!

We used the little gathering as reason to get a few more things done around the house. Dan trimmed many bushes and shrubs, cut the grass, laid some mulch, dusted off the house's exterior, installed light switches and electrical outlet covers, cleaned the grill, replaced three old light fixtures with more modern ones and hung about 15 picture frames. I'm sure I've missed about five things.

I did what I do best: not much that was especially useful. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I've been pining to fill our built-ins with interesting and personal items. So I bought stuff for the built-ins and ordered photos to put in picture frames.

My other contribution was grocery shopping for the party. We bought hotdogs, hamburgers and baked beans but also made a few homemade items. The coleslaw was especially a hit (see below for recipe).

Wall of photos in the hallway — frames ranging $7 to $22 from Target, Ross and Home Goods. Thank you, Chiara for the Home Goods gift card! It's been put to good use.

Wedding photos - finally! We never put up any at our old house because we knew we would be selling (didn't want to put holes in the wall — and we wanted to keep our photos on the wall rather impersonal for potential buyers). Wedding photography by Cariad Photography.

Small guest bedroom. This room needed the most work a month ago. We've since bought a bedspread (TJ Maxx - $40), throw pillows (Ross), pillow cases (Ross), a framed picture ($40 - Home Goods). I also hung some curtains that my stepmom didn't need — they worked perfectly!

Left side of built-ins. That's Dan's mom in the photo on the bottom shelf. We already had the little lamp — and the candle and candle holder are both from Home Goods (about $8 for the stand, $4 for the candle).

Left side of the built-ins. Perfect time for a photo.

Left side (again). You see that I won the globe!

One of many fam photos. Frame from Ross ($7). Love the frames at Ross but I hate the sticky residue each price tag leaves behind. Note to readers: Home Goods' stickers come off MUCH more easily.

Distressed painted frame from Pier One ($11). Purchased it with a gift card from our wedding (thanks, Sarah and Will!).

Handcarved wood vase (gift from my friend Lauren's dad maybe two years ago); filled with peacock and ostrich features from Hobby Lobby ($4.50)

Gilded looking frame from Home Goods. Gah, I could do so much damage in that freaking store ($7).

Another Pier One frame ($11).

Oversized vase - $15 at Target. Individual globes (wicker, acrylic, etc.) were between $2 and $5 at Pier One.

Bronze mouse bookends were a gift from my Uncle Harry years ago. Love them. :)

Signed platter made by That Pottery Place for our wedding (used in lieu of a guest book). pocket watch clock was a wedding gift that we didn't register for but I love very much (Pottery Barn).

Some of the fam. Not sure where Ben (brother) and Becca (brother's gf) were when we snapped this one.

You can't tell too easily from this photo - but there's a wall in between the built-ins. It's a hollow/thin wall, meaning we can't trust it to hold our TV. Eventually we'll get the wall recessed and framed out so we can hang the TV there.

Combine in a large bowl or aluminum roasting pan:

• 2 bags pre-shredded cabbage for coleslaw (with the pre-cut salad bags)
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (fresh squeezed is best but not required)
• 2/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 cup light mayo
• 1 jar mandarin oranges (drained)
• 2 packages ramen noodles, crumbled into small pieces (no need for the seasoning packet)
• Fresh cracked black pepper and kosher salt to taste

(Thank you to Anna and Lauren for helping prep for the party, too! Also, even though no one should have - we received some very nice housewarming gifts Saturday. It was great to see friends and family!)

I know what you're thinking. What happened to when Katy used to occasionally write funny blog posts?

In-law Suite Bathroom Mini-Makeover

This weekend, we also finished readying our in-law suite for posting on Craig's List. We're thinking the apartment would be great for a young professional or a student. It will be nice to have that extra income for other home improvement projects!

Beyond being cleaner, the apartment mostly looks the same as it did when we purchased the house. We did hang curtains to make the space feel a little more homey.

Most of the updating was in the bathroom. My mom and I picked out a new mirror, light fixtures and hardware. Dan installed a new toilet and over-the-toilet cabinet. I picked out the paint. It's a little darker than I thought it would be — but it still works. Dan and I took turns taping, painting and cursing (at taping and painting — not at each other).

Mirror - $16 (Big Lots), Paint - $22 (Valspar from Lowe's), Hardware - $20 (towel rack, toilet paper holder, hand towel ring - Lowe's), Light fixture - $18 (Lowe's), and light globes - $3/each (Lowe's)

Bathroom before.

Master Bedroom: Bed Makeover

When I received some cash birthday gifts from family, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to buy: new linens for our bed.

Lame thing to spend birthday money on? I think not. Since we chose a celery green for our master bedroom, our old bedspread colors and pattern weren't matching the new quarters. Of course, I scoured the Internet for inexpensive linens.

Choosing something with too much green presented a few challenges: the green may not match in person, and we would run the risk of too much green in the room. Dan's main concern was not buying something too light because it would be more prone to visible makeup smudges or accidental coffee spills (he knows how clumsy I am). Considering we already have some neutral sheet sets, I decided I didn't want to spend more than $150.

I was referred to Linen Source by a colleague. Despite cute and cozy offerings, the color schemes were either too light or too green. I also scoped out Macy's, JC Penny's and Target before going back to the old standard... eBay.

Even though I didn't want to go the duvet route, I ended up falling for a Hotel Collection duvet cover and four matching pillow shams ($79.99 plus $7 shipping from eBay seller accessorypluss2008*). I found a reasonable lightweight duvet (Georgia summers are too hot for heavy bedding!) for $29.99 plus $12 shipping from eBay seller bestlittlesheethouseintx*. I decided to also pick up some colorful pillowcases to bring a little of the wall color into the bedding. Ralph Lauren paisley pillowcases were $21 plus $4 shipping from eBay seller jjcv*.

Ta da! Randomly, all three packages arrived Wednesday.

Old bedding that no longer matches (photo taken at our old house).

Wrinkled, but at least they're on there... I plan to get two more pillows so we can add the larger pillow shams into the mix.

Close-up of the pillowcases.

Hotel Collection manufacturer's photo of the complete set.

I'm relived to have this project out of the way! And I only went over budget by about $5.

*I'm in a bit of a hurry today - so I'll have to add the eBay seller links later!