new bathroom walls

I am super excited to share this part of the project, because this is where we start moving past destruction and hauling and messy, and move into installing and adjusting and finished!

But first let me show off the floor a little bit better. I knew I had taken a crappy photo of the floor, but there is really just no good way to show off this floor pattern. 

But here is another attempt:

It's pretty simple (what we wanted) with just a little bit of sparkle (which we didn't know we wanted but now kind of like). I know - You cannot see the super fine glitter. Trust me - It's there. Just enough to be a little sassy.

Because we were planking the walls and planning to space the boards with a tiny gap, we first painted the drywall (original!) white, just in case there was some show-through. Plus, it felt good to get everything on the same page (meaning white).

Here is what we covered up with the planks:

Giant opening from original medicine cabinet.

Old not centered light fixture hole above the mirror.

A really icky finish on the walls - not sure what happened with them over the years, but the paint we painted just a few years ago was already flaking off. 

So to add some charm and solve so many issues, we are planking!

We used the same type of boards that we used for our kitchen floor. We love the farmhouse-y look and totally wanted to plank a wall somewhere in our house. This is just the spot!

(We also planked the two half walls that formerly hosted blue tile.)

Hero got his level out and we had lots of fun getting these boards up. We used dimes to put between the planks as spacers (nickles were too chubby) and we developed quite an efficient system. 

I just love working with that guy.

And he lets me use the air-nailer gun. 

At every stage as we install something, I think to myself - "This is my favorite thing!". Seriously, this bathroom has so many great elements now!

Oh - So in love.

Next post = Bathroom reveal.

day 2 - part 2

Hi!

Have I mentioned how much we are loving the new look that our bathroom is sporting?

So. Much.

The floors and walls were next to go in. 

And let me just say, Hero and I are not the type of people that have every detail figured out completely ahead of time. In fact we are pretty much the poster children for the "fly by the seat of your pants" movement. We have a general idea, but we really don't have a clue until we actually get in there and see what is what. As we've gotten older and (wiser?) we have gotten a tiny bit better at planning. But lots of our conversation during projects are something like this: 

"Okay, what next?" 

"I don't know. What do you think?"

"How about _____?"

"Sure!"

Sometimes this is called adventurous. Sometimes it is called irresponsible. 

We like to be more positive. We are definitely adventurers.

This bathroom project is no different. After the tub and shower were up and running before 1pm, we had lots of daylight hours to get going on the rest of the bathroom.

But of course, bathrooms need floors and walls before you can install toilets and sinks.

Here is where we left off on the floor:

What we needed next was a template to cut out the vinyl flooring we picked out.

Wait - I forgot to tell you - We had to buy a new floor.

Remember the vinyl flooring we have had leftover forever from the big house (and made our budget lower)? It would have been perfect - Except all those years rolled up had left it with major dents that were unsmoothable.

(Secretly I am not too sad because while it was fine, I was not in love with it.)

So I ran out to Lowe's and found nothing.

Then I went to a fancy flooring shop and told my salesperson the size I needed and that I had to walk out of the store with something right now. He took me to the warehouse to the remnant section (lucky we have a small  bathroom!) and I found a really great piece for just $50. 

Yes please!

So, back to the template. Here is where Liam helped the most. He gave us some old math homework pages to tape together to make the exact cut-out for the floor.

His comment:

"Finally, a real life use for math."

After this fun art project we taped it to the vinyl piece and cut it out.

Just as it is hard to cut holes in a brand new tub, it's hard to cut a brand new piece of vinyl floor.

But we did it. Obviously.

Because we are working with such a little space and we would have a toilet and a vanity to hold it down, we only used adhesive around the edges. 

And in case you are wondering, this is what I wore out of the house to the fancy flooring store :)

Hero modeling the new floor.

This floor is a little challenging to see (especially this photo - I will try to get something better). It is a speckle-y gray, white, gray-green color kind of thing with very fine glitter. 

Hmm. That does not sound very attractive. Trust me, it's good.