Day "It's Done" - Bathroom Renovation

It took seemingly forever. But it's done! 

What d'ya think?

Day Infinity - Bathroom Renovation

You know how when you're doing a project and you reach that point where you don't want to do it anymore but it's not quite done and how this is ok if your knitting a scarf or writing a short story because you can just put it away and come back to it whenever you feel like it even if that's in a few years but not so ok when you're renovating a bathroom and if you don't actually get things done you could ruin your whole house? No? 

We had the vanity installed yesterday. It looks good but not exactly how I thought it should look. Apparently if you have Canadian taps and a German sink they don't fit as nicely as you'd think. I never considered any of this because shouldn't that shit just be standard? Anyway, the plumber did the best he could and it looks good and now I just have to screw the vanity to the wall (which I thought I wouldn't have to do but apparently that's important or whatever) and seal the sink onto the cabinet. 

I also have to hang the mirror. I spent an hour this morning painstakingly cutting a large piece of paper the exact size of my mirror. Then I drew dots where the screws would go because if they don't line up perfectly then that mirror will not be hung. I hung the paper on the wall and drilled some screws in over the dots. And then my mirror laughed and laughed and called me names. I repeated all the steps with another large piece of paper and this times the screws all hung in totally different places (like not even close to where they were the first time). I picked up the mirror and mushed it against the wall, like you do when you're trying to hang a mirror but you can't actually see where the screws are because you're the only one here and you don't have that second set of eyes which would be totally helpful at this point and you keep kind of dropping the heavy mirror on the new sink which turns the taps on. And then the mirror laughed and laughed and called me names so I punched it. 

And that's where the bathroom renovations are at. I was going to share a picture of the vanity but I think I'll just wait until it's all done so you can get the full effect. 

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Day 5 & 6 - Bathroom Renovation

The boys went off to the Big Mall all day so I was on my own. I was somewhat nervous to do the grouting as I've never done it before...but then how is that different from the whole project. So, I read the directions, I watched some YouTube videos and I did it! Grouting is very messy. Other than that, it's not difficult at all. Yay me!

On Day 6, we scraped off all the grout that stuck to the textured tiles. This was, by far, the most tedious part of the whole renovation.

And then we installed the toilet...with only one extra piece. I'm sure it's not an important piece.

I can really see the different personalities in my kids. Twin A doesn't hesitate. Tiles need to be stuck on the wall? Let's do this. A toilet needs to be installed? Let's get it done. Twin B makes up excuses and important things that Have To Be Done before starting anything in an attempt to either get either Twin A or myself to take care of it for him or decide that it's not that important. 

The boys were born a couple of months early. They lived in the hospital for six weeks before the doctor said we could take them home. Scariest day of my life. So I totally understand Twin B because that scary day I had to shower and clean the house and anything else I could think of before heading to the hospital and bringing them home. 

He's nervous we're going to screw something up and he's scared because he's never done this before and sometimes he's scared that someone's going to get hurt so he makes those excuses and does those things that Have To Be Done. 

Twin A jumps in and believes that it'll all turn out wonderful. And so far it has. 

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Day 4 - Bathroom Renovation

Tiles up!

We love it. It adds so much texture to the room. I was so excited about it that I wanted to see what the vanity would look like in there. Twin B and I unwrapped it and brought it in. Where we found out that it's four inches lower than our previous vanity. See that ugly yellow part? The part that is not painted and looks like wall that's never been painted and is really just untreated sheetrock? That part is showing above the vanity. 

Also notice that hole in the wall from a long-gone medicine cabinet. We tore our new mirror out of the box, Twin B spent a good hour destroying every box in the house in an effort to get out of whatever bathroom renovation-related project he was supposed to be doing, and we held up the new and funky mirror to the wall. Where we found that the hole is two inches longer than it. 

After my internal temper tantrum where I cursed ever thinking this was actually going well, I calmed down and thought of a solution. I tiled over it. So when the vanity is up it will have tile behind it. Luckily the vanity doesn't need to be attached to the wall. Crisis averted. Nice try God or the Universe or Jinx or Fate or whatever. Foiled again.  

Tomorrow I grout! 

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Day 2 and 3 - Bathroom Renovation

Day 2 started with a two-hour trip to Home Depot. Twin A and I learned all there is to know about tiling and picked up the tile and all the fixings. There wasn't much time or energy for painting after that, but Twin B managed to get it cut in. Yay!

Day 3 started with a trip to Rona...because every day should start with a trip to the hardware store. We got the vanity! It's perfect: exactly what we were looking for. And on sale (for less than half of all the other ones we've been looking at) because it's last season's model. And we got the most beautiful and funky mirror to go in there as well. We weren't going to replace the mirror, but now the old one is so 15 years ago.

We painted.

We're ready to tile. Y'know it doesn't really sound like we're getting much done. And maybe we're not but it's Spring Break and I feel like the boys shouldn't be working too hard...just a little hard.

There is no earthly reason to have this picture at the end of this post. I just thought you'd like to hear about the winter vacation we took in January. The first picture was what my street looked like before we left. The second picture was what our backyard looked like in Palm Springs. Quick trip but so nice to be out of stupid, cold Stupidville (I really hate winter). We went with my parents and my brother and his family joined us a day later. We went shopping, we spent a day at Disneyland, and we picked lemons off real lemon trees.

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Day 1 - Bathroom Renovation

Day 1 was the day where three laptops were searching things like "how to remove a toilet" or "how to remove a vanity." Cause that's what we did. We have not chosen a toilet or vanity to replace these things, but that's definitely on our list of things to do. 

Also, we painted the ceiling. It took far too many (four) coats and now I know why my painter friend didn't use the paint I already had when she came over to paint Twin B's room. 

I'm feeling hopeful. Today went rather well. There was a little swearing and a lot of "Mom, how do I do this?" to which the reply was often "I don't know; I've never done this before." But if it all continues to go this well, we should be ok.

I wish I had more exciting news to share. That's really why I don't write here anymore. Wall painting tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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Hi! If you skip the "Where the hell have you been since last July," I'll skip the lame excuses. Deal? Great. 

It's Spring Break in stupid, snowy, cold Stupidville. And instead of relocating ourselves to a lovely, warm climate, I decided the three of us should renovate the bathroom. 

We have renovated this bathroom once before. X lived here then so it was probably about 15 years ago. We went for the cheapest vanity. It's not horrible looking but the sink part is made of some unscrubbable material and I've despised it forever. The toilet (I'll try to put this nicely) is a shit show. Seriously. It's got an elongated bowl but the water comes in from the sides, so there's like a...shelf in the middle of the bowl that doesn't get flushed. There are teenage boys living here with some questionable diets. It's pretty gross. 

The ceiling is textured. Yep. Textured. We scraped all the stipply ceiling stuff off and painted it with a fancy paintbrush that paints two colours and textures at the same time. It was beautiful...15 years ago. 

Obviously, it's time for an update. 

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