Bathroom Before & After

Matt and I just got back from Seattle, and we're both coming down with a cold. So while I lay on the couch and try to recover, I figured I would post the final before and after pictures of the guest bath. Enjoy!

I tell ya - it's full on luxury over here!!

Finishing Touches

After tiling was complete, all we had left to do was put stuff back into its place and add on all of the finishing touches to the bathroom.

First up: install the new vanity. We heaved that bad boy into the bathroom and set him in his new spot. It was nice to have him out of the living room after 6 weeks. Once it was in the corner, it became apparent that either the floors or the walls were a tad uneven. This is actually really common in all houses - you just don't notice it until you're putting new stuff in and need a level surface. But my MacGyver fashioned some small foot pads for the vanity to level it out and then screwed it into the wall to give it even more stability. The back panel of the vanity wasn't the right shape for our plumbing in there, so he used a jigsaw to cut out a nice nook for it all.

Next mini-project: the mirror. The mirror that came with the house was nice, just the wrong color for our new bathroom. Instead of spending $100 on a new mirror, we decided to save some money and just spray paint the frame of the old one. We went to Home Depot and picked out some paint that we thought would match the vanity cabinet. Matt disassembled the frame and set it on some cardboard in the yard. Then it was just a matter of evenly spraying it and letting it dry out. The reassembly of the mirror was a little tricky, but he was eventually able to caulk the mirror back onto the finished frame. The color matched pretty well, and it looks good on the wall!

After that, I went out of town for a few days and Matt did some work that didn't require assistance. He installed the new fixtures for the bath tub on one day, put in the new toilet the next, and put on our cute new little toilet paper roll. That's all I have to say about that because I wasn't there for it - ha! But it is nice to come home after traveling and have a lot of tasks completed!

For our lovely new linen closet, we decided that a little organization was in order. I don't have any great before pictures because I am so embarrassed of the wreck that I let happen in that closet. It was bad - blankets and towels shoved onto the shelves in total disarray. While we were walking through Home Depot, we happened to spot some cute cloth organization bins in a color very close to our Tropical Lagoon paint. So we bought a few and I printed out tags on the computer to indicate what was in them. I let the "fancy" towels that match the decor stay out on display, but hid away the ugly towels (that we use to wash Jordan) and the mis-matched sheets and blankets.

And then there was our new lighting fixture. The old one was disgusting. I took great joy in throwing that thing in the trash - Goodwill wouldn't even want that piece of crap. The new light is a mix between modern and traditional - a theme that we carried throughout the whole bathroom. The light install carried a lot of pains - mainly because all of the work that you have to do is over your head and thus exhausting on the arms. But Matt managed to get it done and when the power was flipped back on, we cheered at the fact that everything had been wired properly (gotta celebrate the little things!). Then it was a slight lowering of the mirror to get it into its optimal position and we called that portion done.

Lastly, I took a little trip to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up some accessories. The funny thing is that we already had really cute accessories before we started the remodel, and we initially planned to design the bathroom around them. But it turns out it is easier to get the big things out of the way first and then match accessories at the end than it is to find tile and vanities that match a soap dispenser :) The new accessories are beautiful and simple and they go very well with the room. We also picked up some cute faux flowers at IKEA - I think I'm going to make it a "thing" to have flowers (even if they are fake) in all of the rooms in my house. They make me smile every time I walk by.

The Long-Awaited Tiling Post

Matt actually got done tiling the bathroom a few weeks ago... I just haven't gotten around to posting it. I'll blame it on my new role at work which has kept me tired and busy this past month. But now it's the long weekend and I can relax and recap.

Matt and tiling are no strangers to one another - he did our entire house in Tucson a few years back, and then got some more experience in our master bath 2 years ago. So this was less a learning experience for us and more of a "buckle down and get it done" experience. But I'll walk you through the fun steps anyways :)

Since he's super meticulous, he always starts by laying the tiles out on the floor and arranging them. Some people just pick a corner to start from and go for it, but Matt likes to be assured that the end product is going to look the way he wants before he commits and cements it to the ground. So that part is a lot of measuring, cutting and arranging. He also put up plastic borders for the shower tiles to abut to so he could cut those accurately.

Meticulous Planning...

Next came the physical laying of the tiles - a role where I actually get to help some! Matt mixes up the mortar and then I hand him the appropriate tiles one by one. Spreading the mortar onto the floor is called "buttering" and spreading the mortar onto the backs of the tiles is called "back buttering." The best way to lay tile according to his research is to do both (even though it is more time consuming and costs more in mortar). This ensures that the tile has a lot of cement holding it in place and makes it less likely for air pockets to get under the tiles and cause cracking. So he'll lay a tile, and while he is prepping the next one, I come in on clean-up duty. I scrape the excess mortar out of the grout lines (because it's a pain in the neck to do later once it's dried) and place tile spacers (quality control to make sure everything is evenly spaced).

Once the floor was all down, we gave it a day to settle and then did the same thing for the shower. The only difference is that since you are working on a vertical surface, you have to be careful that gravity doesn't try to pull the tiles into bad positions. So we end up using a lot of painter's tape to keep them in line. Once that was done, it was time for the cool inset detail that I have been so excited for. Matt taped the little tiles together and buttered the inset wall. Then we just used the trowel to tamper the tiles back into their little nook and voila! It looks great and adds an awesome element of fun color into the shower.

Then came grouting day. I didn't get many pictures of the grouting because I was busy jumping between working late and changing out the nasty grout water for Matt and it slipped my mind. Oops! Basically, what Matt does is mix up the sandy-textured grout and then crams it in between the tiles with a tool called a grout float. He packs it in nice and full, and then smooths out the edges with the tool. Since it makes a giant mess all over the tiles, he also has to take a wet sponge and clean up the tile tops as he goes. It's an exhausting day for him, for sure, but it got done pretty fast and then we just had to wait for it to set a few days.

After the grout set, Matt went in and used caulk (purchased in the same color as the grout at Lowe's) to seal up the areas where the tile met the tub. And then we were officially done with tiling! (Actually, we still have to put "The Impregnator" on the grout - a sealant so water can't permeate through, but that won't be for another week or so.)

As I'm writing this, the bathroom is actually already complete - but I won't have time to post pictures until tomorrow since I have to squeeze in a workout today. But get excited, ladies and gentlemen, because it is a beauty!

Bonus picture of Jordan thoroughly enjoying an ice cream stick :)