Bathroom Complete!

It's finally done! A two week project turned into a two month project, but that's just the way it goes. I'm SO HAPPY with the end results. The bathroom is so much better than I imagine. The guest room turned out great too. We still need to paint the walls and hang up pictures and decor, but the room itself is clean and finished.

My parents came back for one more "work" weekend. I promised them no more big projects...they can just come and visit and relax from now on. Friday night we finished up touch-ups in the bathroom and began to lay everything out. Mom and I also made a trip to Sleepy's. They were AWESOME. I ordered a bed on Friday night around 7pm and it was delivered by 11am the next morning, frame and all. They rock.

I can see the floor! It's ready for a new purpose!

The dogs approve of the new bed!

TA DA! It's pretty!

From another angle

Bathroom complete!

 So it was long and pretty frustrating, but I think it was totally worth it. If you come over, you can sleep in the new plush bed. But don't open the closet...where do you think all that junk went? :)

Bathroom Project Update

Here's where we're at right now...

The company that was contracted to do the work on our bathroom came back out (5 separate times) to fix the drywall, patch around the shower, patch all the holes and tape and mud everything. They even sanded it all down (which is terribly messy and a pain) before wrapping up their job. I probably won't go through Lowe's ever again, but I will call this company directly if I need more work done in my home.

Our blank slate

My mom and I before tackling the rest of the project. Excuse my disaster of a basement please.

More blank slate

Finally painting!

I happen to enjoy painting and was so glad this color came out the perfect shade of gray.

Holding the luan down while it dries. Very excited to tile.

Lining up the tiles. These are vinyl sticky tiles and you place them the same as regular tiles, just without grout. They rock.

You've got to weigh those down too when your basement floor isn't exactly even.

The tiles are laid out and stuck!

Once grouted, you can't even tell they aren't real tile!

So, the room is painted, the floor is down. And Sunday came very quickly so it was time for my parents to go home. Hopefully they will make it back one more time before Mr. L gets home and I'll have a finished bathroom to show him!

Bathroom Project

I started reading blogs about two or three years ago. I can't remember why I started or which blog I read first. Many of the blogs I read now are about home improvement, interior design, and decorating. I LOVE those things, but don't know how to do much at my own home. This is probably why I like seeing other people's homes so much.

I've never done a real renovation project before...until now.

When Mr L and I purchased our current home, we were able to pick out all the specifics: counter tops, cabinets, flooring, etc. It's a three level townhouse, so we have a finished basement on the bottom level. The model home also came with a full bathroom down there. The builders wanted a large amount of money to finish that bathroom...something like $3500. We were already at the top of our budget, so we said "No thank you, we'll finish it ourselves, for much cheaper. It will be our first home project!"

Flash forward over a year later and we finally decided to start planning the room. The builders had "roughed" the room in for us. The plumbing was all there, as well as the drywall and a light fixture. We realized very quickly that the room did not have an exhaust system, shut off valves, or even an electrical outlet. After a trip to Lowe's, we decided to let the professionals handle the tub/shower, exhaust system and electrical issues.

Now flash forward about two more weeks. Mr L gets put on a deployment (that we were not expecting) and now I have to handle the scheduling and finishing of this bathroom.

I thought that by letting a big company like Lowe's handle all the main stuff, it would be a super easy transition to the "fun" stuff (paint, flooring, etc). Unfortunately, my experience with Lowe's was TERRIBLE. The person in charge of scheduling gave me a confirmed date/time for the people to show up and it turns out he just made it up...he never called the contracting company, never told them anything about us, never told them about our room. It took a bunch of last minute calls, lots of stress and some not very nice attitude from me to have the construction begin.

We did not pay for the drywall to be fixed because were were assured that they would be able to do everything without destruction to the drywall that was in place.

The tub/shower after installation.

The ceiling we were assured would be left alone.

More of the ceiling that had already been in one piece.

My parents and I decided to fix the ceiling ourselves.

Just a note - fixing drywall on a ceiling is best left to professionals.

After it was over, I made another not-so-nice call to Lowe's. I COMPLETELY understand that the work they did required them to cut around the tub and pull half the ceiling down. However, this is not what I signed the contract for and it was not the work I agreed to. If they would have explained what the process involved (like I assumed they did when we paid for the work), this would not be a problem. But they did not. We had to leave the bathroom as it was while I wait for the company to schedule a time to fix all the drywall...

The two week project just turned into a nightmare.