Ripping out bathrooms is so fun!!!

Bathroom renovations in our home have been on the list since day one. Our previous home had large up to date bathrooms that we loved and we have spent a lot of time planning what we wanted to do in our current house. We were forced into action when the shower pan in our master bathroom started leaking and eventually caused the cultured marble in the shower as well as the tile floor to buckle. Ripping out our shower became a necessity so we filed a claim with our insurance. Since we have a good friend who is a lawyer by day but also a plumber on the side and who generously offered to help us, we decided to do-it-ourselves. (THANK YOU, Ben!) Because we were saving money not hiring a contractor we realized we had enough money to do everything we wanted to do in all three of our bathrooms.

We didn't waste any time and started right before Labor Day weekend. We decided to begin with our downstairs half bathroom. Thanks to my brother, Dan, who works for Wilsonart and got us a great deal on a cabinet, sink and solid surface counter top, we were able to yank out the hideous pedestal sink in June. So, step one was already done. You will notice that I said this is a half bath. Our plan was to make this a full bath, since there was space in the bathroom for a bathtub and we were pretty sure the plumbing was already buried under the tile.

This is what the space where the bathtub was going looked like before. We did have some metal shelves here with a shower curtain covering it, but Tim was so excited he took the shelving unit out and the shower curtain down before I could snap a picture.

This is me sweeping out the dust after the shelving came out. What a dumb thing this was to do. These little dust bunnies were the least of my worries once Tim got to work, as you will see further down.

Here is my fearless husband, starting to rip out the tile. I am so glad that he is the risk taker around here. Sometimes I don't see the vision but he does and he has never been afraid to tackle something big.

After the tile got ripped out, Tim started jack hammering for the drain that was already there under the tile, only it wasn't there. So, he removed the toilet and jack hammered some more so we could hook up with that plumbing and put in a drain. Needless to say my entire house was covered with a fine layer of dust from top to bottom. I am still working on getting the dust off the blinds and ceiling fans.

Where there was once an empty space, a bathtub now stands. Thanks to a full day of work put in by Tim and Ben.

Here is the bathtub after the cultured marble was installed.

The job of painting was my baby. I bought about 12 sample paint colors from Home Depot. I was going for a bluish green look with cream bead board on the bottom and white molding. After all my sampling, I picked a color and got to work painting.

Here are some of the colors I tried out. I went with the blue color in the middle. I painted the whole room and then stepped back and realized that it was totally wrong and actually quite repulsive. The color was so bright that it glowed even with the light off. But, guess what, I didn't get stressed out and I didn't worry about it. I got my color wheel out and went to work coming up with plan B. I picked three more colors, bought three more samples of paint and called my mother-in-law to come over and help me decide. She showed up at 7:00 a.m. on Labor Day and confirmed the color I thought was going to work. I headed to Home Depot got more paint and painted AGAIN. I laughed the whole time I was covering up that blue paint. I realized it is okay to make a mistake and that fixing the mistake just helps me learn for next time. And, at least this time my mistake did not involve repainting my entire house, which you can read all about here. (Read this post by the Nester. It has totally helped me in my quest to not just decorate but have a home I love.)

We all know that I am not a photographer and I had the hardest time getting good "after" pictures. But, here is the paint with the bead board and molding. I LOVE how it turned out. I convinced Tim to go four feet with the bead board, he only wanted to go three, but we both like the higher height. (This bathroom on Shabby Nest was my inspiration.)

Finding the right mirror was not as easy as it might seem. I had an old mirror Tim ripped out of a rental remodel he did for his dad last year that I have been saving to use in this bathroom. I thought I could save some money by reframing it. Unfortunately, when I cleared away the dust I realized the mirror had two huge scratches and it was unusable. I bought and returned six mirrors and none of them worked. While I was at Disneyland, Tim found this mirror at Home Depot. It wasn't as budget friendly as my original plan but I really like how this mirror looks in the bathroom. It is large and easy for the kids to see when they are brushing their teeth.

I painted this vanity and the bead board the same color as my kitchen cabinets. It's hard to tell from this picture but it is a cream color. We added bead board to the cupboard door and I am in love with the drawer pulls I picked out. I happened upon the toilet paper holder on clearance for $3.58 at Target. I also got towel holders at a different Target also on clearance. Oh how I love finding things I need on clearance.

I searched high and low for a new shower curtain, but in the end, I realized the curtain I had used previously to cover up the metal shelving unit worked perfectly so I just kept it.

We still have a few things left to do, like can lights over the shower but we are loving this bathroom. Our master bathroom was completely gutted the first week of October and we are making slow but steady progress to get that done. The final phase of the bathroom redos will be painting the walls and cabinets and installing new tile in our kids' upstairs bathroom. It's a slow process but I am actually kind of enjoying it. I will post more about the master bathroom soon. It's coming together and I am really excited for the changes we are making in this bathroom.