The LONG AWAITED Bathroom Reveal

Well, after nearly a YEAR, our bathroom is done!!! Whoa. That sounds really long, but we began our first renovations in, I think, March of last year.

We refinished the vanity and mirror, replaced the light and faucet, stripped the wall paper and painted.

After that, we took a long (financial :) hiatus from the bathroom until this past fall when we finally decided it was time to do the tile as well.

These pictures are when I remembered that I wanted "before" pictures. Darn. I wish I had better ones of the true "beauty" of the tile surrounding the tub, but these will do. Notice the "very useful" (sarcasm) cabinet above the tub. What would you use such a thing for? I haven't the slightest idea. The faucet on the tub was leaking --- down through a broken gasket around the overflow --- into the girls' bedroom. There was really no way to fix the problem without tearing out the tile. (Sad, huh? Really sad . . . that I finally had a way to convince Nels that now was the time to redo the shower! :)

It was such a mess for SUCH a long time! Thank goodness we have more than one bathroom!

Alma and Nels did a WONDERFUL job getting all the drywall and tile out! I'm so thankful that men are built to do such things!! Alma helped us repeatedly through this entire process, giving up many a Saturday or evening ---- THANK YOU!!! We engineered all the new drains and faucet, moving and rerouting. Finally the day came for Nels to hang up the new backer board! It was a glorious day! From there, as Nels was at work, much of the rest was done by little old me. I taped and puttied the new sheetrock and painted. We borrowed my dad's tile saw and, because when I decide to get a project done I get incredibly impatient, I learned how to use it ALL BY MYSELF. (I'm impressed with ME, can you tell?) I cut and tiled almost the entire shower, by myself, at nights while Nels was working and the girls were sleeping. Nels did help me with the cuts going around the faucet and shower head. - But I even did the whole WINDOW alone! Cool, huh? After the tile was done, I grouted and sealed the grout. Since then, the bathroom has been waiting . . . . all but finished, for the final touches . . . for about a month and a half. 

So without further ado, I give you our new bathroom!

Window detail

New fixtures - which I LOVE and don't leak. :)

My favorite part of the shower -- pretty glass tile accents.

I also love the shape and subway pattern of the tile!

New shelf/rack that took an eternity to find the correct hardware for and was INSANE to hang! No lovely new towels yet, but I figured I'd better get a picture while the bathroom was still CLEAN! :)

(Deanna, this is the clock/sign that I want you to help me redo. The flip-flops are just not doing it for me! Help me! :)

TA - DA!!!

Yes, the tub is still pink and is going to remain so until the day comes that I decide to get it refinished. It would have been an absolute NIGHTMARE to get it out and put a new one in its place. So it's pink. Leaving me with the problem of figuring out how to incorporate pink into my color scheme. 

I decided a new shower curtain would do the trick and whipped this little number up.

I love it --- and that cute baby!

So there you have it! A post at least 4 months in the coming! It was my last big thing to finish on the main floor of our house. I'm so happy with it and smile every time I go into the bathroom.