"I Found It!" or The Story of an Ugly Half Bathroom Renovated

When we moved in, she was a MESS. Gross. Gross. Gross. I call her a she because now that she is finished she is a beautiful masterpiece. But … we had to tear out the walls and re- dry wall the entire side with the vanity and the toilet. We needed to buy a new toilet and a new vanity as well. And a mirror. And lights. Oh, and did I mention the idiots who lived here before us carpeted the bathroom?? Yuck. This was a full project.

Why did we have to tear out all the walls and re-dry wall the entire room you ask? Well… Half because the walls really were awful- weak, water damaged, and not easy to paint. The other half… is because of Jamie. Now Jamie is one of the calmest, most laid back people I know. We were actually in our full bath upstairs installing light fixtures. I had ONE job. Hold the screws. Don’t drop them. Welp, I dropped one. Down through the hole in the wall. Down to the bottom floor of our house. Out of sight, out of grasp. And our made-to-order light fixtures were now missing one decorative screw. I cringed, I gave Jamie those big green “I’m sorry” eyes he fell in love with. I hoped he wouldn’t hang me by my toes through the wall to grab the screw.

Jamie didn’t yell. He didn’t get mad at me. He just shook his head and walked away. I thought he was going to mourn his loss. Approximately two minutes later, I heard a VERY LOUD noise. It sounded like a drill… or a Sawz-All as it would turn out. By the time I made it down the stairs in my slippers, Jamie had cut a hole about 3’x3’in the downstairs bathroom wall. He reached his hand inside, grabbed the screw and proudly announced “I found it!” At which point, the psychologist in me said “Nope. You’ve TOTALLY lost it”.  So, once the deed was done… we were already knee deep… the walls had to be replaced. The floors had to be replaced.  How would we ever get this done? And more than that, how would we ever get this done and still like each other?

Enter James. 

James is one of Jamie’s best friends from UVA. James has a penchant for all things medicine and as it turns out, house renovations too. James is a super smarty pants, and has both his MD and PhD. Smarty pants, or if you are one of us academians, you are thinking “why the hell would you ever do that to yourself?” Anywho, James signed up for a visit right in the middle of house destruction. James, did you have any idea what you were getting yourself into? Either way, thank you. thank you thank you. Your brains and friendship helped create this beautiful piece of work. And sorry ladies, James is taken. So the first step came and in one short weekend, our floors went from this BEFORE:

Ugly carpet with dog pee stains.

 And..... here is the bathroom AFTER James + Jamie worked extremely hard to make it look good:

Beautiful 12" tiles with brownish/grey grout. Totally in Love.

And here is the general before picture of the ugly old bathroom. Check out the gold light that barely functioned and the vanity that looks like it's from a 1994 rerun of 90210. BEFORE:

Don't you LOVE the dirty walls? And wasn't it nice that the old owners left us a plunger for the old toilet (that leaked)?

So, after tearing out and replacing the walls, painting, building from the gorgeous new floors, we came up with a little something like this for our abode. AFTER:

Ahhhh so much better!!!

It looks happy now :)

 There you have it. The renovation of the ugly duckling bathroom. The brand new toilet was another gift from my parents. I know, I know, who gives a toilet for a present? But mom, if you're reading this, WE LOVE IT! Thank you. The vanity is a Home Depot find. The hand towels, small table holding the plant, and the plant are all from my favorite Marshalls' Home Goods.

Don't worry, everyone. I did watch the bachelor tonight. I will be blogging about it tomorrow morning. Until then...