Persevering in the Bathroom. An Update.

The bathroom, just as it is today.

I confess, when the sink bracket broke, I just didn't have the heart to continue in the bathroom for a good long while. Luckily, Chris kept going.

He rummaged through his incredible selection of odds and ends and found something called an "anti-tilt bracket." He figured he could make it work and thank goodness he did, because the blacksmith I called just laughed at me. We talked about trying a welder--but given how expensive labour is-- he'd probably laugh at us too for such a small job.

Thank God, it worked.

But it made the sink too high for her beautiful chrome legs. So, I hunted down some replacements --but we didn't like them-- and I don't believe they were any higher than our original ones. But they did give Chris the idea to use big washers to raise the height--so that fixed that.

So, looking it over, we have actually come a long way--just chipping away slowly.

Here was my "vision" board.

The light fixture turned out to be too large for the space--the door to the medicine cabinet would have had next to zero clearance, and the fabric is about 10x darker than this. Imagine that background a muddy grey and those white bits as bone coloured.

I never did show you my alternate plan. I made it when I was trying to decide which fabric to purchase. As it involved buying a new shower curtain, I rejected it. But that mirror frame sure would have been simpler to make!

And here was the to do list:

• new fan 
• new paint job

• new light fixture

• remove the tiles over the sink
• create some sort of wainscoting
• replace the old nasty black drain pipes with pretty chrome ones

• new flooring
• new window treatment
• install new toilet
• sew and install a new laundry bag
• hang hooks for towels
• put up shelves (maybe)
• hang artwork
• frame mirror

By week 5.  everything in blue and green was done. We had removed the tiles above the sink, nailed in the wainscoting, painted the room, installed the fan and the light fixture, and I'd sewn the window shade the day Chris and Ben put in the floor. I had also installed the pretty chrome drain pipes for the sink, but we were having problems with leaks. After Chris fixed the sink and adjusted the legs, he gave the pipes a good turn with the wrench--and they worked! No more leaks.

Isn't that purdy? So happy.

The sink caused a few glitches with spackling and sanding and re-painting the walls, but Chris persevered.

The toilet was apparently a nightmare. We purchased the tank already lined....and apparently it just causes problems when you try to attach the water line to it. (And yes, we needed a longer water line than the one we had, so another glitch. But easily solved.) Poor Chris just had a terrible time with it. We'd installed a one piece in the upstairs bathroom just before Christmas and Chris has sworn he'll never install another two piece again!

I just noticed I need to remove the tag on the water line hose. 

And it is high! You can actually see out the window while you are sitting on it.

I decided not to use the fabric from Tonic Living. It was just too dark. Instead, I headed out to Home Sense and browsed their table cloths and shower curtains. I wanted something with blue in it--and organic--like leaves or flowers. Both the mirror and the striped shower curtain have really strong geometric lines, so I wanted to counter that.

The best I could do was circles. It kind of talks to the floor.

The shade, right after it was installed. I love this shot. As soon as we put the toilet in, the room felt instantly crowded.

I got the hooks installed fairly quickly once I figured out how to do it. As the bathroom possesses our only tub and shower for four people, I needed them sooner, rather than later. Still, we had to wait 24 hours after they were installed before we could use them.

I'd had the laundry bag sewn up before the fiasco. I'd cut the old curtains apart and reused the fabric. I installed it just this week. I got fed up with everyone just piling their laundry behind the door!

Note how high the door is from the floor. Apparently you need two full inches in order for the fan to draw air properly to vent the moisture. Since we've done that, we have not had any water drip down the walls.

It is working well...and I love it, even though no one can actually see it beneath the towels!

I'm still working on the mirror.

It's coming along well, actually, though very slowly. If it were just a matter of making a mirror in a frame, we'd be done by now. It's complicated by the fact that it needs to be a door.

whoa, dusty!

I cut the horizontal wainscot board purposefully short so I could install a board there as the new right edge --and create a mirror centered over the sink. Of course, I didn't realise until much too late that the light was centered over the medicine cabinet--not the sink. Oh well.

I'd planned to install shelves, but I'm hesitating. I purchased glass ones from IKEA--and spray painted the hardware, so I can't return them ...but we seem to be managing just fine without them and I love not having the clutter.

I will hang some artwork, though. (I think.)

Ironically, I still have to clean and seal my grout! And I would really like to re-caulk the bath tub, too. I absolutely have to caulk behind the sink and around the toilet on the floor before too long.

In case you'd like to catch up on all the posts on the bathroom makeover, here they are:

ORC 2: Jumping in Relunctantly.
ORC 2a: Evaluating the Bathroom
ORC 3: Using Inspiration to Solve a Bathroom Design Dilemma
ORC 3a: Progress Report
ORC 4: Yellow Alert! Yellow Alert!
ORC 5: Tick Tock
ORC 6: Disaster


Thanks to all of you who have kept me going through all of this. I am getting anxious to get this finished and out of my life--so let's hope I'll have that reveal for you soon!