Blank Bathroom Canvas

So to start the process of redecorating now that we have all the hard stuff done, I wanted to give you a chance to see our bathroom as a blank canvas ready to be created...I feel like I'm gessoing canvases in my college painting class. For you non-artsy types who nothing about paint and/or gesso, gesso is the white coating that gets applied to raw canvas to make the paint stick better. That's the reason when you buy canvas at your local art store, its usually white, its already has gesso. There is your art lesson of the day.

This has been our transformation, thus far. Out with the old...

And in with the new!

Here is the closet sans door. I wanted to do open shelving to give the tiny space a more open feel. Here you can see the shelving planks ready for new tops.

Here is the back wall just waiting for color. Here is the taped down paper covering the gorgeous floor.

We wanted to replace the lighting after/during painting to make for a seamless transition. The hard part is since we are doing most of the updates after work and on the weekends, we have to replace the light when there is natural light available for us, mostly on the weekend.

Above the shower with the new Delta shower head.

The only issue with priming and texturing the walls was the dangling light fixture we had to have while working. It left a tiny area where we couldn't apply the primer right away. After the primer was finished drying, I carefully moved the fixture, a few inches over. Then using the very scientific tool, called my finger, dabbed the area until it was covered.

Now we are ready to start redecorating. Can you hold in your excitement?! How did you feel when you got to a certain point in a project? Completely relief?

The Workgasm - Part II

After working quite a few nights after work, both with us and with Mr. Fix-It Mark, we had most of the drywall up and some trim in the hallway. The next stage of the bathroom remodel could begin. Unfortunately, Max's birthday fell right in the middle of all this leaving him to decide to celebrate a new bathroom over another year older (maybe 29 will be better for him?), a new bathroom is a pretty sweet birthday present in my opinion. It's the gift that keeps on giving. *shrug


Anyways! His birthday came and went and the Saturday following it his parents decided to give us a little more help...aka another Workgasm. After the last time we spend the entire weekend working like dogs, Max set some ground rules for his "go, go, go" dad. By 8:00 PM, no matter what we were doing, we were going to stop and clean up for the night, have dinner and enjoy each other's company. Much nicer compared to the 10:30 PM finish time we had the previous work weekend. With that being said, we began our work.


Saturday: Day 1
The men started by mudding the drywall. We wanted to get it done as soon as possible to give the wall proper time to dry. This included the bathroom and the newly knocked out dining room/living room wall refinishing the corners. They also worked on adding the metal corner joints to the drywall.

This entire week was in the upper 70s and lower 80s and Ellen and I were super unmotivated to be doing house repairs when we could be enjoying the weather. Can you really blame us? 80 degree weather in October is not something we are used to in Wisconsin. We actively sought to be actively lazy and take all the trips to the store we could for the boys. 


Among those trips, we stumbled upon an estate sale about a block and a half from our house and scored a few tools for Max, couple of decor pieces and a sweet cupboard to house my grandmother's fine china she gave me. Pretty sweet and it just needs a little paint and TLC. Did I mention that everything was half off since it was the last day of the sale? I ended up with the cupboard for $12.50, knocked down from $25. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it yet, like most of my acquired furniture, but I'm leaning toward a white paint job and possibly putting a glass door in to showcase the dishes.

As the afternoon sun peaked, we buckled down and started back inside the house. We started by painting the dining room the same blue from the living room accent wall, Glidden's Cobalt Blue.

Sunday: Day 2
Ellen and I tackled a little project of repairing a mirror I acquired back in 2003 when I was a junior in college living with these girls, Jen and Brea (besties and sorority pledge class sisters), now who both have families of their own. So who ever actually bought this mirror for our apartment that year, I thank you. It's moved with me everywhere since then.

So the Target mirror was quite nicked up, since it had been moved from my calculations nine times, and the glass was really loose. We first popped the staples off the back to remove the glass. Then taking white trim paint that we already owned, we gave the frame a quick touch up.

After the frame had dried, I took Gorilla glue and lightly went around the inside of the frame and attached the mirror. Gorilla Glue calls to clamp things down for about two hours. I did not want to break the glass, so I used a few books and let them set. Boom. Quick redo.

Max and Mark worked on installing our new bathroom floor. For speed purposes, we decided to do a laminate in the main bathroom as well. We went with Swiftlock Brazilian Walnut from Lowe's since it had two separate textures giving it a very realistic look. They were a special order item we got at the last Workgasm, but well worth the wait. I know you are thinking, "wood floors in a bathroom?" Just you wait!

After laying down the laminate pad, Mark measured and installed while Max cut. Quite the system. Mark alternated piece sizes to make the floor look laid like natural hardwood.

They just had enough flooring with two boxes of materials. They were even nice enough to let me lay the last piece even though I didn't help with the rest of the floor.

Enjoying our gorgeous floors was short lived as we covered them up right away with paper so we could finish the walls.


The weekend ended with some Culver's burgers and fries and a sense of accomplishment.

The following Wednesday, Mr. Fix-It Mark came back. He and myself finished the walls by texturing and priming them to get ready for paint. Instead of using the Homax Wall Texture Orange Peel we used in the half bath, which was messy and a little expensive for such a small space, we opted for a more traditional route. We had leftover Homax Sand Roll On Texture in medium finish from the bedroom wall updates so we just mixed that with our primer and we were good to go.

I'm really smiling because I'm starting to see light at the end of this tunnel.

Humpty Dumpty Put the Wall Back Together Again

Now that the tub was finally in, we could move forward with putting the wall back in. Mr. Fix-It Mark came after work one night (really Mark, you are a life saver) to help Max install the drywall that I have a hard time lifting.

With the new plumbing now in place, the first needed to measure out where the pipes needed to go and holes for the electrical boxes. They started by measuring from the floor up and far wall in to get the specific spot where they needed to cut the drywall. That way the measurements would be correct with the drywall sitting on the floor.

They then carefully marked the piece of drywall with a pencil on where they needed to cut to get the right spot. (Again sorry for the cell phone photos, sometimes I misplace the camera with our house being so disheveled all the time.)

They carefully installed the piece (that fit perfectly, great job guys). 

And look above...notice anything new?

The day they installed the drywall was Max's 28th birthday! To him it wasn't really much of a birthday, but he really wants his bathroom back. He did although get some pretty sweet presents from his 'rents to help him in future home repairs. The drill with the fancy light on it above was one of them. 

The cordless drill is a new Master Mechanic that has two rechargeable batteries. Perfect for all those quick fixes.

The other goodies they gave him were all used but in prefect working order. They gave him a Black and Decker drill press and a Craftsman circular saw.

And a Tool Shop jigsaw.

The Swiderski family (Molly, Ryan and Claire) also gave him a $40 gift card to Lowe's to help with our repairs (sad news folks, the Lowe's next to us was closed by corporate for not making high enough sales...boo, more Menards trips now).

I did very little work on this day for the house other than clean and mow the lawn, but I did make for Max's birthday a Surf and Turf feast; grilled steak, honey grilled shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes and farm fresh steamed green beans with lemon juice and olive oil.

Happy birthday Max!