Bathroom Renovations – Kinda Finished

The guys are gone and we have our bathroom back, but we aren’t 100% happy.  I think we got a good price on our renovations, but you get what you pay for, and I don’t think these guys had the skill level and attention to detail that we would have liked.  We were happy to have them gone, but there are still things that we will be doing.  The grout job isn’t perfect and there are a few places that need more, are cracking, gaps, etc.  Also, there are some more places that I would like to have caulked so that water doesn’t get in.  So, we aren’t using our shower yet.  The vanity is in place and the toilet is hooked up, but until we do those last few things, our bathroom won’t be ‘finished’.  I’ve uploaded more photos to the Picasa album and I’ll add ‘final’ photos later.

xo Saree

Bathroom Renovations – Day 3

I knew it! At about 4:30pm the guys came down and said, “Can we come on Saturday?” Apparently the glue isn’t dry enough to apply the grout, so bright and early Saturday morning they are coming back to, hopefully, finish.  I’m glad I’m home during the renovation to give my opinion and ask questions, but the part that is unfortunate is that A took vacation this week because it is Reading Week at both our universities.  We haven’t done anything during this week though since the renos are going on and I’ve had manuscript revisions.  So, here we are on our vacation, hanging out at home.  We were hoping to maybe do something tomorrow, but now there are still renovations.  I feel bad, but we did go out for dinner tonight, so that’s something.

Anyway, back to the renovations.  All the tile is now up.  They removed and replaced the tile that we had questions about.  They also added some edging so that the corners look better.  I’m hoping it will all come together tomorrow and we can post an ‘after’ photo.  I think Ally will be really happy when they are done too.

xo Saree

 

Bathroom Renovations – Day 2

I missed the end of day 2 for pictures, so we’ll go with the beginning of day 3.  Day 2 was a messy and long day.  The guys were here 2-8pm and with the tile cutting and everything else they did, dust was all over.  They came out of the bathroom completely white.

After they left, we went into the bathroom to poke around a bit more thoroughly and noticed some tile cuts that weren’t so nice and some edges that didn’t match up.  Additionally, some of the tiles that they had just put up were sliding a bit.  Not good.  We tried to straighten out the ones we saw.  We also decided, looking at how things stood, that we should exchange our grey grout for white grout, so that any imperfections would be easily hidden.  So, at 9pm we headed out to Lowe’s to make the exchange.  When we returned we swept and mopped up some of the dust, just to keep it under control.  A also bought a new light switch at Lowe’s and he has dreams of having a new plate installed over top of the tile.

This morning we brought some of our concerns to the attention of the guys and they went about rectifying the situation.  They re-cut tiles and improved some of the edging, making it look much better.  They say they’ll be done today, but I’m waiting to see if that will actually happen.  It will be nice to have it all done.

There is more to come.  You can follow along in pictures here.

xo Saree

Bathroom Renovations – Day 1

The end of day 1 is upon us, and this is what our bathroom looks like right now.

Thankfully we have another bathroom in the basement.  I will say though, that the dust is terrible.  It’s been tracked all over the house on our shoes and is really hard to sweep up. Other than that, so far, so good.

You can follow the renovation in my Picasa album here.

xo Saree

Home Renovations

A and I bought our first home, built in 1923, in December 2009.  It isn’t located in our preferred location, but it was within our price range and is in a nice old pocket of downtown.  Because we are just starting out though, we didn’t have a lot of extra money kicking around for renovations.  Fortunately, our house is in pretty good shape and nothing really ‘needs’ to be done to it. Also fortunately, our parents were very generous at Christmas and we were able to buy appliances for our new home.

The first changes we made didn’t happen until the summer/fall of 2010, when we painted the living room, den, and master bedroom.  The only room in our house that we would consider ‘done’ is our living room.

The time has come for us to actually renovate, though.  The grout in our shower is cracking and allowing water to get in behind the wall.  Since we will need to re-tile the shower, we are taking the opportunity to change the tile in the bathroom, get a new sink and vanity, and all new taps/faucets.  Here is what the bathroom looks like currently.

The shower (behind the door) and the walls have the same light blue flower tile.  This tile is also on the ceiling in the shower.  Unfortunately, the wall tile does not even slightly match the floor tile, which is a blue gradient with flecks of brown.  It is ugly.  The vanity is also big and ugly.  So, tomorrow our contractor is coming to switch out the shower and wall tile and replace it with white subway tiles and a black bullnose cap.

Our new shower fixture is from Home Depot:

We also got a new vanity, sink, cabinet, and faucet from Ikea:

We plan to remove the old medicine cabinet and replace it with a long horizontal mirror, to make the bathroom feel larger.  The ugly floor tile will stay a little longer, until we build up some more savings.  I also bought some fabric from Robert Kaufman’s Night and Day 3 Floating Zinnias in Ivory to make curtains.

I’ll let you know how our first reno turns out.

xo Saree