Extreme Makeover: Bedroom and Bathroom Edition

I can't say it is completely done, but it's pretty close. First, the bathroom. We've had the tile for it for almost two years and tore it out I think last July or August. Then I started school and our contractor (Jared) had to take care of the kids and work another full time job as well. Little by little, every Saturday or so, dry-wall got put up, plumbing got redone, and eventually the tile and grout was behind us. Even though it's such a small space, it's amazing how many steps there were: tape, mud, sanding, molding, caulking, grout, sealer, toilet, shower door, paint, hardware, etc.--a big job. Almost as importantly as having a two bathroom home again was the fact that the big shower door and toilet boxes were no longer taking up space in our living and family rooms (no, we couldn't put them in the garage because cardboard rots out there--Florida).

Now that everything is in and the painting is almost done, it is fabulous! Of course it is the same size as our old shower, but after using the kids' shower for so long this one seems so luxurious with lots more elbow room. I love the clear shower door as well. We'd had it for so long in the box that I had forgotten what it looked like. Jared worked so hard on all of it and did a great job. My contributions were minimal, but I am happy with the paint color and the picture frames with scrapbook paper on the wall--my decorating skills at work.
These pictures were taken at two times of day which is why the color looks different.This one shows the vanity that we put in a few years ago. I still love it. Tons of storage and best of all, two sinks (something we never had before).

About a month ago when the shower was finally "done" Jared got in it for the maiden voyage. The first thing he noticed was that there was hardly any hot water pressure. Uh oh. As he was investigating the problem we noticed that the floor was filling up with water--and not draining at all! Yikes. That set us back a few days. We certainly hoped we wouldn't have to tear out anything we'd just installed, or call an expensive plumber. But Jared's determination took over and he solved both problems. The drain had somehow gotten filled with concrete (we think) so we rented a snake and ground our way through. After getting into the plumbing Jared found a minuscule piece of paper towel blocking the hot water flow. How did it get there? It was one of his solutions to drying the dripping pipes when he initially soldered it all together. Everything works great now.

Next, our bedroom. I looked through all our pictures for a before picture of our bedroom but since I always kind of hated our room I guess I never took a picture of it. To give you a mental image, the walls were cream, the bedspread was pale, we had no headboard and the old, hand-me-down furniture that we had was not nice or big enough. We shared 5 small drawers for all our clothes, which is why clothes were always in stacks in our closet or elsewhere around the room. The blinds were cream, metal mini-blinds that were permanently bent by our cats and we often feared for our lives whenever the wobbly fan was on. There was even a white utility table set up in there for random things like laptops, crafts, clothes or to hold the bathroom tiles. Ugly. I still can't believe we lived this way for 8 years.
I wasn't planning on making any transformation any time soon, but for my birthday I decided to get a comforter set since we'd never really had one. I got this one from Overstock.com (for like $70!) and immediately loved it. We all of a sudden felt so grown up. But since it was black-ish and somewhat masculine, I decided we needed a little bit more of a feminine color on the wall. That's when our Sherwin-Williams paint sample book and little Behr samples came into play. We ended up with a light purple which I love (Jared's okay with it too). It's a very relaxing bedroom color, I highly recommend it. The bathroom is two shades darker. We even got purple sheets and purple towels. Love 'em.
After the bedspread and paint we had to replace the blinds and ceiling fan, which are huge improvements. I love the bamboo blinds. We even got new laundry hampers that make laundry sorting and washing way easier. This shot shows the non-wobbly fan that I would not have wanted to live without these last few months of pregnancy. Also note that the blinds are partially transparent, which means that people can see in at night if they really want to be peeping Toms, but our room is in the back corner of our house so if that happens--creepy!Then it was time to get some real furniture. We finally have a place for all of our clothes. Not really a novel idea for most people, I'm sure, but for us this step has been monumental. Our room is way easier to keep clean now that we have a spot for everything and I actually like spending time in there now, not to mention it's the best fan in the house now. I can't believe how much I love it all! Now just imagine a little co-sleeper in there in the not too distance future...