The Girls' Bathroom

As you recently saw I took on the girls' bathroom as my latest renovation project. I had been wanting to do this, so we had one nice looking bathroom. And I really wanted it to be my pet project. I'm pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish and I will admit I called in the assistance of my teammate a couple times, especially for the electrical work.

The bathroom started out looking like this, which in the picture doesn't look nearly as bad as it was (and let's not forget the hole, which I rocked back to a wall!) The color is an orangey pink and it's really dirty. The trim is a very dingy white? I assume it used to be white at least. I smoothed out some walls with the joint compound, removed the caulk from the top of the tub and fixed the wall there in order to get a better seal done.

The hole where the medicine cabinet used to be closed up pretty well and after 4 coats of joint compound! Which took about 2 days for each coat to dry. The first mirror I bought was pretty stylish but definitely needed the hole closed, but it ended up not working well in the space so I got a regular ol' mirror and in the end I could have just left the hole there (oh well). Here is the final of the hole.

I chose a light shade of lavender for the walls and trim to be all white. I replaced the shower rod with a white rod, and a nicer white towel ring. I still need to paint the closet doors for the washer dryer closet and the linen closet door. So I painted the walls, the trim and the ceiling. Last night we installed the new mirror and the towel ring. We have a bit of work to do to install the new light above the mirror, so I'll post that finished product later on and expand on it's annoyances!

My brother arrives tonight and my goal was to have it done for his arrival. I'm really proud of what I was able to accomplish and I'm loving the finished product. I love the color for a girls bathroom, I think it's sweet and feminine and will grow with them.

Now the last room on the top floor is the master bathroom, and for what we have planned, that's not happening for awhile!

What did you do today?

Because I started renovating the girls' bathroom all by myself. Frankly I anticipated this being a quick, easy project. Take some things off the wall, spackle a little bit, sand a little bit, prime, paint, hang up the new fixtures and boom a new bathroom. Of course, when you plan something to be easy it inevitably has to become difficult. So I removed the medicine cabinet which is far to big and bulky. (Note: this same cabinet is in our bathroom, the half bathroom, and the basement bathroom).

Down comes the medicine cabinet, nice and easy, woohoo! But oh crap there's a gigantic hole in the wall! Not only a hole but one with a random extra partial circle cut out too. I look in the wall completely baffled by this. Upon looking in the wall I luckily find the missing square of sheetrock, which also has another partial circle cut out of it, weird. At this point I'm thinking, oh god if Oscar comes home tonight and sees that I took the cabinet off only to find a big hole he's going to make me put that dreadful thing back up and back burner this project for awhile. None of this did I want to do. So I did what had to be done, first I IM'd my brother the new ridiculousness I've found and then I call my favorite handyman, my dad. After advisement on all the proper steps to remedy this situation I'm on my way to thinking I could possibly tackle this. Add to that a nice pep talk by my brother about how just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't run a saw! Good point! We just don't have a saw to run...hmmm.

I start looking for a measuring tape, but of course can not locate one of the two we own. I head to my sewing room knowing I have tapes there. With my trusty winnie the pooh tape measure I figure out the lengths of the boards I need. Head down to the garage and pick out my 2x4 to start cutting. All I could find was a small hack saw, because we own very few power tools. This did not work well and I almost threw in the towel. I was on the hunt for something better and found a bow saw. Finding the bow saw quite difficult without clamps I figure sitting on the board will work best. The 2x4 was on a 4x1 laying over the saw horses and I straddled the top. This worked rather well and I was able to cut the pieces I needed.

With all the boards in place, me patting myself on the back and I believe I told the girls they had the best mother ever, and possibly referred to myself as a rockstar, I was on to the sheet rock part.

The sheet rock went pretty smooth. I had to keep trimming up a few sides here and there to make it fit just right. But over all the main square went in well. During naptime I had also made patterns for the circle parts and cut out matching sheetrock to fill in the areas. Man I was feeling good! They both worked out great and fit extremely well. Then it was time to slather on the joint compound and get the sheetrock tape on. All of which I did pretty easily. I'll definitely be continuing this whole joint compound fill for a few days, but I'm going to be talking about this project for awhile. I have declared the bathroom a Jenn only project (except for hanging the new light fixture, Oscar can help with that).

Not only am I really proud of myself for all of this, I'm also really proud my daughters got to see and help me do it. Just another thing I want both of them to believe they can do on their own!

I must thank my dad for many years of guidance and many phone calls today for guidance and cheers from both mom and dad! Oscar did come home and offered appropriate excitement for my day's adventures.