Itty Bitty Room, Big Huge Job

If someone had told me 3 months ago that the smallest room in our house would take the longest (to date, anyway) amount of time to update, I would have chuckled.  Or snorted.  :-)  Well, at long last the little powder room is pretty much finished...except the ceiling exhaust fan but we don't need to see any pictures of the hole in the ceiling, right?  I didn't think so.

Here's the BEFORE picture in all its glory.  Huge mirror, tiny cabinet with big and outdated countertop, hilarious light fixture (one friend said the ornament on it looks like a nipple ring.  I have to agree), and very scary tile.

 

The floor beneath the toilet would sag whenever anyone would sit down on it, so I knew there were dryrot problems.  The walls were in desperate need of serious work, as the previous owners had cut holes in the sheetrock and half-heartedly patched them back up (no pic of that) and of course when we ripped the countertop out it left big issues in the wall.

So here's Steve bravely attacking the floor.  He ripped out the tile, cut away the rotted subfloor, replaced the subfloor, fixed the plumbing where the toilet drains, installed cement backerboard, and (bless his heart) he even cut the tile to fit around the toilet drain and where the tile meets the walls.  Note the antannae on this earmuffs...give that man access to talk radio, and he'll do just about anything!  Steve also rewired the outlet for the vanity light because it had to move to the left, and we had to hire a plumber to come and move the copper water supply lines because they interfered with the new cabinet.  So the only thing that DIDN'T get moved was the lightswitch, although that got replaced too.

So then it was my turn to cement the tile in place, do the grout, cut and paint the floorboard trim, patch all the holes/issues in the sheetrock, and paint everything. 

ps. If you're considering using tiny mosaic tile with high contrast between tile color and grout color, you may want to reconsider...I spent FOREVER doing that grout because of all the grout lines, and when it was partially dry I had to use my thumbnail and scrape around every side of every black square to make sure the haze was gone and every grout line was straight around the squares =royal pain in the neck!  Pain in the knees and back, actually, but that isn't how the saying goes.

There wasn't really a good place to install a TP holder where big people and little people could easily reach it, hence the portable one.

Meanwhile, we went through a comedy of errors deciding on the toilet and the vanity.  I spent about 7 hours one day driving back and forth to the stores exchanging/returning things that didn't work in the space, plus other trips on other days.  In a nutshell here's how it went:

Bought new toilet, got it all set in place, noticed there was a glitch in the glaze right where Hyrum pees all the time.  Returned it, got a new one.  Installed it, replaced the door = door scraped edge of toilet.  Returned it, bought a different model.  Set it in place = door closes fine, but tank is 3" away from the wall.  Removed it, bought a special toilet drain that angles so the toilet can be closer to the wall, chipped out tile, cut away subfloor, installed new drain.  Fixed tile, re-bought the original toilet style, FINALLY installed toilet! 

The vanity top gave us similar fun times.  First one didn't fit, next one was damaged, next one had glaze issues, then we ordered a special order but didn't like the color of the granite in the room and the sink was tiny.  Went back to original carrera marble one, cut away the wood on the inside of the cabinet to make room for the sink bowl, and FINALLY installed sink.  We juggled through 3 faucets, finally kept this one even though Steve doesn't really like it.  By this time I was DONE with the whole swapping thing!  It's hilarious that 25 square feet can require so much effort, don't you think?

My black and white monotypes finally have a wall to call their own again, and

I'm really digging this ceramic vase that I found at Ross.  It sorta looks like a fancy ladies' clutch purse, which causes a bit of a visual double-take.  Don't know of many women who cart around fake grass in their shiny purse, though.

...And finally, here we have a multiplicity of mirrors to reflect light and just be their shiny happy selves. 

The wall color in real life, by the way,  is much deeper and richer.  I'm by no means a professional photographer of interiors.  It is REALLY hard to get excellent photos of interiors due to the lighting, confined quarters, angle, etc etc.   To do it right you have to have all sorts of special lenses, lighting, blah blah which I don't have because my goal is not to work for a magazine.  So, these humble little photos will have to do for now.  Hope you enjoyed seeing our powder-room transformation - it's been quite a ride.  I sorta feel like I've completed a marathon...except I wouldn't know what that really feels like because I've never done one!  In any case, sure glad it's (almost) done! 

Comments

[La Tempête]

The result is GORGEOUS, and very elegant. Well done to you and your dh for such a job well done.

[Dianne]

Wow! What I can see here looks stunning! YOu did a fantastic job, and I love the black/white and blue/gray combo! Absolutely stunning!

[Page]

Wow, it's beautiful. You guys did an amazing job. Thanks for sharing with us.

[John Mendenhall]

I shouldn't laugh at your plumbing fiasco, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the similarity of the situations I dealt with when I worked at a plumbing wholesaler :) Ahh... the joys of plumbing!

[Heather Grow]

What a transformation! You are lucky to have Steve. What a handy guy.

[Cara]

Love the vase ~ a little bit of "bling". Yes, sometimes the smallest jobs turn out to be the biggest. But it's worth it!

[Plumbing Job]

Yeah right It's better to do job starting at the bottom than to start at the top. BTW the vase! I actually super like it just like diamonds..