Form and function

This is the tale of my bathroom re-model - so far. When hubs and I bought our house seven years ago, we knew we'd have to re-do the master bathroom. First of all, it was the only room in the house that had vinyl flooring. Everything else was either carpet or ceramic tile. Secondly, that vinyl flooring was starting to curl up a bit in a couple of places, so we knew it was something we'd have to address eventually.

At first, we just thought we'd tile the floor. Then, little people started kicking the cultured marble on the tub surround, and it got knocked out of place. So then, we thought we'd tile the floor and the tub surround. Well, pretty soon, hubs was looking at our fiberglass shower and saying, "Why don't we just pull this out and tile in here, too?" I wasn't crazy about the expense and extra mess of that idea, but I could see that he did have a point. So, off we went to buy some design books and pick out tile and faucets.

I chose an inexpensive 16" square tile for the floor, and a matching 6" tile for the vertical spaces. To elevate the look of that tile selection, I picked out a beautiful glass and tumbled marble mosaic to use as an accent. We called a contractor that we'd worked with before, and one week and a few thousand dollars later, we've got about half of a totally new bathroom. Below are some before and after photos.

This is the tub area before. You can see at the bottom that the vinyl is starting to curl up due to moisture. The piece of cultured marble facing the camera was also slightly out of alignment, due to little feet kicking it!


This is the tub area after. You can see the 6" tile I chose, and we ran a band of the mosaic around the tub that was the same height.

This is the shower before. Just your standard fiberglass shower with a glass door. It served its purpose well enough, but it certainly wouldn't win any beauty contests.



This is the shower afterwards. We put the mosaic tile in the floor of the shower, in a decorative band along the top, and on the back of the niche that's holding all of the bath supplies. We're using a basic curtain and rod right now because we have to order the new glass door. We also replaced the stainless steel faucet and shower nozzle with an oil-rubbed bronze one.


This is the water closet before. Pretty depressing. At the threshold of this door, more vinyl flooring was starting to peel up. Plus, I think the basket I was using as a garbage can had been around since the Dark Ages.

This is how it looks now. Nice tile floor, plus we replaced the wastebasket and all the hardware (toilet paper holder, door knob, even the tiolet handle). I painted the frame of the mirror in here with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint to match all the new hardware.

I'm really pleased with how far we've come. I knew going into the remodel that it would probably take longer and cost more than we anticipated. We went a little over on both counts, but not by much. What drove me nuts was the MESS. I am a little OCD, and it was difficult for me to live with the DUST created by a remodel. I basically went home and cleaned feverishly every night for about a week. Exhausting.

Now, after we rest a bit (and save a bit more), we'll tackle the other side of the room. See below.

I want to replace the countertop, sinks, and faucets, in addition to buying new mirrors. We've already bought the matching hinges and knobs we need for the cabinets, we just haven't replaced that hardware yet. Once we do all of that, I'm thinking this remodel will be about complete.

And if we survive it, we may think about re-doing the kitchen someday. Shudder.