Bathroom Reno

Last weekend Ryan's parents and brothers came down to help us redo our bathroom.  Ryan and I had originally planned to do the entire thing by ourselves but the more we thought about it the more we realized we needed some expert help (Ryan's dad).  We only have one bathroom in our house so we really needed the project to be started and finished in one weekend.  Well, we did it!  We really wouldn't have been able to do it if Ryan's dad hadn't been there to help us.  I share with you a little bit about the whole process.

First, let's start with some before pictures.

Not pretty.  I mean who puts tile that huge in such a tiny space?! The same giant gray tile is in the kitchen and it looks fine, but in such a tiny space it just looks silly.  I think the previous homeowners had some left over from the kitchen and just decided to throw it on the bathroom floor.  'Throw' is actually a pretty good word for what they did.  The title was already loose and coming up and once we removed all of it, we saw why.  There was barely any mortar under each tile, I mean they didn't even really try.

Ryan and his dad removed the sink and toilet and plywood floor.  Then put down new plywood and started laying our tile.

I just have to say that our new tile is SO beautiful!  I'm in love!  It fits the era of the house and the small tiles just proportionally work so much better in our little bathroom.  We chose to go with gray grout to make the tiles pop.

Ryan and his dad finished all the tiling and grouting on Saturday.  So on Sunday all that was left was installing the new toilet and old sink.  As much as I love the new tile, I might love the new toilet even more.  Crazy, I know, but the old toilet was just awful.  First, it didn't flush well.  You had to hold the handle down for a full 30 seconds to get it to flush.  Second, and worst of all, was this weird shelf in the front of the toilet that never got wet, but always got other things stuck on it...if you get my drift.  Gross.  The new toilet is wonderful, no shelf, and quick flushing.

 

We still need to get a new vanity and sink, and we need to replace some of the tiles behind the sink.  The previous home owners just grouted the sink to the tile instead of properly mounting it with screws, so removing the sink meant damaging some of the tile.  Clearly their renovation skills were lacking.  Currently our bathroom has no storage, so I really would love a vanity with drawers.  However, since the bathroom is so small, it is really hard to find a narrow enough vanity.  I think I found one that will work at IKEA, but we have yet to find time to drive to Illinois to get it.

So there you have it! One almost updated bathroom!  It is wonderful, and such a great improvement from before.  A HUGE thank you to Ryan's dad for helping us!