One room at a time...

We have lived in our house for 5 years already. I really can't believe it has been that long. When we moved in our house was a blank canvas with white walls and mocha trim. Since then we have gone room-by-room, as the budget allows, doing what we can to make it "ours."

Last May we decided it was time to finish our laundry/bathroom downstairs. It got kind of old having to run up 2 flights of stairs to get to the bathroom all the time. Especially with our guest room being downstairs. I always felt so bad for those that stayed with us.

It was supposed to be a super easy project (as all projects are) and cost around $1500. Instead it lasted 2 months and cost around $2300. We finished it hours before all of Shad's family came to visit during the 4th of July weekend. I'm surprised the paint was even dry!

This was definitely a learning experience for both of us. I learned that you have to be prepared to compromise, most anything can be found on youtube, and that you need to be really good at keeping your mouth shut while your husband works. Construction is hard on any marriage but especially when you do the work yourself. I have to admit, I seriously doubted Shad's abilities going into this, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It's not perfect, but it is pretty close and he learned SO much during the whole process. He did the entire thing himself with the help of some expert advice from a few family members and friends (including all of the many borrowed tools). My husband is now an electrician, a plumber, a tiler, a painter, a framer, a sheet rocker, and a mudder/taper, just to name a few. This really was a great project for him to learn how to do so many things.

It was a difficult room to arrange since we had to work around the laundry. I insisted on having the washer and dryer in a closet because they are so ugly and I wanted it to feel more like a bathroom than a laundry room since I only use them once a week. It is tight (meaning the washer and dryer BARELY fit out the doors) but it works. It was also tight because Shad insisted on having a walk-in shower. However, the fact that he showers in it every morning made the fight over it legit. I think he has a love affair with that shower after all the work he put into it.

So without further adieu... the pictures that I have been promising for months...

Your first view of the bathroom from the door. You can't tell in the pictures but Shad textured ALL of the walls and did a dang good job! It also hid a lot of the learning mistakes along the way :)

The hallway to the shower/toilet/sink

The hallway from the other direction (the door in this picture leads to our crawl space.)

Laundry doors shut

Laundry doors open (still need a rod for my hanging laundry)

The entrance to Shad's shower (that's right, no door! It wraps around)

The huge shower head that Shad loves so much.

The slate tile floor in the shower. Shad fought very hard for this. It was an added expense, but I'm very glad we did it because it really adds a lot to the bathroom.

The vanity. We scored big on the solid surface countertop. It was a remnant that worked perfectly with our space. We had to have it offset for the plumbing. It only cost us $65 from a granite place here in town. We also found a light fixture to match the existing ones in our house. Turns out it was discontinued and we got the last one.

The toilet "nook."

Linen nook complete with interesting magazines for your reading pleasure.

These are the posters that I have hanging on the walls. I had to post them because they are one of my favorite parts of the bathroom. They are actual ads ripped out of a 1952 "Ladies Home Journal." I got them as a wedding present and saved them just for this purpose. I love them! You can't see all of the funny things they say, you will just have to take my word that they are hilarious! I can't believe people used to think this way about women! I'm still looking for more vintage knick-nacks to match.

So that is the bathroom in a nutshell. I hope you got a feel for what it would feel like to really walk through it. We still have the guest room to finish. I think we will have to wait a few years to recover from finishing the bathroom first.

Since moving in we have also worked hard on decorating other rooms, but not anything like we did in the bathroom. Painting is a much easier process than construction. I am adding pictures of the boys rooms that we have done in the last two years, requested by my sis-in-law Aubrey.