Planning is Half the Battle

I've been supercharged to work on the bathroom lately. I'm not sure where the sudden burst of energy has come from...but my guess is that it's partially the all-consuming guilt of watching how much hard work the hubby has been putting in whenever he can find the energy and brain power to head to the basement and sweat-it-out. (Mind you, he's been scrubbing, Cloroxing, Dryloking, painting, and moving a kazillion personal items that should probably just be living in a dumpster. It's not an exercise routine, but it could be.) It puts me to serious shame that I look at my bathroom ceiling thinking, "Well, I could use a tad more spackle on that angle..." And it's true. It does need more spackle. Otherwise, the ceiling's looking mighty fine, compared to what it USED to look like. Here's a reminder of the "before" (no "afters" quite yet):

But, that's pretty much it. Our floors are the same. Our walls are staring at us in all their ugly glory (although, one day I came up with the bright idea of chiseling away at some of the how-many-colors-of-brown-exist-anyway mini-tiles, only to finally come to the realization that I'll have to find a better way...ie, admitting defeat). The shower is clean, even if it doesn't totally LOOK it...but has tears in the stupid liner that the smartiepants previous owners put up that will inevitably grow into a bigger problem. And I'm re-thinking the pedestal sink, depending upon how long we live in the ol' Crooked House.

So, while I was waiting around for Dave to finish some stuff up before fun, relaxed Sunday errand-running, I grabbed the measuring tape and started, well, using it. The backside of a bill envelope later, I had measurements for flooring, wainscoting, and if I was better at math, the tub surround. Just having this information at my fingertips made me feel empowered.

Here's the revised plan, yo:

- Flooring - Don't cry on me, now, but given the weird unevenness of our floor and, in all honesty, the cost factor, I've pretty much set my mind on using peel-and-stick tiles. *gasp* I know. If this was going to be our "forever home", I'd get some self-leveling stuff and roll up my sleeves, but sometimes it feels like the more money we put into the house, we might as well just flush it down the toilet. While it'd be nice to make money on the house (in theory, we should...it SHOULD be a given), after hearing what some of the NON-FORECLOSED houses in our area are getting lately, it'll take a heck of a lot of faith and patience to make much. *sigh* But, we shall see!

Anyhoo, I've done some online snooping as to the tiles I'd like, but it'll be way simpler to just go to Lowe's (or Home Depot, which is half an hour away) and pick out what's available that I like. I'm on the fence between the 12"x12" or the 18"x18". I'm kind of preferring the idea of what I can do (it's a secret, y'all can't know ;-D) with the 18-inchers, but honestly...I suck at math and don't quite know if I can figure out how much of it I'll need for our square footage. Yeah, I'm THAT bad at math. Either way, I want it as natural-looking as possible, with a light brown theme. (The whole room is going to be a LOT brighter - no deep browns.)

Oh, and let's use this moment as a reminder that I totally used peel-and-stick when working on our cellarway about a year ago this time (wow, a year already?) and they've held up wonderfully.

Here's proof that it can totally not suck:

Source

- Walls - Sure, there's paint. I've already got a swatch picked for the upper walls. But, to handle the disgusting mosaic tile situation, I'm using another sort of "cover-up" solution. This isn't to say that it's an easy-way-out. It'll still involve prying off the current woodwork (then priming and painting it white before reinstalling it...and touching it up), lots of "interesting" measuring and cutting, and, of course, quite possibly moving the sink and uninstalling the toilet. All this simply before using some awesome construction adhesive (which is specifically formulated for bathrooms, woohoo) to adhere some white wainscoting to the tiles. We also need to add some new trim to the top (since it doesn't currently have any there). Whew, that'll finish off the walls, though, and make a huge difference. Oh, and the fact that, if my math serves correctly, we'll just need one piece of wainscoting, which costs less than $20. So, between that, probably a quart of the wall paint (don't have much to paint, mind you) and some trim...can we assume it'll be less than $50 project? Regardless, it'll have a huge impact.

- Shower area - The idea here is to completely rip down the current shower liner that is torn in various spots (I think because they either didn't adhere it correctly OR they didn't have proper cement board), amend whatever the situation may BE behind the stuff (*shivers* at the thought of purchasing and installing cement board...not sure why), then tile it with subway tile. Perhaps a $300+ job? Then, for an additional $50, I'd like the tub to be refinished, probably using this stuff. All of the above, my stepfather has done at my parents' house, so at least we have someone who's quite experienced with it (who's also hopefully willing to help!!!). But, I'm not so sure that I can help with ANY of the above stuff. It might be "man's work", and I may have to beg or bribe my dear husband to do it with Jerry. :-)

See the tan tub? It has a pink undertone, and needs a facelift.
This picture somehow makes it look GOOD. It's. Really. Not.

And now for some inspiration after that grossness...

Dude, this is from a loft complex in Boston. Jealous much!
Ours wouldn't have the clear sliding door...or the tile wrapping around.

Source

- Vanity - This one's a complete 50/50 decision right now. While I'd like the storage of a new vanity, between the cost and space that one would take up, I'm not sure how I feel. I think Dave and I have both decided that, since we'll hopefully have a family, and with his awesomesauce new shaving set-up, we'll need more bathroom space than a pedestal sink allows for. So, if we can find a nice, small white one for a low price, we may have to think about going for it. Until then, it's not a must-have like the other stuff.

- Open shelving - Pretty self explanatory, this refers to the shelves to the left of the shower that used to have doors on them (very ugly 1970s doors). They need to be painted, inside and out, and I'm thinking they need some simple, modern shelf paper. Or not. Oh, and the spots where the hinges used to live need to be filled. Otherwise, I'm kind of fine with leaving it all as white and just using the storage more wisely, thankyouverymuch.

Here's my "open shelving inspiration" from my very favorite blogging couple:

So, there you have it. Wow, after writing it out, things seem a tad more daunting. But, oh well, I've got some "winter time" to work on this stuff, don't I? Between this and trying to rid myself of LOTS of clothes, I should be able to keep myself busy.