Bathroom Remodel on a budget.

I know this is a food blog, right?  Well not exactly.  It’s what I’m making and eating at the moment.  It’s my journey from carnivore to plant-based athlete.  It’s my running and training journal.  It’s my life.  A little bit about me before I begin.  Over the past 4 years, mainly when I turned 40, I realized that I needed to pull my life back a lot and refocus.  Quality over quantity.  I didn’t need as much anymore.  I began focusing on the important things in life and narrowed my circle of friends exponentially.  This is an ongoing process and evolution.  I think everyone can relate to the journey.  Cutting out the noise and living a bit more in silence to really hear what’s important.

I’ve begun pairing down my possessions as well.  I never thought I would be the person who would ever downsize, embrace a simpler life but I’m seeing it and getting excited.  As my girls get older, and one will be heading off to college, I see us selling our home and getting a condo or brownstone and living without as much.  This concept has been totally reinforced with the latest remodel of our master bathroom.  I thought it would be easy and quick but reality soon set in… 3 weeks later I can say we are done!  I have surmised that training for a 50 mile race and renovating is just too taxing… at least for me 🙂

We moved into our home about 11 years ago.  We still owned our home in Nevada so it was stressful holding down the finances of two mortgages.  The house we bought is lovely and very roomy.  We’ve updated and renovated throughout the years and my bedroom and bathroom were the last of my to-do’s.  We painted our bedroom and trim giving that a fresh new update.  But the bathroom left us in a quandary.  The cabinetry was nice but the countertop was the standard cultured marble and the shower had a fiberglass insert.  The floor and jetted tub were upgraded.  My conundrum was what I wanted would require a complete gut.  With us doing all the work (we’ve done this before) – we would be in for about 5k and with our oldest settling in on a university that was not my goal.  So a face-lift was my brainchild.  We experienced a major stumble with the shower doors being a strange size but after that solution we moved forward.  My budget was less than $1k.

I will apologize for the pic quality as I snapped them all on my iPhone and not my professional “food” camera I typically use 😉

I broke the project down into 3 sections:

The vanity::  
We would keep the vanity top although I wasn’t a fan.
Removing the side backsplash.
New faucets.
Remove the enormous mirror and paint the cabinetry.
Use subway tile around the vanity walls and under the new mirrors.
New hardware for cabinets.
Paint a dramatic color on the cabinets to break up all the white in the room with the new subway tiles.

We removed the giant, standard builder-grade mirror in one piece!  I was so excited!

Primed cabinets.

I used Naval by Sherwin Williams in Emerald grade paint.  I found these drawer pulls on a Home Depot run.  They were a bit pricey ($6 per) but I didn’t need many and I thought they brought some whimsy to the bathroom.  We finished this area off with navy towels and a fun rug from my local Pottery Barn outlet but also available here.

The shower::
Tile above the shower insert.
New shower head/temperature gauge.
Install new shower doors.

The new shower doors arrived Monday.  Semi-frameless but so much nicer than our older doors.  

Jetted tub & surround::
Replace the tile around the tub.
Create an access panel to the motor of the tub.
Install new faucet.

Before pic when I gave my dad the green light to demo.  A man after my own heart.  We love destruction 🙂

We removed the tiles, installed new cement board, faucet (that we had to make the original holes a bit larger) and finally bead board and trim.

Caught hubby painting on Saturday.

All this fun while Olive was spayed and then required a cone of shame for infecting her stitches.

I think this wraps up life and my fitness recap is below per usual.

Sunday: 13.33 miles outdoor
Monday: 15 miles outdoor
Tuesday: 10 treadmill miles/weights/core
Wednesday: Rest day.

Don’t forget about my Garmin Vivoactive Giveaway here.

~oxo

— Knead to Cook