Bathroom Redo

While I was away in Alaska for a wedding and vacation, the boyfriend tackled a full bathroom remodel in just one week. The fact that I had no idea any of this was happening was a sore point (to say the least) as it has become rather a bad habit of his to tackle renovations in secret while I'm away. But it was badly needed it and I wasn't sorry to miss all the mess, destruction and 99% of the work that went into it.

I've been planning to use most of these materials forever: subway tile in the shower, 1-inch white hex tiles on the floor and beadboard on the walls. All the essentials are new now, including the tub, sink and toilet.

I do love how it's turned out. After 10 years of dreaming about this it's still hard to believe it's real!

This floor is probably my favorite.

The shower wall tile goes all the way to the ceiling now, which I love.

He even built the medicine cabinet based on photos I saw online since nothing available would fit our oddly shaped opening. 

Beauty product peekaboo

Because I love seeing what's lurking in other's homes so much, I thought it only fair that I join the product show and tell fun and let you see my stash. Trying to pack light for the Alaska trip opened my eyes to just how much stuff I use daily, while taking photos of everything proved that it's definitely time for another use it or lose it challenge.

Things start off pretty well in the medicine cabinet. It's mainly tooth care and the boy's contact supplies here. Side note: I still absolutely love the plastic top-shelf organizer (from Target). It keeps everything in its place or no more random falling objects.

Next up, my shower products. Believe it or not, this is less than I had been keeping in the shower. Two body washes (Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle is my fave. Still trying to use up the Yesto cucumber wash), shampoo, conditioner and Burt's Bees face wash (another fave). The boy has his own stash of products. It's just best if we don't share, even if it does mean twice the crap.

Extras: Face lotion and free conditioners that come with the hair color I use. I used to have twice as many of these, until I finally started using them as shaving cream. Very moisturizing and saves both waste and money.

Leaving the bathroom we head to the bedroom, where I do most of my primping (the trials of a one-bath home). Here we have deodorant, hair heat protector/frizz free spray (love), hair oil, lavender body lotion (love), perfume, night cream and day lotion with sunscreen (love). All are used daily.

Current-use makeup: 40 Carrots BB Cream, eyeshadow collections (3), bronzer, powder, concealer, lip gloss (love) and mascara. I've never been able to wear foundation well, it always cracked and looked terrible, but with uneven blotchy skin I longed for some coverage. I finally tried this 40 Carrots BB Cream and it's wonderful. Makes my skin look great with no caking or cracking, plus it's paraben free. But I bought it at a discount store and it seems to be discontinued. *Sniffle.

Backup makeup: The Physicians Formula CC cream, concealer and powder were purchased just before the Alaska trip because I feared I might run out of my current supply. You can see that I still haven't. Also eyeshadow and too many Burt's Bees lip glosses (like them, but don't use these daily).

Nail polish that I never use, but somehow can't toss. Now, brace yourselves for the extras from my shelf in the hallway closet.

From left: deodorant (2), hair cream (2), hair oil, sunscreen, face mask, mouthwash, body wash (2), shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, dry shampoo, hair heat protectant spray (2), foot lotion, curl spray, face lotion and body lotion. Many of these are items I either don't love, or have small amounts left that I haven't used, but can't throw out. Whittling these down to only what I love is my new goal.

Now take the amount above and double it to account for all the boy's stuff. Yikes.

That's a lot of stuff for someone who hates clutter, isn't it? What about you do you have just the right amount of products, too little or too much?

Medicine Cabinet Makeover

  

Once upon a time my medicine cabinet looked liked this. It's a small cabinet inside an even smaller bathroom that lacks storage. Still, it usually wasn't too cluttered, as you can see, but what you can't see unless you click on the picture and view it in a larger size, is that the white finish/veneer on this cheapie cabinet was worn and discolored. It was actually starting to creep me out.

I wasn't sure how well a coat of paint would hold up to the moisture of toothbrushes and whatnot, so I decided to cover it with contact paper instead.

I found this paper at Big Lots and thought it looked cheerful. Putting it up was easier than I thought, and I'm terrible at cutting or hanging things in a straight line.

It looked pretty good even when filled, but it wasn't perfect. Things would fall out frequently and you had to move some things to get to others. Still, I didn't give it much thought until we happened to see a medicine cabinet organizer while shopping this weekend. I didn't buy it when I first saw it. I hated the thought of spending $8 on a big hunk of plastic. But I thought about it all night and the more I thought about it and searched for other options online the more I thought this one was perfect for our needs. So I went and bought it this afternoon.

Now not only is more stuff than ever officially stored in there, but things are easier to get to than ever. And it makes me happy just to look inside the cabinet now. I just love organized spaces!


What's the last thing you organized?

Sometimes It's the Little Things: Bathroom Storage

When your bathroom is this tiny, storage is at a premium. Since the Boy and I both like to have a selection of products in the shower, shower storage was even more limited. Shampoo bottles were lining the tub (and falling off every time I showered) and driving me nuts. Luckily, This Young House shared a clever shower storage tip, putting a caddy on the useless in-shower towel rack. The only problem was that I couldn't find hooks that would work to hold it up anywhere.


Luckily the boy is more resourceful. He figured out a way to hang the shower caddy without spending a dime. How, you ask?

By re-purposing part of an old metal hanger. Genius, no?

What might seem like a trivial amount of additional storage has really made a positive difference in my daily showering experience. No more falling bottles, shower scrubbies or other debris equals a happy hus owner!

Towel Racks for Tiny Spaces

I have a teeny, tiny bathroom. When you walk in the door you're surrounded by two walls only 34.5" apart. Even fitting towel racks in the room is a challenge. That's why I find Apartment Therapy's post today on the TowelTender so interesting. This could actually fit even my bathroom and at $30 the price is right too.


Currently a removable 3M hook holds up our hand towels. It's a temporary solution that is functional, but isn't quite the right look.

My dream solution would be a pedestal sink with a built-in towel bar. But it has to be a tiny sink. This American Standard combo I might actually fit and the package is around $320 at Home Depot, not including a faucet. Try Actually I just checked, this sink is even smaller than themy current one....hmmm... (see what blogging does? It creates more projects!)

This Sapho Lavatory Pedestal Sink by Porter would allow for his and her hand towels (bliss for us clean freaks!), but it's too deep and at over $500 it's a little more than I'd like to spend as well.

O is for Organization

Like most typical Virgos, I like things best when they're neat and tidy. That includes the junk drawer too. Yesterday I found some small baskets at Dollar General that are the perfect size for organizing small spaces.


I also had two baskets left over, plenty to tidy up one of the new bathroom cabinets.


There, that's much better and for just $2 plus tax.

Third Law of Home Improvement

This weekend was a DIY extravaganza at min hus. Unfortunately, it was a DIY weekend that fell under the third law of home improvement. You know, the law that says any home improvement project you undertake will take at least three times longer than you think to complete it. It all started innocently enough with my tub.

Sure it looks fine enough, but the caulking around the tub was starting to mildew and pull away from the tile. The final straw was when my cat pulled off a chunk of loose caulk and tried to eat it. My plan was to re-caulk the tub in an hour, two at the most, then help the boyfriend paint the basement.

The first problem started as soon as I cut into the caulk on the outside of the shower door and water squirted out. This wasn't a complete shock because it didn't look like the inside of the frame was caulked where it should have been. I showed J and he said there was no way I could re-caulk the door with water stuck in the frame. He suggested taking out the doors, since I had been considering getting rid of them anyway. While nothing special, the doors look decent enough from a distance, but examine them closely and you'll see paint splotches, bits of rust and mildew beyond the reach of my scrubbing.

So we took out the doors and frame to find this gruesome sight (warning, if you're eating, you might want to skip this):


Gross isn't it? J said have fun and went back to his project. I cleaned the stains and mildew as best I could (the magic eraser really is magic), then set to removing the old caulk, re-caulking, and then cleaning that off in a huff since it looked terrible, and re-caulking again. Very tedious stuff. Tip: if, like me, you're not a super-neat caulk-artist then I definitely recommend using painter's tape. Though it's still not perfect or completely done, it finally became somewhat presentable.

Now I just have to decide if I prefer a shower curtain or doors.

I loved the doors when I first saw them, but living with them is another story. They make cleaning the shower difficult, keeping the track and doors pristine is impossible and since my bathroom is so tiny I manage to whack my elbow on the doors at least once a week. All of these things have me leaning toward keeping the shower curtain. Anyone else care to weigh in?

On the 837th Day There Was Bathroom Storage

Once upon a time this was the only bit of storage in my tiny, tiny bathroom besides the medicine cabinet. This rickety little over-the-throne number was left by the previous owner. It served its purpose for two years, but was never ideal and always seemed about to collapse on your head.

But this week my very kind boyfriend surprised me and assembled and installed the new IKEA storage cabinets I bought. I put my foot in my big, giant mouth bigtime on this one though, because the first thing I thought, and unfortunately said was, "oh my god those things are TOO BIG." Which apparently isn't the thing one wants to hear after spending four hours working on a project. Then I promptly proceeded to freak out over buying more oversized crap for my tiny 1940s house.


But I'm getting used to them, even starting to like them. I definitely love having all that storage space and being able to keep more than two rolls of TP and one extra towel in the bathroom. I've almost got things smoothed over with the boy too.

The bathroom continues to look 100% better than it did when I moved in.

Ahhh....that's better.

The first time I saw the bathroom in my house, I immediately noticed and detested three things:

1. The ugly, horrible, atrocious fake cardboard tile (Who would ever do such a thing and why? Whyyyy?)
   
2. The hideous wood hollywood light fixture, complete with missing bulb
   
3. The floor. Which my realtor said was "in great shape. How lucky!" "It's hideous," I said, in my usual understated way. "I hate it and there are paint splotches all over it."

But don't take my word for it.


I replaced the fixture quite quickly with a score from the local Build It Again center (a Habitat charity, good stuff). That most-dreaded fake tile though? It lived and lived despite my daily glaring and curses. Ideally, I'd take it down and paint the wall, but I assume it was there to hide a plaster issue. Why else would someone possibly do that? Finally I had a plan, I'd eventually replace it with more beadboard, but I haven't yet managed to sucker anyone into to doing that for me yet. So I waited, and hated. Then yesterday I started thinking about painting it. And this morning, I did.

Sure, it's not the ideal solution, but it looks clean and sooo much better. I'm happy now.