Renovation Realities!

Two weekends ago Boon and I (with the help of our trusty sidekicks, Bentley and sometimes Bella (once it got too dark to be outside)) decided to tackle our first real home renovation....and it was so exciting!!  We opted to test out our renovation-capabilities on our guest bathroom since it is the smallest renovation on our list of renovations that we want to do. That way if we totally messed it up, we could hire somebody to come bail us out and not totally break the bank.  Well, we are about 1/2 way through and so far so good - it even looks pretty dang really, really good (if I do say so myself!)

So it started out looking like this:

Guest Bathroom (before) - pretty hideous, right!?

A few of the things we hated: ugly light pine cabinets, horrible 1980 seashell sink (even though the house was built in 2000), stark white countertop, plain boring faucet, and the standard builder's mirror and light fixture. 

We first tackled the ugly light pine cabinets (this was back in November or so).  We used the Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformation Kit - Glazed Espresso, which is supposed to be an easy 5-step process.  To our amazement, it actually turned out pretty good, but "easy" is not exactly the term I'd used to describe the 5-step process.  We actually did both bathrooms which was a total of about 6 doors and 6 drawers and it probably took us a good two weeks.  The first step, the "Deglosser" step, was excruciating...our arms and hands were probably sore for a week.  This step is supposed to eliminate sanding, but my heck, at that point I think it would have been easier to sand!  After the first step though it really wasn't that bad, just time consuming.  It was definitely cheaper than having the cabinets refinished or buying new cabinets though!  (Even considering the money we saved, we will hire someone to do our kitchen cabients - no way am I going through that again!)  So after the cabinet transformation our cabinets looked like this:

Cabinets after their transformation!  (Sorry the pic is kind of dark.)

Since we were so exhausted from that phase of our remodel we ended up waiting about 4 months to continue. So fast forward to about two weeks ago! In this phase, we replaced the horrible 1980 seashell sink, the stark white countertop, the plain boring faucet, and the standard builder's mirror and light fixture.

Our Remodeling Team:

First, we have Boon - the most creditable worker.  He did all the dirty work (i.e. unhooking and re-hooking the plumbing, electrical work, heavy lifting, etc.).  He stayed very busy and so I wasn't able to get a picture of his head...sorry about that!

Boon unhooking the original plumbing.  Notice Bentley coming to help!

Second, we have Bentley - our second biggest helper (next to me, of course!).  Bentley helped us throughout the whole project.  He thoroughly checked out everything we took apart or removed from the existing sink/countertop by sniffing it endlessly.  He made sure we installed all the new pieces correctly by watching diligently from the hallway or, more preferably, on the rug next to the shower - I'm pretty sure he felt more apart of the action when he was actually inside the bathroom with us.  He was also very legit at following me around to make sure I didn't get lost during one of my many trips to the garage or spare bedroom (where we had all of our tools set up). 

Bentley helping Boon unhook the plumbing.

Third, we have Bella - unlike Bentley, she could careless what was going on in the bathroom and preferred to soak up some Vitamin D while working on her tan!  She literally spent all day outside until it got dark and we made her come in.  She then split her time evenly between her comfy bed in the hallway and hanging out with Bentley on the rug next to the shower.   

Bella soaking up the sun!

And, last but not least, we have me - the brains [read: slave-driver] of the operation!  My job was to provide thorough (and always right) instructions, take pictures, provide my master-caulking skills, help with the heavy lifting, run back-and-forth to the garage and spare bedroom to fetch tools for Boon, check on our outdoor-furkid, Bella, and to approve all final work!  (PS - I had the best job!)   Oh...and I also re-caulked the shower just for something to do in between my other jobs...I'm a bit of a busy-body!)

Me demonstrating one of my many jobs!

So now that you know who the players are, I'll walk you through the rest of our remodel.  After we (yes, we) unhooked the plumbing and removed the ugly sink and countertop, we realized we were going to have to re-texture the back and side wall where the old backsplash and sidesplash were because the new backsplash and sidesplash were shorter.  Unforeseen Problem #1!

After removing the sink and coutertop.

After many tries, we finally figured out [read: settled on] our texturing job.  I wouldn't give us an A+ in this area, but we can't be great at everything, right!?  It works, and unless you look super close, I don't think it is very noticeable so I give us a passing score.  After letting the texture dry, we painted and were ready to move on!

Letting the texture dry so we can repaint and move-on!

Yay!!  We finally have a new countertop and new fixtures!!!  Now to re-hook up the plumbing... 

Boon re-hooking up the plumbing. 

So now that we figured out the texturing and have the new countertop on, we thought we were moving along effortlessly, until this little make-drain-work-thingamajig (see below) didn't make the drain work!  Argh!!  So apparently, this thing comes in one standard size, yet our standard drop-in sink/countertop did NOT take into account the standard size of the make-drain-work-thingamajig.  People!!!  Basically, our make-drain-work-thingamajig was too short for our set-up.  Unforeseen Problem #2

Unforeseen Problem #2: make-drain-work-thingamajig

Luckily, we are problem solvers and did not let this little issue stand in our way!  Boon, with the help of a second rod and a little duct tape, rigged up a little fix until we could get back to the hardware store for a more permanent fix.  And, just so you know, later on in the project we did fix this - we had to use a toilet-flusher-rod-thingamajig [note: it was new, and therefore, clean so no worries!] because they are longer, but coincidentally they are the same diameter so the little white ball still fit and it now works perfectly!  Phew!

So finally, with the new countertop in place and the new fixtures and plumbing all hooked-up, we have our first comparison photo!! 

Comparison of old seashell sink and countertop to new awesome rectangular sink and granite countertop!

Now it's time to move to the builder's grade mirror and light fixture.  We ran into the same texturing problem with the mirror and the light fixture as we did with the backsplash and sidesplash, but again, not horribly noticeable unless you are looking for it.  So...if any of you come to our house...don't look for it!  :)   Our second comparison picture is below.  Ignore the burnt out light in the original photo - I didn't want to change the bulb since we were replacing the fixture anyway! 

Comparison of old light fixture and mirror to new beautiful light fixture and mirror!

And with that, we have the final product!!  I took the picture in the dark to try and get the light fixture.  Are you ready???

Our new guest bathroom!!

And of course, I had to provide an overall comparison picture!  Whatdayathink?!?!

Old vs. New!

After the pictures above were taken we added hardware so I've included one more picture below. 

Couldn't leave out the hardware!

Yay!!! Phase 1 of our Guest Bathroom Remodel is complete!!  (And, I only broke one nail in the process!  Whoop!)  Next, we will be re-tiling the tub surround...

Our next upgrade...stay tuned!

Stay tuned!  Until then...if you need any remodeling advice, Bentley is available for questions!  He's an expert now!