Tag: bathroom renovations

Adventures in House Renovating: The Bathroom

Lauren1 Comment

Before we get to the bathroom renovations, can I take a minute to complain about my first world problems?  Yes?  Okay, great.  Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30 (after going to bed at 11:30…), worked out, rushed to get ready, dashed to the coffee shop for breakfast since our kitchen is disassembled, got to work late because of Tuesday night’s snow storm then proceeded to exit the car and drop my coffee in the snow and splash in all over my coat and white purse.  I think I was just running on not enough sleep and was hungry because this seriously almost had me in tears.  Bad mornings are the worst, aren’t they?  Okay, I’m done. 🙂

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So, have I mentioned that our house is A) TINY! and B) OLD!  Oh, I have?  A million times?  Okay, well it’s still true.  We don’t mind as we wanted a truly Denver-esque house and that’s what you’ll get in Denver (unless you’re tearing down and building from scratch), but it means limited space… everywhere.  Our bathroom was one place we knew we’d have to be space/storage savvy so Ikea to the rescue!  I often think their stuff looks kind of cheap but I can’t knock them on their space efficiency…and the price.

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Here’s the “before” shot.  Please forgive me for giving a horrible picture but in case you didn’t believe me when I said the space was small, this is proof — I can’t actually stand inside it and take a picture.

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And here’s the “after.” TA-DA!  It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and some new fixtures can do to a space.  I am loving this fresh, clean, modern look so much better than the dark wood and such that was in there before.

What We Did:

Paint: stripes in Baja and Roman Plaster (I think?) from Lowe’s.  We did pretty good considering our floor and ceiling were both uneven!  The laser level we found at the office worked wonders.

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Toilet: installed by “Plumber Joe.”  He came up with that, not me.  I think I’ll spare you a picture of the toilet and our un-emptied trash can 🙂

Shower curtain: We got this curved curtain rod and liner at Target and it works so you get more shower space which was just what we needed!  Plus the white liner really brightens the space up, especially when the sun is shining through the tiny shower window onto it.

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Sink, vanity & shelving unit: all from Ikea.  I’d like to pretend that sink was an easy task but it was anything but.  The pipes coming from the wall were done really weirdly and the sink connection tubes from Ikea weren’t long enough and it was a pain to fix because they were European.  On the plus side, the plumping takes up no space so those are full drawers!

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Mirror: I’m sad to say I lost the oval vs. rectangle battle on this one, but Joey was right, oval looks perfect!  This was the final touch and it was so fun to see it all come together.  Oh and to be able to see my own reflection.

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If you’re wondering how I took a mirror picture without being in it, it’s because I’m a ghost.

Now that all is said and done I’m so glad we did a little bathroom renovating.  Even if it didn’t actually make the space any bigger, it feels bigger.

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

I think I could sum up this weekend in one word…productive.  If you wanted me to sum it up in short sentences I could say Friday involved dodging an annoying employee at Home Depot, Saturday involved flushing and re-flushing our new toilet and Sunday involved breakfast and shopping, but productive is just vague enough to avoid saying that I spent a majority of the weekend doing boring homeowner-y stuff.

If your Friday didn’t involve picking out bathroom paint colors, then you probably didn’t have as much fun as I did.  While looking, this guy came up to us to try to talk us into buying whatever it was he was peddling so we got out of it by telling him we’re renters then had to avoid him, lest he should see a toilet in our shopping cart and know that we lied to him.  Also, we celebrated the start to the weekend with a trip to the liquor store for beer and wine.  How cute are these?!

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Plus a fancy dinner.  I always forget how quick, easy and delicious salmon is.  I never forget how expensive it is, however.  We tried this recipe and it is a definite keeper.  I could’ve eaten 5 more pieces.  And then been broke for the rest of the year.  Then to top this wild and crazy night off, I fell asleep on the couch at 10 PM… Joey pointed out that I did drink an entire bottle of wine 😛  P.S. Who else is super excited for the return of brussel sprouts?!  Oh, just me on that one?

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On Saturday, we slept in, ate breakfast (obsessed with this yogurt-y deliciousness right now!) then dove right into some bathroom remodeling.  We’re swapping out paint, toilet, vanity, sink, mirror and shower curtain to give it a small facelift and it was kind of hectic.  Not that we had any trouble with anything we were doing, it’s just that our bathroom is SO TINY and it’s really hard to have the two of us in there working on it at the same time.  I think we managed yesterday but we’re eventually adding stripes to the walls so both of us are going to need to be in there to get the lines taped.  Joey set our new toilet perfectly and I was impressed.  Is it depressing that these are the kinds of things that excite me lately?

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While we waited for the paint to dry, we took a walk over to the neighborhood coffee shop, sipped hot sugary drinks and talked wedding budget.  It’s crazy how many small pieces there are to put together.  When we sat down and listed them all out, it was a little bit shocking.  I think we’re on the same page about almost everything, including that we want to be completely prepared and ready a couple weeks before the wedding so we have absolutely nothing to stress out about during that time.  Are we just dreaming?

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Also, I accidentally left my ring at home before we left, so Joey was kind enough to draw me a new one.

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After getting the toilet all set up, we sat down to dinner at 9 PM (thank goodness for leftovers) and a movie that’s been in our queue for at least a year.  I actually kind of liked the movie but just before getting into bed I asked what the point of it was and neither of us could come up with an answer.  One thing I do know is that I’m never drinking coffee at 4 PM again if I am hoping to get any sleep.

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This morning I fit in a run then met Jenn for breakfast at Watercourse Foods.  We were both kinda shocked to hear they didn’t serve Bloody Marys but we got over it when we saw that mimosas were 2 for 1.  I also asked her to be one of my bridesmaids (she said yes :D), meaning my bridal party is officially set!  Afterwards, I picked up my mom and spent the next four hours at the mall, shopping for a dress for our engagement party next weekend.  I found three I liked at our first stop.  So don’t ask me how we spent another 3 1/2 hours there.  Oh and I replenished my candle supply with some winter-y scents.

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Now I’m hiding in our room because the Cowboys/Saints game is on and because this productive weekend has me so dang tired.  Maybe I’m in for another night of falling asleep on the couch?

Happy Sunday!