About six weeks ago we started a weekend remodel project. You can already guess where this is going, right?
Six weeks later and we’re finally finishing up.
It all started with a leaky shower head about a year ago. We tried replacing the shower head and handle without luck. So we tried that again. Still didn’t work. Fast forward a year later and we noticed the shower surround and base had small cracks in them. They didn’t appear to go through but we didn’t want to wait until they did!
So we thought, we’ll just replace the shower. Long ago there was a claw foot bathtub in the bathroom and as much as I wish we could have replaced the shower with a new tub, it wasn’t realistic. The budget was small and it needed to function for our large family.
Andre got this beautiful stone composite shower surround at work and it was a really great price. He tore into the old shower and replaced the pipes that had been causing the leak. Thankfully there was no moisture in the walls!
Then as he tried to install the stone he discovered the walls weren’t square. Should have known, right? Old houses are never squared up! It took some effort and some good advice from a contractor that installs this product frequently (thank you!) but we got the shower in. Then because of the different size we had to do some sheetrock work so we had to paint. I had been meaning to paint that bathroom for quite a while anyway so I actually had the paint.
But then I looked up and noticed how yellow the ceiling had become from years of moisture. And the outdated cream light fixture.
Thankfully I had ceiling paint from a previous project. But a new light fixture wasn’t in the budget. So I got a can of antique bronze spray paint and made the old new! A little paint and some good scrubbing of the glass and it looks like a brand new fixture!
While we were at it, we decided to replace the toilet which was so old it took numerous gallons of water to flush. Thankfully Andrew gets those at work too!
As we were going to replace the toilet, we noticed the floor was in pretty bad shape. It’s a wood floor, probably because this room didn’t used to be a bathroom when the house was first built. We didn’t want to cover the wood floor but it needed some protection.
Poor hubby! While I was gone at a women’s conference, he got to sand and refinish the floor.
And then I figured, I’d better be thorough and paint trim. Had that paint too from the bedroom remodels!
Well that weekend shower replacement turned into six weeks of bathroom remodel, but, hey, now I have basically a brand new beautiful bathroom!
I’m so thankful my hubby can do this kind of work. He’s so patient as I add things to the project list. He’d say, “that wasn’t in the budget”. And then he’d go to Menards and get what he needed.
When we moved into this house, we knew it was full of projects. We have dreams of how we’re going to fix things up. This project wasn’t in that dream list, just became a necessity all because of a drip, drip, drip. But now it’s a beautiful space that is very useful to our whole family!
Desired Haven Farm 