Revisiting the "Men's Bathroom" (1/2 Bath)

When we bought our house, one thing that was on our "wish list" was having at least 1 1/2 bathrooms. It was an added bonus that our house actually has 2 1/2 bathrooms! (When it isn't ripped out to the studs because of mold!!) 

It is our understanding that the prior homeowner had three sons. (We joke that one son must have stressed out his Mom the most because we have found things of his that were left behind such as a dinosaur ornament labeled with his name & his name is spray painted on our basement wall.) Anyway, the half bath in the house has a distressed looking door on it with a sign that says men. We have found this to be pretty funny. The bathroom was a hodgepodge of mismatched things. It was functional (despite the fact that the pedestal sink needed to be repositioned daily so it wouldn't leak) but not ideal. 

So, here's what we have so far! We went to IKEA in November and unexpectedly picked out a bathroom vanity, sink, and faucet for this space. It is not very wide, but, it makes the bathroom seem much larger in size now! 

We have also selected flooring tile which looks like dark wood and a light beige grout. Z installed it all himself. You can tell from the photos, too, that there two different paint colors. The paint to the left of the toilet is the original. The paint to the right was a color we initially picked for the kitchen - and it wasn't the color we were looking for in that space. Since we plan on tiling part of the walls in this room, we will probably end up painting the rest in that color. 

In the bottom photo, we tried out a silver tile. We had talked about silver tile in a previous post. After putting this up and living with it for a few weeks now, we aren't sure if we are sold on it. I think it's better to try it and live with it first. 

We still have quite a few things to do before we can call this room finished. A few things have been completed, but are not pictured in these two pictures. We purchased a mirror at IKEA and installed it. Z also built a wooden ledge on the far left side part of the bathroom - where the whole would be in the photos. 

So, what's next?? We have been looking and gathering ideas. We have found some inspiration in photos - my Pinterest board is a testament to that. We know that we are going to keep the original door that we lovingly refer to as the truck stop door. It's beat up, engraved, suspicious, and hilarious. Behind the door will hold one insane bathroom. I don't want to give away too much just yet, but we are finding inspiration in many things. Just expect something over the top, and in ways, silly.

Here's teasers as to what we are talking about and considering:

INSPIRATION #1 

INSPIRATION #2

INSPIRATION #3

INSPIRATION #4

If you were going to go "all out" on a room like this one, what would be the over the top things that you would include? 

No Sugar Coating!

When I started this blog to share with family, friends, and strangers (Hi!) what Z and I had been up to on the house, I was not going to sugar coat everything. It would have been impossible to! I will say this though - home ownership so far has been very rewarding, stressful, and enjoyable. The exciting, yet frustrating, part about home ownership is when something goes wrong. Something that you didn't think would go wrong. Something that was not in your overly specific home inspection report. Something that you think is going to be a quick fix. And it is not.

So, within the last few days, here are a few of the mishaps that we have run into at our house. Trust me- there have been many more! But, here's just a glimpse! 

Z had noticed a few mornings ago that there was some water leaking from the stand up shower in our Master Bath. After taking a closer look, it appeared that it needed to be re-caulked. Simple fix! We purchased caulk and he got to work on it. As he was removing the old caulk, he noticed some mold and mildew. No biggie - it is a wet area anyway. So, he cleaned it up, and continued on around the tile. When he got to the tile pictured above, the tile fell out! After closer look, it was mold. YUCK! After a bit more investigation, it appears as if there is much more than just pictured. 

After the mishap in the Master Bath, we decided that we would utilize the guest bath (hallway bathroom) to shower. After we had both taken showers, we had both noticed that there was dripping coming from the faucet. No problem! After a few YouTube video tutorials and Home Depot worker questions, we were set! Seemed like a quick and simple fix! NOPE. A can of WD-40, tools from Home Depot, and pulling as hard as possible, we were unable to reach the part that we needed to get to. It is still leaking.

There was a risk of severe weather tonight in our area. We're in the Midwest, so it happens. However, this morning was peaceful and sunny. As I sat at our breakfast bar eating oatmeal and drinking coffee, I heard a "chhhhhhhh--crrrrrrrrack-snap!" Out of nowhere, a huge branch fell in our backyard! Of course, it wasn't one that was dead. It was full of beautiful, green leaves.

SO... NOW WHAT?

We find ourselves at the same point, I assume, many home owners find themselves at - now what? This is our game plan for these unforeseen issues that came up this week:

Mold in the Shower

 We could go a few ways with this one. It basically came down to two options - do we fix it? Or, do we deconstruct the bathroom and slowly redo it? After discussing it, we decided to take our time and deconstruct the bathroom. We will start by tearing out the shower and cleaning the mold. We will slowly be working on this project. We still have 1.5 bathrooms, so it is something we can take our time on. We figured we might as well redo it like we wanted it to be, instead of settling and wanting to redo it within years. We already have ideas of what we want to do in it! I can't wait to share the process with you all! Redoing the bathroom was something that we were wanting to do - eventually - but it seems as though we will be working on it sooner than originally thought. 

Leaky Faucet 

We are letting this one slide for right now. It seems impossible for us to be able to fix it right now. The pipes seem to have a lot of calcium on it, which doesn't help. Perhaps we will hire a plumber at some point, especially if we have someone come out to do other things. In the meantime, I think we'll put a bucket underneath and water plants with the water that has dripped out. Eh, it works! 

Huge Branch Falls

Considering that we were supposed to get possibly severe weather tonight, we were proactive with contacting some tree services to get some bids. If a tree branch would just fall with calm winds, what would happen in severe weather?! We had one person come out today and will have another bid or two tomorrow. But, we were able to get rid of that huge branch! We met a very kind neighbor today who offered to come over with two chainsaws and help us chop it up! Him and Z cut it up in 10 minutes! We'll use the wood for our chiminea and when we get our fireplace finished (Oh goodness.... that's another one for the list!) we could use it for that, too.

So, that's where we stand right now. It looks like we have a few projects ahead of us! Even though these things were unplanned and a bit frustrating at times, I must say that it was fun to add the text and doodles to the pictures. I took the photos with my iPhone and added text with the A Beautiful Mess app. Check it out if you haven't already! 

Have you run into any problems with your home, a place you live, or your apartment? What was your experience? 

-E

Sneak Peak: Men Bathroom

I am sure you're reading this title questioning what it means. Let's just say (for now) that there was a previously dedicated bathroom for the men of the house. We found it amusing and are going with it!

Tonight, we went by Lowes to check out their tile selection for this particular bathroom. After looking at Home Depot, we found some nice ones, but nothing really caught our eye for what we were looking for specifically. However, at Lowes, we found many tiles that would fit the bill perfectly! It was difficult to narrow it down! But, we did!

We chose this tile for the wall. We also picked out other dark tile to create a border around it.

Now, we are trying to figure out the flooring. When Z had worked at a kitchen and bath store, he was given extra tile that would have been discarded. In trying to save money, I am determined to make this tile work! However, I don't know if it will work for this room. It will come down to changing the beloved wall tiles from Lowes, changing the already available floor tile, or just going for it.

What colors would you use with silver subway tiles? What kind of flooring would appeal to you? What paint would you think would be masculine yet modern?

-E