December 12, 2016
Alright, you guys. As you can imagine, after our 6-7 month kitchen renovation, I was a happy camper. Like, I didn’t need much else in life. I exaggerate.
But really, I wasn’t all that jazzed about starting our master bathroom renovation. To start, Jordan and I had a slight disagreement on what we were going to do. And for those of you who walked back to our bathroom to listen to us persuade you on who was right, you know it wasn’t just a “slight” disagreement. ๐
Started From the Bottom…and Disagreed
Our master bathroom was originally unfinished without floors and painted its original 1970s cream color. It had a simple bathtub and tiny shower in the middle of its U-shaped layout. Jordan’s plan was to take out the bathtub and replace it with a bigger, nicer shower and create a decorative cabinet out of the tiny shower. Did you catch that? TOTALLY removing our bathtub!!
Jordan makes fun of me, because while in my mind, I’m a bathtub soaker with all the lavender and candles….I actually never have time to do that. It just sounds so nice, and I always thought I would start…tomorrow!
I obviously wasn’t on board with the idea of removing our bathtub and rather, wanted a nicer bathtub and to try to extend our tiny shower in the already-small space it was in.
Well, Jordan won, and I’m so glad he did. After over a year of renovating our fixer upper together, I’ve learned to trust him, because the guy honestly has really good design and contracting ideas. It’s one of my favorite things when we start dreaming, planning and browsing Lowe’s together as we envision what we’re wanting. Even though we butted heads a bit on this one, I threw my towel in eventually and began envisioning this spa bathroom he had in mind.
I think all in all, our master bathroom renovation took us about 2-3 months. It was important to me that we still take time to travel and be social, so poor Jordan had to give up some of his work days to see the world with me. ๐ Being honest though guys, it’s really hard to balance life with a renovation. I feel like that could be a completely separate blog post, but it’s true! With a baby on the way, it makes you really evaluate what you want to spend your time on whether it be friends, family, work, renovation, travels, etc. BUT, let’s just say it was beneficial in that it stirred up some good discussion and fun memories, regardless.
Let’s see if I can list all that took place:
1. To start, Jordan ripped out the old shower, tiles, and bathtub.
2. Our bathtub area had three vertical windows, so Jordan took brick from the side of our house to REBRICK the outside of our house into a higher, horizontal window so that natural light could still come in, but it made more sense for a shower (more private). Like, who is this guy!?
3. He installed the new window and made it…fit in all the ways it needed (not sure all the little things involved with this, but it was a job!)!
4. We had someone come lay the shower floor for us.
5. A plumber came to route the shower heads in the wall.
6. Jordan took out the fur-lows and dry-walled and textured areas in the bathroom that needed it after renovation.
7. He tiled the bathroom floors, shower floor and shower walls.
8. He installed our shower sprays, complete with 2 body sprays and wand. I had no idea how dreamy these extra features would be!
9. We had a company install our shower door.
10. We bought 2 identical unfinished dressers to put in each of our walk-in closets.
11. Jordan built custom shoe racks, shelves and clothes spaces in our closets, along with the dressers for storage. And can you say, STORAGE?! Imagine our first year living in our house without these two closets (because it was unfinished), so all of our clothes overflowed into other bedrooms or the trunk at the foot of our bed. :-/ This feature is NICE.
12. We hired someone to paint our bathroom, interior of closet, cabinets, lattice and new baseboards.
11. Jordan installed shiplap and painted it.
12. He painted the doors in our bathroom, installed them and put doorknobs on them.
13. We had a company install our leathered granite on both sides as well as our sinks.
14. Jordan installed the faucets,ย drains, cabinet hardware, light fixtures, electrical outlets, light switches and toilet paper/hand towel holders.
15. He completely custom-made the cabinet that replaced our shower–drawers, glass doors and all.
16. He installed our toilet so that we went from being a 1 bath home to a 2 bath again.
17. He hung the mirrors to add the final finishing touches.
18. And all the caulking, touch up paint, and little things that come along with these jobs that take time but are oftentimes unseen.
YouTube Video Tour (Videographers, do not judge) ๐
Feel free to click the middle of the image below to view our bathroom tour, and feel free to judge the number of “um”s I use….hehe sorry!
His & Hers
So while we finally had our clean palette of grey walls, leathered granite and simple gray tile floors, we decided to add some “pop” by choosing colors. We were going for more of the “spa-like” feel, and the simple greys and whites do just that–especially in the shower area, because it’s so relaxing. We bought Loft towels from Costco, and basically……WOW. Just wow. That combined with shower heads and body sprays make me want to shower more than a few times a week. I mean..just more often. ๐
So rather spontaneously, we were browsing World Market for some pops of color when I was immediately drawn to the soft lavenders, and Jordan went with some natural greens and reds. I wanted more feminine, pretty soft and lotion dispensers while he obviously wanted something more manly. So we went our separate ways, and I’m really happy with it. In fact, we’re both pleased! ๐ I hope to find some delicate lavender prints or water colors to add some more pop to the walls, and if Home Goods or Hobby Lobby has something fitting for the middle and Jordan’s side, we’ll probably add those touches later!
And Now We’re HERE!
*For now, I want to cry, because for the first time, our clothes aren’t spilling over into every open floor space or closet of our home. They have an organized place!
*We only have to walk a few feet to the bathroom again. This was rough these last couple months preggo!
*We have our own, personal sides.
*I have my relaxing, spa bathroom to unwind (even without a bathtub, yes!)!
*We have storage, storage, storage. Oh wait, did I already say that?
I didn’t think it was possible to love a bathroom so much.
Jordan, you’re always right. You told me so. ๐
Enjoy some before (I failed at these again, so I pulled from the internet!) and afters!
As far as our master bedroom, we’ve basically just painted and installed new hardwoods and baseboard. It’s literally had stuff piled all around the perimeters since we moved in, so I’m rather happy to just have it cleared out as a clean slate for now! Any suggestions on how to decorate our bed with pillows and such would be greatly appreciated! ๐
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