Before & After: Master Bathroom

Trying to show off the house via my blog to extended family over the holidays was kind of a pita because of how spastically I blog, and how randomized my picture placement is, so I'll be doing a before and after for each room we've tackled.

Click for our master bathroom redo!

From the realty listing

Embarking on the Bathroom

So it's been roughly a year and a half since we moved into the Little Cape. We've done the living room, office, master bedroom, virtually started from scratch on our tiny half bath and really come a long way on the lawn.

What does that leave? Roughly the kitchen and bathroom. We have nice appliances in the kitchen and some livable linoleum. It's the lesser of the two evils, really.

Our bathroom is small. In total we have about 25 square feet of space, not including the bathtub. Here's a current [really awful] panorama of the bathroom.

All we have done is swap out the toilet. Those blue tiles in the shower are 2.25" squares. That's bordering on insanity. The tile on the floor always looks dirty and I hate the grout. There's a marble window sill and it's got yellow spots that won't budge.

Much like the natural woodwork the house came with, people actually like the tiny blue tile. That said, the woodwork and tile were both high on my radar and we know how that worked out for the woodwork.

We're finally going to get started on our bathroom! I know I'm amped for this project because I'm already having nightmares about buying the wrong patterns and colors.

Here's what we've got:

Pedestal sink being replaced with hanging vanity, going from oil rubbed to chrome

Clear, frameless Kohler sliding tub doors

12 x 24 modern tile on floor and shower walls

I get to tear up the tile I hate on the floor and in the shower, and replace it with these gorgeous 12" by 24" horizontal striped tiles. The glass shower doors will open the room up as will the bright colors, and the smaller floating sink.

I'd like to put a shelf in the bathtub stall. I'd also like to get some lighting going in the soffet above the shower. Maybe move the shower faucet handle up as well. Maybe accent tile? I don't know if we're really going to need it. I'm going to go all the way to the ceiling with the new tile.

Ugh... I'm Doomed to be in the Dark

We have a really, REALLY dark backyard. There aren't any lights on the 1.5 car garage, so we have spent some time shopping around to remedy that.

We decided we'd like something energy efficient, and dusk to dawn would be a plus, or maybe motion detection.

I finally found a really cool "twin light" product at Menards. They mount on the wall, have a 3w LED that gives light equivalent to a 25 watt bulb that comes on from dusk to dawn. If the motion beam is broken, it lights up a brighter CFL bulb. They're awesome!

We've been eagerly awaiting their arrival and sure enough, my little bundles of joy arrived today.

Our mailman, Good Guy Greg, being gingerly with the lights...

But... uh oh... Menard's literally shipped them, simply taped together, in their RETAIL PACKAGING!!

I didn't have a real good feeling, so I opened one and Guy the other and natch... both broken.

I'm seriously bummed about this. They weren't the cheapest lights ever and to ship them in retail packaging is plain careless. Fail.

Boo.