What we've been up to...

We didn't post much in September or October, but that's mostly because we were super busy working on our bathroom renovation and finishing up other projects. We bought our 1970's ranch house about 2 1/2 years ago and slowly but surely, have been renovating and updating it room by room. This week, because of requests from my family, we're going to post the progress we've made so far -- starting with the bathroom. So, if you aren't interested in house pics, just skip the next few posts...

The hall bathroom we affectionately dubbed "the blue bathroom", and it's pretty obvious why:





My handy hubby and I started to tear out most of that blue. We took off the wall tile, tore out the blue toilet, countertop and ripped up the floor.





In the middle of a renovation, we always have to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that it gets worse before it gets better.

And finally done! After all the messy demolition, it was time to put it all back together. The walls were pretty damaged after removing the wall tile, so we decided to install beadboard wainscotting.

One of the things we've done as we've renovated our entire house is to be discriminating about what to tear out and what to keep. Not everything has to be new. We both really liked this blue, sort of retro tile on the back wall, so we decided to keep it. Also, the vanity was in pretty good shape, so I just gave it a light sand and re-stained the doors to give it a brand new look. New sleek hardware also helps. We also continued the beadboard panel across the side of the tub to give it a built-in look.

We went with a large format tile - 12" x 24" - and we both really like it. (It was also quicker to install and has fewer grout lines to clean!)

I chose to go with hooks in this bathroom instead of the traditional towel bar because you always need somewhere to hang wet towels -- not dry ones.

We added a shelf above the toilet for the fresh towels and a few bathroom necessities.



Luke and I took some photographs while in Chicago and I just had them printed in black and white and used simple white frames.

Overall, we are pleased with how this low budget renovation turned out. It was a lot of work, but there is something so rewarding about having a vision and seeing it through to the end. We scored the granite countertop, lighting, faucet and a few other things over a year ago because they were on uber clearance -- so we've had the vision for a while. It's nice to finally have it come to fruition.