Bathroom Renovation Starts Today

When Alex and I bought our house in August 2010 we knew that our main bathroom had to go. Some people like how it looks but we not only detest its appearance, it simply doesn’t go with the look of our 100 year-old house and it lacks in functionality and quality. Now, five years later, I am about to swing a sledge hammer and begin the demo!

{These sinks are my least favorite part of our entire house. The faucet on the right cracked a few months after we moved in and we never fixed it because we knew we'd replace the whole thing, so we've literally had one non-functioning sink for FIVE years!}
{These sinks are my least favorite part of our entire house. The faucet on the right cracked a few months after we moved in and we never fixed it because we knew we’d replace the whole thing, so we’ve literally had one non-functioning sink for FIVE years!}

Our bathroom renovation starts today and we couldn’t be more excited. It will be a work in progress for about 5-6 weeks, as it’s a major overhaul – we are completely gutting the bathroom and starting over. We hired a local tile contractor who will be coming in for the first 3-4 weeks and handling the demo and working with a plumber before actually doing the tiling. After that wraps up, my brother, who is a contractor in Minnesota, will come out for a week or so and finish off the details, like installing the vanity, mirror and light fixtures, along with painting, doing some trim work and installing all of the plumbing and accompanying fixtures. He’ll have his work cut out for him!

{The layout of the new bathroom will be the same. We'll paint the walls a soft blue/gray to pick up some of the contrast from the Carrara marble, and our vanity will be white with a Carrara marble countertop. We are opting to reduce to one sink as a way to increase our counter space.}
{The layout of the new bathroom will be the same.  Our vanity will be white with a Carrara marble countertop. We’re opting to reduce to one sink as a way to increase our counter space. We’ll paint the walls a soft blue/gray to pick up some of the contrast from the Carrara.}

The goal in this project is to make the bathroom look like it fits with the rest of the house and make it more functional and an aesthetically beautiful space. We’ve certainly chosen some fancy extras, like heated floors, but mainly our choices were based on bringing the bathroom back about 100 years. I’ll try to post some “during” photos over the next month and a half to keep you updated.

{Our new tile will be 4x8" white subway tiles on the wall and 2" Carrara marble hexagon tiles on the floor. We'll be using a gray grout. I'm also pretty excited about our new toilet - it's really nice looking!}
{Our new tile will be 4×8″ white subway tiles on the wall and 2″ Carrara marble hexagon tiles on the floor. The tile guy will build out some custom shelving in the shower so we don’t have to have a rusty shower caddy as our storage option. We’ll be using a gray grout. I’m also pretty excited about our new toilet – it’s really nice looking!}

So far the process has been absolutely overwhelming in terms of the number of decisions we’ve had to make, but it’s been really, really fun to be able to finally make this happen. Alex and I enjoy doing projects like this together – it’s a lot to manage and keep up with, but we love to work together on improving our home. Now we just can’t wait to see what the finished product will be like!

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