You know how sometimes when you’re watching a sporting event, and you see some person collapse across the finish line- victorious but exhausted? That is us. That is now. This is it.

Welcome to Week 6 of the One Room Challenge! A brief refresher if you’re new here: the One Room Challenge was created by Linda of Calling it Home to challenge designers to complete a room makeover in 6 weeks, sharing their progress along the way. And today- we’ve made it to reveal day! If you’d like to catch up, or follow along from the beginning, here’s our journey in renovating our beige box of a bathroom to the Modern Nautical space of our dreams:

Week 1: The Blah “Befores” and the Design Plan

Week 2: Demo Time!

Week 3 // Rebuilding and Changing Up The Plan

Week 4 // Tiled Floors and an Upgraded Vanity

Week 5 // Tiling the Shower & More Details

Since it’s always great to see where we started, here are a few “befores”:

 A pretty bland builder-basic space that could definitely use a big dose of style. Here’s the plan we came up with:

And here’s how it turned out!!

This Challenge was aptly named. So much of this project was new territory for us. We’re not total DIY-novices- I mean, I build furniture for a living, but this really was a whole different ball game. We build things, we paint things, we’ll replace lights or plumbing if we need to, but rebuilding a whole room? It was not easy. It was a lot of work. It took over our lives. It was frustrating, exhausting, and rewarding.

But it is an incredible feeling to look around and see that every. single. thing. that makes this room beautiful is because of something we did together.

We also know that we saved a crap ton* of money by doing these things ourselves. Did that comfort us while we were wet-sawing tile at 12:30a.m. on a Friday? Not really. But still.

*not an actual amount. Probably closer to $5000 saved, though. According to my semi-informed research.

So let’s dive into the details a bit before I pass out clutching my glass of victory champagne.

The vanity makeover was a huge change- and a BIG way we saved money on this project. A new double vanity can cost over a thousand dollars- not including plumbing fixtures, and we just weren’t on board with that. We knew that a little paint and some new hardware would make a world of difference.

Paint // Sherwin Williams Salty Dog

Compass Pulls // Anthropologie

Brass Knobs // Home Depot (we repainted them)

Up top, we knew the existing countertop was destined for the “donate” pile. The countertop was a solid material and in pretty good condition, but it didn’t match our style at all, and the integrated sinks were a big thumbs-down. We built our own butcher-block style top to bring in a little warmth to the space, and I just LOVE it, especially with the pop of the simple white sinks and nickel faucets.

Faucets // Ikea

Sinks // Ikea

Rounding out the vanity area are the upgraded mirrors and sconces. The oversized mirror was just more surface area to get dirty, and it didn’t elevate the space at all. We’ve wanted round mirrors for this space FOREVER, but it was a struggle to find the right ones. They were either too big, too small, or too expensive. These simple nickel ones ended up being perfect, now that I’m seeing the space all together. I love our touches of nautical fun, but I think keeping it simple on these big pieces was a good call.

Then there’s the LIGHTS. I am obsessed with them. They’re simple and beautiful. The bathroom is SO BRIGHT now and it’s wonderful! Embarrassingly, we had 3 mismatched bulbs in our former fixture since we’ve moved here, and one had been burnt out for at least the last six months… #shame

When we got these ones wired up and lit, it was like light shining down from heaven. I love that the pin is brass- an unexpected detail, and those teak-wrapped edges are just so beautiful.

Sconces // One Forty Three

Mirrors // Ikea

Moving right along… Not that the toilet area isn’t super fun by itself, but we knew we could make this corner into a little something more interesting. A touch of black was the perfect choice for a floating shelf above the toilet, which houses all the essentials: model sailboat, turtle votives, a succulent, and a pretty (and on-theme!) candle. Duh.

Above that, we hung my VERY FAVORITE print, in an awesome floating frame. There’s not much to say about this except it’s perfect and I love it. The fun textured wall hanging was a last-minute addition from Target, and I think it was such a great find for that blank spot.

Shelf Brackets // Ikea (painted matte black)

Shelf Paint // Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

Sailboat // Etsy

Succulent Pot // Ikea

Print // Minted

Floating Frame Hardware // Highland Hardware

Woven Wall Hanging // Target

Flipping right around bring us the most dramatic change: THE SHOWER. The oversized beige tiles, random green glass, and dim light made this space feel like a cave. Here’s a fun progression of this transformation to help show how much it’s changed:

This space was also the most work out of the entire project. I won’t bore you by complaining as much as in previous posts, but there it was quite a process to rebuild the entire shower area. BUT- we are SO HAPPY with this space now. It looks so much bigger now with the gorgeous glass tiles- and I think doing the vertical running bond was the exact right choice, even if it was a bit of extra work. The grey tiles ground the shower floor so nicely and bring in a graphic pop at the niches. The semi-frameless door was such a win too- it makes the space feel huge! (And it was a great price!!)

The very last little thing I found was the perfect rug. I actually agonized over this rug for several weeks. #firstworldproblem. For whatever reason, I looked through literally hundreds of rugs for this spot, and I didn’t like any of them. And then I wandered into Ross and found this one for $7 and I ran out of that place clutching it like I had just won the lottery.

White Tile // Floor and Decor

Grey Tile // Floor and Decor

Semi-Frameless Shower Door // Home Depot (it looks like the price has gone up on this one, we got ours including shipping under $290)

Shower Fixtures // Home Depot

Y’all. Don’t get me started on those niches. Future Jen will be so pleased with the convenience of the niches that she will conveniently forget how much Past Jen struggled with these dang 14×14 boxes. Side note: I didn’t realize until just now how obsessed I am with lavender, and now all our shower stuff is purple..

I promise we’re getting to the end sometime this century.. but there are a few more details I wanted to share, because I’m just so happy with how all these little things turned out, and there are a few things that I haven’t really shared in the previous weeks’ posts.

Ben’s closet is connected to the bathroom, since both areas were part of an extension to the house about 10 years ago (pre-us). So, this space of course got the makeover treatment as well. It was really about finishes: fresh paint, new floor tile, and a new LED light, but it’s kind of amazing how dramatic those changes were. The room feels so much bigger and brighter! We added fun modern touches here too with the black metal mirror, and the graphic curtain that allows us to close off this space. I’m happy for Ben, but also a little jealous. Like 70/30…. Maybe 60/40 😉

Paint // Sherwin Williams Silverplate @ 60% (because we’re just that high maintenance)

Light // Home Depot (but I can’t seem to locate it on their website- but it was $39!)

Tile // Floor & Decor

Mirror // Ikea

Curtain // Old Ikea Fabric

And lastly, a peek at a few of the details that helped bring home our Modern Nautical look. Anthropologie killed it for us with the whimsical nautical hardware, and we scooped up several different styles: the anchor toothbrush cup, the hook for hand towels, the large cleats for our large towels (which we combined with a simple plaque DIY to create a piece reminiscent of the construction of a Viking ship- which may sound random but if you ever saw my husband you would totally get it), and the compass knobs for the vanity drawers. They’re fun and pretty, and we just loved them. And that’s the point, isn’t it? 🙂 We think they’re the perfect counterpoint to the preppy/nautical new towels. (Which, by the way, are the MOST AMAZING TOWELS EVER AND WORTH EVERY PENNY)

We also incorporated these modern switch plates, and it was such a good call! Ben pointed them out while we were on one of our 47 trips to the store. (Let’s take a moment to appreciate that number. Future Jen will forget since she’s already buzzed on victory champagne.) The squared edges are such a great detail- and it’s a nice upgrade from the basic white plates we already had.

So, to wrap up, a few thoughts:

Home Life // The rest of our house is still in shambles. But man, we’ve got a beautiful bathroom to retreat to.

Shopping // We went to the store (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Floor & Decor, Anthropologie & others) 47 times over the last 6 weeks. I made some new friends. People kept saying “please finish your project and stop coming here”.

Budget // LOL. I don’t even know anymore. I have a stack of receipts that is laughably tall. We didn’t buy anything extravagant for this space, but there was so much unknown that factored into spending more than we expected. The extra costs definitely came from equipment and building materials as opposed to our finish selections. As a rough estimate, I’d say this room was about a $4000 project.

Thanks // Direct shout out to Mark at the Clairemont Floor & Decor for totally preparing us for this project, we would have walked out of there with all the wrong stuff without him. Also, both plumbing guys at the Ponce Home Depot (I’m sorry I missed your names!) were so helpful on multiple occasions! To the awesome girl at the Ponce City Market Anthropologie, thank you so much or checking stock around the city for me- that was a huge help! Lastly, Gregg and Pete from Ponce Home Depot- thank you so much for helping me get that shower door strapped to the Jeep, it meant so much that you guys put in a lot of effort and care.

Extra Special Thanks // To family and friends who have been excited/nervous/encouraging right along with us- you made this process so much more bearable! To readers who followed along- thank you! I could probably talk about this room all day, so it’s nice to have a few people listening 😉

Extra Extra Special Thanks // Ben- you are such a champ. Thank you for working so dang hard during the day, and then coming home and working so dang hard again. Thank you for supporting my dreams, and for being an active part in making them come true. I could not have done this space without you- and I can’t wait to brush my teeth next to you in our gorgeous new bathroom. But at my own sink now, because we are fancy.

If you’ve stuck with me all the way to the end of this post, 10000 bonus points to you! If you’ve been following along with us on this process, thank you so much for your support and encouragement!

We’ll end things with one last look:

Present Jen, out!

Let’s jump right into it, shall we? We’ve just wrapped up Week 5 of the 6-Week One Room Challenge, and there’s been a ton of progress since our last update!

Linda of Calling it Home created the One Room Challenge for design bloggers to make over a room in 6 weeks and share updates every week along the way. We’ve joined in as guest participants, and here’s what we’ve been up to the past 4 weeks, renovating our master bathroom into the Modern Nautical space of our dreams 🙂

Week 1: The Blah “Befores” and the Design Plan

Week 2: Demo Time!

Week 3 // Rebuilding and Changing Up The Plan

Week 4 // Tiled Floors and an Upgraded Vanity

So this was our to-do list this week:

Install new sconces // we did this LAST NIGHT, so you’ll have to check Instagram for a fun peek at those! ?

Repair drywall, finish painting ?

Install toilet ?

Install vanity (we still need to adhere everything, but it’s in place- and it looks GREAT) ?ish

Build drawer boxes (didn’t get to this one- the plumbing isn’t finalized, and we’ll have to work around how much space is left)

Tile shower (alllllmost there- we got about 90% done)

Reinstall Ben’s closet items ?

Reinstall baseboards (some of our tools got burgled, our air compressor among them, so we’ll have to get a new one before the baseboards can go in)

There was a lot of big progress this week- the room started to become functional again, which was huge! We brought in the vanity, installed the new wood countertop, added the countertop sinks, installed the faucets, and put in the drawers. We don’t want to give away too much of this makeover, but here’s a peek at how some of those finishes are working together (the doors aren’t in place yet, that’s why you get to see the fun random junk under the sink)

Above the vanity went the new round mirrors which are simple and perfect! It’s a completely different look than the huge single mirror, and it was so fun to get a view of the newly tiled shower! (You can also see the new brushed nickel switch plates that were totally Ben’s idea and now I’m super obsessed with them)

Speaking of the shower, this baby was a bit of a beast. The first two walls weren’t too bad- but that last wall was much more challenging than we anticipated. First of all, getting the walls started took a bit of work because we had to create a custom ledger board template. Because we were doing a vertical running bond pattern, we needed a stepped ledger board to start the offset. We also had to work around the niches on this wall, and they gave us tons of grief. Because of where our studs were located, we didn’t have much wiggle room as to where our niches could be located, so we couldn’t really plan how they would match up with the tile pattern. We ended up having to cut some tiny slivers around a few corners- a little nervewracking, but doable!

I also thought I was being super clever when I purchased pre-made niches. They’re labeled as “Ready for Tile!”, and you just cut openings in your hardiebacker and mortar them in. However, for whatever reason, these guys were NOT “Ready for Tile!” Although we were using the recommended Polymer-blend mortar, our tiles just wouldn’t stick. So we spent a good deal of time getting all those puzzle pieces cut just to have them pop out once any pressure was applied 🙁

The helpful team at Floor & Decor recommended a bonding primer. We scraped all the existing mortar off the niches and painted on the primer, so this morning we were able to mortar in the tile. Now we can move on to tiling the floor and the final wall pieces that will  rest on top of the floor. We’re so close we can taste it- I just can’t wait for this part to be done.

BUT! We still made a ton of progress this week. We went from scary red waterproofing to almost-done glass tiles- which made a great difference since we no longer have a terrible red glow casting all over the room like it’s the portal to hell. Or something.

(These were shot with different lenses, hence the totally altered view, but the vertical tiles DEFINITELY make the space feel larger and taller)

I got all of Ben’s closet reinstalled, which was huge! The Elfa system looks great with the new finishes and light, and we hung a black metal mirror that uses the empty wall space perfectly! We finally have a full-length mirror, so I don’t have to creep over to the guest bath to see how fly I look anymore.

So, we’ve got one week left, and still kind of a lot of do. Here’s what’s up before the BIG REVEAL:

Finish tiling the shower

Install the shower door and faucet

Hang artwork and hardware

Reinstall trim and baseboard

Paint touch ups (ugh, the drywall repair has NOT been fun)

Build in new drawers from the faux-fronts (this may end up being a Phase 2 item)

Stain threshold

Final touches: accessories and little details to finish off the space

So, there’s a lot to tackle, and we happen to have had a camping trip with friends planned for this weekend, we there’s about 4 work days left to finish this baby off. there may not be a ton of sleep between now and then, but we’ll get there. (Right?!)

Welcome to J(M)V Style! If you’re here for the first time, we’re so excited that you came by to check things out!

The One Room Challenge is put together by Linda of Calling it Home for design bloggers twice a year, challenging them to makeover a space in the span of just 6 short weeks, with weekly updates so everyone can follow along in real time.

For each challenge, there are 20 featured bloggers– a group of super talented designers that we’ll follow every Wednesday. We’ve joined in as guest participants, and you’ll get to see what we’re up to every Thursday! We’re working on our outdated master bathroom, turning it into the Modern Nautical space of our dreams. The first week was all about our plans, and week 2 we talked about all the down and dirty demo that this space required. Week 3 was a big turning point- we were finally rebuilding instead of destroying things, and it was a great change.

This week has been the most exciting one yet! Not only does it look like a room again, it’s starting to look like the mood board as well! The 6-week challenge is feeling very accomplish-able at the moment (here’s hoping I don’t regret saying that!) We’ve been sharing a lot of fun tidbits on our instagram, where you can follow along in somewhat real time with the renovation.

This week we tackled:

Shower // Finished installing the hardibacker and curb, mortared the joints, finished the second mud bed, rolled on the waterproofing (that is the terrifying red finish in the photo. It is SO.RED. Especially in comparison with the fresh grey walls and gorgeous new tile)

Walls // Painted every wall except the vanity wall (we’re waiting to paint there until we install the sconces, as that will involve a good deal of drywall repair)

Floors // Tiled and grouted! Threshold installed (still to be stained), stained new floor register

Vanity // Finished the countertop, painted the base and doors- all of it is GORGEOUS and we are SO.PUMPED.

Purchases // Bought the vanity hardware, towel hooks, sinks, faucets, and mirrors! (Only things left to purchase are the shower door and showerhead/faucet)

So while it feels like we’re definitely getting closer, we’ve still got a lot to tackle this week. In SUPER EXCITING NEWS, our sconces have shipped, so that vanity wall will be very close to complete next week! I may or may not have shrieked when I got the shipping confirmation email. I was in public- there were witnesses.

So up this week we’ve got:

Install new sconces (remove current light, split electrical components for dual lights)

Repair drywall, finish painting

Install toilet

Install vanity (including plumbing)

Build drawer boxes (underneath where the previous sinks were, we had those faux drawer fronts. Since the new sinks are countertop style, there’s room for drawers underneath, so we’ll build those in for additional storage!) I feel like that sentence was a bit confusing, but it will make more sense next week when we’ve got them built and can share pictures!

Tile shower

Reinstall Ben’s closet items

Reinstall baseboards

Welp.. After typing it out, that sure looks like a lot. But we will prevail! Then we’ll just have finishing touches and some simple DIYs for a our final week, and we’ll be there! We can’t wait to share a final space soon! (and to not have a toilet in our dining room anymore either..)

To end on a more beautiful note, here’s where things are headed:

Alternate titles: The Week that Ikea Betrayed Me, Don’t Cry Over Split Hardiebacker, How it Feels When Your Entire Home is Covered in Dust

Before I get in to all that, here’s a refresher on what’s going on around here: first of all, Welcome to J(M)V Style! If you’re here for the first time, we’re so excited that you came by to check things out!

The One Room Challenge is put together by Linda of Calling it Home for design bloggers twice a year, challenging them to makeover a space in the span of just 6 short weeks, with weekly updates so everyone can follow along in real time.

For each challenge, there are 20 featured bloggers– a group of super talented designers that we’ll follow every Wednesday. We’ve joined in as guest participants, and you’ll get to see what we’re up to every Thursday! We’re working on our outdated master bathroom, turning it into the Modern Nautical space of our dreams. The first week was all about our plans, and last week we talked about all the down and dirty demo that this space required. And this week, we’ve reached a turning point- it’s starting to look like a room again! It’s sort of crazy how much different a room looks when it’s down to the subfloor and studs, and thankfully we’re past that now. With the big tasks this week being drywall repair, tile prep, and painting, it was a very transformative week!

But let’s talk about why Ikea is now DEAD.TO.ME (ish), and how we had to make some adjustments. I was taping up the dimensions for our vanity so we could plan the height of our mirrors and the new junction boxes for the sconces, so I went to check the website for the dimensions on the sinks, faucets, and mirrors we were planning to get at Ikea- shown below.

 

Lo and behold, and sometime in the last THREE WEEKS, they’ve discontinued both the faucet, and the simple mirror we were going to DIY.

NOT.COOL.IKEA. I decided to take a frantic totally casual drive over to Ikea, (luckily, it’s only about 15 minutes from us) to see what the situation was, and check if there might be any remaining stock on the faucets. Because, you guys, I know this is a total First World Problem, but I really loved those faucets. I got so hooked on the idea of a matte black faucet- it was modern, simple, cool, and a GREAT price. But alas, no more stock in the ATL store, and while the customer service lady was very nice, it was frustrating to learn that Ikea doesn’t do any store-to-store shipping, so if there was stock in California, they won’t get it to you. She did look up stores near my friends and family in other areas (I was hoping to cajole someone into driving to their local Ikea for me, and paying them to ship the faucets) but still, no luck.

So it was back to the drawing board- but a good deal of research showed that there weren’t a ton of options. We were looking for a black single faucet, and there wasn’t much to be had at any sort of reasonable price. I can’t justify $400 for a faucet, especially when we need 2 of them. There are a few more Oil Rubbed Bronze options out there, but that just wasn’t the look I was going for- and I think it’s harder to trust that description online, because we saw it used for items that varied a lot in color. We didn’t want to end up with something that was really brown, because that wouldn’t be a good fit with the other finishes.

So then we decided that we’d just have to change course on all our fixtures. We were planning on black for the faucets, semi-frameless shower door, and shower fixtures. Are we ahead of a trend here? In like 3 years will the market be flooded with affordable black faucets and fixtures? Probably.

We still want to keep touches of black in the room, because I think that’s a great way to ground a space, and it can provide a definite modern touch. Our black will just be a bit more limited- a floating shelf above the toilet, the textile hanging over the closet opening, and maybe a little glimpse on the vanity door hardware. And I think it’s actually going to be even better the new way. So here’s how the space will look with polished nickel fixtures instead, mixed with some fun brass details. I think this mix of metals is going to be really beautiful, so I’m moving past the loss of my beloved black faucet.

As I mentioned above, this week has been a big turning point. It started out with a breakdown mild concern that there was too much work left for the 6 week timeframe. To be honest, this has been a challenging project. I guess the title makes sense, then 😉

Ben works in the film industry, which means very long days and somewhat unpredictable hours. He is an absolute champ and will come home at the end of a 14-hour day to tear tile off the floor or install the shower liner, but that’s also a lot to ask of him. I’ve been trying really hard to tackle the projects I can do alone so that when he gets home we can do about 45 minutes of focused work together.

What we’ve accomplished this week:

(1) Mortared in all the bathroom floor cement backer ?

Drywall Repair ?

(2) Painted the closet ceiling and walls ?

Refreshed the bathroom ceiling paint ?

(2) Installed a new (awesome! super-bright!) flushmount in the closet ?

(3) Installed our shower pre-slope and new drain ?

(4) Dry-fit the floor tile ?

Built and stained the new vanity top ?

Sewed the closet drapery ?

(5) Made our custom floating frame ?

Selected vanity and shelf paint colors ?

The first two weeks of tasks we tackled all seemed to be more difficult, and to take more time, than we had expected. We’re pretty confident in our physical abilities, and our resourcefulness to figure out how to do new things, but there was a lot of “new” at the start of this project. We haven’t done this kind of demo before, or this involved of plumbing work. Normally, I’m a big fan of the idea that there can be multiple ways to complete a project. “If you don’t have a certain tool, try things this way!” sort of thing- but the frustrating part about building the new shower pan is that we’ve seen examples of so.many.different ways to do it. It’s a very layered process, and it seemed like everyone did things a little bit differently. That made it really confusing to know what would be best for us and our space. We feel much better about it now- we think it’s important to make actions with confidence, but that was a definite struggle for this portion of the project.

We have a small home, so somehow renovating one of the smallest rooms in it has created chaos throughout the whole house. Ben’s closet is scattered throughout the office, tools are spilling into our bedroom, there are stacks of tile in the hallway, and there’s a vanity and TOILET in our dining room/entry, so… it’s been interesting. But each little thing that gets done helps to tone down that chaos and gets us super excited about this finished space.

Up next this week?

Finish the shower area and start tiling it

Tile floors

Paint walls

Bring toilet back in

Build floating shelf above toilet

Paint vanity

Wish us luck, we’ve still got a LOT to do, but we’re feeling good about it! We’ll see you for a great Five on Friday tomorrow, and Week 4 next Thursday (that should be a BIG, BIG update)!

Welcome back to our One Room Challenge adventure here at J(M)V Style! If you’re joining us for the first time, a little refresher on the ORC:

The One Room Challenge is put together by Linda of Calling it Home for design bloggers twice a year, challenging them to makeover a space in the span of just 6 short weeks, with weekly updates so everyone can follow along in real time.

For each challenge, there are 20 featured bloggers– a group of super talented designers that we’ll follow every Wednesday. We’ve joined in as guest participants, and you’ll get to see what we’re up to every Thursday! We’re working on our outdated master bathroom, turning it into the Modern Nautical space of our dreams- a quick review of our plans below:

Since last week, we’ve been elbow-deep in demo, as there has been a ton of work to do before we can get to all the fun stuff. A quick rundown of all the dirty work we’ve got to do to really get this project started:

Remove all the fixtures: vanity, countertop, mirror, hook and hanging hardware, shower fixtures, shower door, etc. ?

Pull up all the floor trim and set aside ?

Demo all current tile and cement board/hardibacker ?

Replace the valves for the pipes that feed the vanity sinks ?

Tear out the existing curb and shower pan ?

Replace water-damaged studs ?

Replace pipe coupling and shower drain ?

Replace toilet flange and wax ring ?

Replace soft sections of subfloor ?

A few notes below:

1. Pro Tip: When removing a toilet, set it down immediately into a trash bag in case there’s any residual water, and if you’re storing it in your dining room for three weeks… Also, I liked this photo because of Ben’s legs.
2. Look who didn’t paint behind the toilet! About halfway through tile demo here, and you can see the vanity valves haven’t been repaired yet.
3. The shadow along the wall shows a soft spot where water was likely getting through. Also: I know the wax ring is disgusting, but that’s how it’s supposed to look. Another Pro Tip: plug the toilet pipe with a rag to keep the pipe clean and keep the fumes from entering the bathroom.
4. You can see the tile and cement board under the door frame. NOT. FUN.
5. We cut out a specific soft spot in the subfloor using our circular saw. Instead of having several patched areas though, we decided to replace a large section- shown in #10
6. Shower pipe before a new coupling was installed.
7. Demo’d shower area.
8. Rehabbed shower area, with new exterior studs, new drain pipe (to be cut later, obvs), tar paper base, and new curb.
9. NICHES! They’re doing a pretty killer job holding tools here, so I’m pretty confident about the new shampoo storage situation.
10. New subfloor and toilet pipe!

We’ve had a blast sharing details on our instagram story- you can follow along here for those daily updates.

We also thought it would be helpful to share a few success and challenges from this week:

Good: Our Ryobi Hammer Drill was totally invaluable in helping get our old tile out. We used this in addition to a good old-fashioned hammer and chisel, and it was the best way to break up the mortar underneath so that large sections of tile could be pulled up. Don’t be fooled: removing tile is no joke, but the hammer drill definitely made it better. Another lifesaver? Our Ridgid Shop Vac. Pulling up the old tile/mortar/backer created A.LOT.OF.DUST. and sweeping didn’t seem to accomplish much. The shop vac was perfect for all the dust and small pieces, and we were also able to use it to help clean out the shower and toilet pipes before replacing the couplings and flanges. (Not sponsored, we just wanted to share two things that really made life better for us).

Bad: It feels like 80% of renovation work is cursing the people that came before you. A lot of little things can add up to a lot more work. They used nails to attach the cement board and hardibacker, which made it a lot tougher to pull those pieces up, since they had to be pried out instead of unscrewed. They also installed the door frames and jambs over the tile, so it was really challenging to remove the tile from under those frames. The way the flanges were installed for the vanity valves meant we had to cut down the pipes and fully replace the valves as well. Not terrible, but unexpected projects like that aren’t super fun, and can make the work take a lot longer. Since we’re DIYing every bit of this project, that time really adds up.

We’re in danger of talking for too long over here, so we’ll talk about a few things that are up next on the agenda, and then it’s time for us to jump back into it! Luckily, we have finally moved past the “destruction” phase of the renovation, and now we can focus on “construction”.

Up next?

Install hardibacker everywhere tile will be placed

Build shower pan

Repair drywall

Paint walls

Install tile!

We also jumped into some purchasing, picking up the lights (double gloss white with teak!), artwork, hardware for an artwork DIY (thank you for the inspiration Teal & Gray!), towels, and toothbrush cup. The jury’s still out on final decisions for the other textiles, so we’re not set on our closet drapery or rug yet. But, I. CAN’T. WAIT. to see these beauties start arriving!

Hopefully this time next week this room will start looking a lot more like a room. And.. since it’s more fun to end things with a pretty picture, we’re keeping our eyes on this prize: