Finished Bathroom!

So, now it's time to draw back the curtain — the shower curtain, in this case — on our finished bathroom: prepare to oooo and aaaah.

The bathtub is an extra-deep soaking tub, so that Jason can use it too, but we decided to keep things simple and not get anything with jets or other moving (and clogable) parts. The window is new, and not nearly as pretty as the old one (which is downstairs while we figure out where we want to use the stained glass) but is built right into the tile wall so there's no wood to worry about in the shower. It's almost a shame to cover the tile with rugs, but we got some incredibly soft little bathmats and our feet have been thanking us for it ever since.

The new toilet is a Jacuzzi, and is much smaller than the old one. We're liking it so far! The sink cabinet doesn't have as much storage space as a more traditional model would have had, but since the register from the furnace is underneath it we don't want to keep too many things in it anyway. I've already noticed it gets a bit warm in there now that the heat is on, and I may have to relocate the first aid stuff in the drawers.

I'm really happy with how the shelves turned out. The painted woodwork looks good with the wooden cabinets, and we're just really happy with how everything came together. It's a wonderful place to shower or to take a relaxing bath. (I haven't used the other shower since we've gotten this one!)

Less dramatic, but almost equally exciting is the new linen closet, which we've already stocked with stuff. The builder's shelves were a little far apart, but Target had these great cedar shelf inserts which the towels are on. Jason also installed an additional shelf waaaay high up in the top of it for things which we don't need very often. This is an in-progress picture when I was in the middle of organizing everything.

All, in all, we're very happy with how everything turned out, although we could have used a bit less drama along the way. The hall mirror has been replaced, and now we face the prospect of reorganizing the attic, but we can run the toaster and the microwave at the same time and we have a lovely, functioning bathroom. On to the next project!

Bathroom Remodel - Day 9

Apologies for the lack of updates — between the preparations for and the actual trip back home for my sister's baby shower I fell behind. But I kept taking pictures!

Look! Paint on the walls!

Of course, a contributing factor to my sloth was the apparently slow, incremental progress as the project was nearing completion. It seemed incredible that everything would be done in two days (rightfully so, as it turned out) because while things were finally coming together, there was a lot of detail work left to do. At the end of the ninth day of work they were still working on the tile in the tub surround and all of the cabinetry was still in the middle of the living room, but at least everything was out of its boxes.

The main highlight of the day, besides seeing actual paint on the walls, was the arrival of the electrician to install our new electrical panel. Technically the old one had room to put the GFI outlet in, but it was over 50 years old. There have been a lot of "while we're at it" side project tied in with this whole endeavor, and one of them was to get a new circuit installed in the kitchen for the microwave, so we can run it at the same time as any other small appliance. The kitchen had basically one circuit for all the wall outlets (including some of the wall outlets in the living room/dining room area) and we were tripping the breaker frequently. The electrician seemed a bit nervous about working through the 40-year-old 1/2 thick real wood cabinets in the kitchen, but he did a very tidy job with the outlet, which is totally hidden by the microwave anyway. We were less thrilled with the hole he left on the other side of the wall, and with the condition of the panel when we saw it:

Fortunately, the contractors were still there when Jason got home and told him the electrician would be coming back the next day to finish up.