Bathroom Update

I have to be honest and admit that what I thought would take a weekend has turned into a 3 week ordeal! The tiling part was by far the easiest part of this reno believe it or not! Since we are SO close to crossing the finish line on this one I thought I would do a quick update on the floor portion and leave the final reveal for a later day.

Since our home is only 5 years old I was told the glue under our linoleum would still be a little soft and therefore it would be much easier to screw in a thin sub floor over top of the linoleum than to peel it up and scrape off all the glue. SO we gutted the bathroom (to find a plumbing nightmare...which I won't bore you with but I will say this: make sure you have shut off valves installed to the water lines supplying the sink if you don't plan on installing a new sink right away!) Then I screwed down a sub floor with 1/4" plywood.

The sub floor took no time at all and by raising the floor 1/4" plus the thickness of the tile I also had to make two other adjustments when the floor was all said and done: shave down the bottom of the door to allow room for the door to fit and add a closet flange extension to the toilet so that the flange would be flush/a little above the newly installed tile (I am an expert at installing toilets now LOL).

A cool trick I learned while helping Tony install our hardwood floors is that in order to get the new floor to fit nicely under the door jams is to put a small piece of the new floor plus the sub floor up against the door jam so you have the new floor height. Then take a saw (there are much easier saws to use than the hand saw I used) and rest it against the top of the sample piece of floor and saw horizontally.

The saw I used took a lot of elbow grease but its flat large size actually helped me saw a straight line and eventually once you get through the wood it takes a little wiggling and the piece should fall off...

Here's a good pic of the piece that once you pull it out, your tile slides right under for a nice seamless fit (once you caulk of course :)

Hey lookie who is helping me? Yes a rare sight but I had to snap a photo of this! Since it was our first time laying tiles and they are so small and staggered we laid them all out first, numbered them with chalk and did all our cuts before starting to lay them onto the mortar. We also bought this great little wet tile saw from Home Depot for only $64! Since we plan on tiling 3 bathrooms in this house I figured it was worth the investment.

I also installed new 5" tall baseboard to match the new baseboards in the rest of the house....and

TA DA!!!!

It's definitely not perfect but it really does look pretty good and I'm pretty proud of all our hard work. I still have to re stain the room divider since when I pulled it up from when it was on the linoleum the hidden ends which are now exposed need some colour.

I can't wait to get a plumber in this week to extend our pipes up to our new vanity and sink and show you the other half of this transformation!

Sink or Float?

I have been a busy bee over the past few days and I thought I'd update everyone on our bluestone floor reno! All I can say at this point is that it turned into a WAY bigger job than we expected and I actually swore the other day that I never wanted to pick up a tile or mortar again for as long as I live LOL! Okay I already take it back. BUT I am really needing everyone's help on making a certain decision....

SO we ripped out our old contractor's stock vanity and here is the new antique dresser turned vanity we are replacing it with...remember this before picture from our trip to Victoria?

 

Here's her debut with a new coat of paint...the two bottom drawers have a slight mint tint to them and the rest of the piece is a gorgeous cream....complete with pretty crystal knobs...

Now here is my dilemma...I cannot for the life of me make up my mind between the following two sinks...

they look quite similar, but there are a few differences which are really making the choice difficult for me...and I really would LOVE your input on this one!

Here is the first one.

pros about #1: its smaller, so there is more counter space, I have to cut a MUCH smaller hole in the counter top to place this one which will help keep the top of the dresser strong and sturdy

cons: it only has one hole for the taps which means I have a lot less choice for the taps and I cannot have those pretty faucets with two handles, and the inside of the bowl is a modern scoop shape which I'm not loving.

Here is number 2

pros about #2: it has 3 holes so I can pick out a very nice faucet! (which seems pretty important to me for the final look and I have a lot more choice of faucets)
cons: I have to cut a much larger hole in the top of the dresser which I worry will compromise the strength of the dresser. However the wood on the top of the dresser is decently thick and sturdy feeling.

SO which should I choose? The one which will maintain all the strength of the vanity top and settle for a less attractive faucet?
OR pick the sink which involves a larger hole to be cut possibly compromising the strength and get to pick the faucet I want?
If anyone has any expertise on this or has done this before how much does a bigger hole compromise the strength of the counter top?
I SOOOOO look forward to hearing what you all have to say!

Bluestone Floors

As far as stone flooring goes, white carrara marble makes my heart go pitter patter. I have been putting money in a jar for a long time now so that one day we can redo our master bathroom floor in this gorgeous marble stone. BUT I think I have another favorite now!!! Has anyone heard of Bluestone? Well I sure hadn't! When we were home in Victoria, my step mom Leah offered us their leftover honed bluestone tiles they had! And we all know you can't beat free!!! Here are a few pics of this gorgeous stone in action in case you are like me and had never seen it befor LOL!

I love the stone against white walls!

Here is a photo of our new tiles...they are in very long rectangular bricks on a sheet...so we can stagger them nicely. At first Nathaniel wanted to do a feature wall with them, then I thought of doing a bathtub surround, however we have the type of tub with the acrylic surround all in one piece. So I decided it would look great as the new floors for our second bathroom upstairs.

This seems like a pretty big project for me so even though I'm majorly excited to get started, I am a little bit nervous! I have never done tiles before so I need to do my homework on this one!Any tips or tricks would be great:) I also plan on removing the old vanity and putting an antique one in I just refinished...and since the antique vanity has caster wheels I will be going all the way under the vanity with the tiles.

Ship Wheel

What would my dream dining room look like?...sigh...this...

In Other News: Today I was out picking up something for dinner and I popped into one of my local thrift stores and low and behold I found this....(normally they have quite the price tag...this one was $20!!). Funny thing is when I got it home Nathaniel said "What the ____ is that for ??" LOL...I should have told him I wanted to build a boat in the backyard :)

I have liked antique ship wheels for awhile now and always wondered about all the voyages and the story behind each one! So I get it home and immediately start painting it...then I changed my mind and painted it with turquoise and white interchanging stripes...and finally brought it back to white again (with a little turquoise peeking through :P). Then I googled ship wheels to see if I could find some great inspiration...and BOY OH BUOY was that a let down! Apparently not many people decorate with these guys!...and if they do (sorry in advance for saying so) their decor is less than inspirational!

I searched on DecorPad, Google Images, Blogs and came up empty handed. This was the CLOSEST I could come to an inspiration photo...

SO after all the coats of paint had dried and I had had my fun with the sandpaper...here is what it looks like...

I actually love how it turned out...and I also like the departure from my usual painting or mirror on the wall.

I even thought if I replaced that rosette in the middle with a pretty rose made of fabric or lace or something a la Rachel Ashwell that would just make it even more unique....

I also wanted to ask YOUR opinion on this one (even if you don't like them)...do you like where I put it? OR do you think it would look better on a wall in another room, leaning on the floor against a wall, or on top of a dresser (leaning against the wall)....or if you have any other ideas (excluding the garbage LOL) please feel free to suggest! One thing I DON'T want is to look like I have a theme room...so as far as beachy and nautical things, the ship wheel and my wall of ship and beach paintings is where it ends in this room. To mix it up I have my super pretty chandelier and a few other whimsical and girly touches.