Bathroom Remodel #2

Well, I thought we could wait but...we couldn't.  Remodeling is addictive.  After living with our first bathroom for a couple of months, we were chomping at the bit to do the next one.  Unfortunately, I've been traveling a lot for work so it was really hard to find the time.

When we did have the time, we went to our favorite place, The Flooring Shop.  Once again, Sami worked his magic and created a new and much more updated bathroom.

I have to say, it was tons easier this time!  Not one tear was shed...at least by me.

This bathroom was original to the house.  We put up "temporary" wallpaper ten years ago but never really liked it.

We had nasty carpet in the sink area and yet another one of those crazy clamshell sinks. (Whose idea was that anyway?)

The area where the tub was had small tiles some of which were cracked.  The tub was...not so nice.  This was usually the bathroom that I used (until we got the fancy new master).

 

The linen closet was dated as well.  It had the "laundry hamper" chute that I never cared for but was in all the houses built around this time.

At the shop, we picked out tile, granite and fixture colors.

Sami suggested a plank-like tile instead of the squares we had in the other bathroom.  We settled on the gray tile in the middle with brushed nickel fixtures.  You can't really see the granite choice but it's white with gray streaks and then we went with white cabinets.

I have to tell you, I really couldn't picture in my head what the bathroom was going to look like.  I wasn't 100% sold on the tile but I didn't have any other ideas and, besides, I had total faith in Sami.  Choices made, we scheduled dates and we were off!

The next stop was the store to pick out the fixtures.  That was almost as painful as picking paint.  We finally decided on some really nice brushed nickel fixtures.  

The last step was the paint.  This is always the worst part for me but since I knew it was coming, I scoured the internet in order to be ready when Sergio asked for the paint number.  After several hours and multiple discussions with my mom and my sister, I decided to go bold.  I picked a dark slate blue color that I thought would contrast nicely with the white cabinets.  Ha!  Decision made.

And so it began.  First they had to demolish the old bathroom.

Ugh!  You can see remnants of the original wallpaper.  

The tile guys did this work.  It was the same team of guys from the previous job.  They asked me which way to lay the tile and I told them...a little uncertainly but I made the decision.  I guess I wasn't very convincing because about two minutes later I got a text from Sami asking me the same thing.  I laughed and texted my response.  The shower was going to be brick like.  Then he asked me about the floor.  Hmm...The same pattern?

Wrong answer!  Sami explained that it would look odd if we did it that way so, I deferred to him.

And this is why I listen to him.  He has vision where I am blind.  The tiles look amazing.

The bathroom was beginning to take shape and we were getting excited.

Sergio and his guys came a couple of days later to take down the wallpaper and texture the walls.  I quite proudly pulled out my laptop and showed Sergio my paint color choice.  He just stared at me.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"You're the boss," he said.  Uh-oh.

"Tell me," I insisted.

"Too dark.  It will make your bathroom look small."  Nuts!  I had the color palate up on the screen so I clicked on the next lightest color.  Sergio shook his head and waved me down to almost the lightest color.  Curses!  Now I had to pick again.  After another agonizing hour looking at colors and talking it over with my mom, I settled on something that I thought would work.

We were a week in and the guys were hard at work but we still had no plumbing fixtures.  It was holding up the show.  John called the supplier only to find that the sink fixture was delayed and wouldn't even ship for another two weeks!  We were a little panicked.

"No problem," is what Sami told us.  "We'll do everything else and then come back and install the plumbing."  This is the other reason we come here for remodels.  Sami and Tom never get rattled.  They stay calm which is calming to us.

Meanwhile, the cabinets were here so Sami and Tom installed them.  Wow.  I didn't think I'd like the white cabinets as much as the darker ones but these were nice. Shortly after, the granite guys came and installed the granite.  Sami and Tom came back to install the linen closet, hang the mirrors and the towel bars.

And voila!  Sergio was right about the paint, of course.  It looks great.  Tom came out and installed all the hardware on the cabinets (which was yet another thing we had to decide on.)

I love this pantry style linen closet.  The shelves are deep and adjustable.  Sergio came back and repainted all the doors and the frames white to match the cabinets.

 

Then the glass guy showed up.  After installing the glass, he very sternly told me not to use the shower for two days so that it would have time to set.  Then he looked at me with an odd expression and said, "You don't have any shower fixtures in there."

"Nope," I said.  "So, I think the two days are good."

Fast forward another week and four weeks after ordering our plumbing fixtures (the sink fixture was the holdup), we finally got everything.  Sami and Tom were able to squeeze us in and the plumber came back out to set it all up.

Ta-da!!  Here's the finished product.

Sink area - before....

 Sink area - after...

Old tub - before...

Fancy new shower - after...

We have another renovation under out belt.  I really like working with everyone on the project team.  They are all super nice and a lot of fun not to mention, very talented in their areas of expertise.  Now we're fighting over who gets to use this bathroom.  My mom has already called first dibs.

So, thank you to Tom and Sami and all the guys at The Flooring Shop for one more beautiful bathroom.

Stay tuned...project number three is coming up.  Tom and Sami just think they're done with us...