It's Been Busy Here!

Last spring I realized a real need to simplify my life. The last year had been so insanely crazy with 2 and 3 jobs, on top of going back to school with 2 classes per semester, and renovations going on, trying to keep up with the two blog groups I was in charge of, all while still juggling a large family. I loved all I was doing, but realized there was a need to slow things down. I had my New Year’s Resolutions in place a couple of months before the New Year. That’s when I started clearing my lifestyle plate and prioritizing. Some things were actually really tough to let go of. I’m really good at keeping more than busy and like to finish what I start. I’ve had a lot of support along the way though, and am grateful for being more present in mine and my family’s lives.

Though I’ve taken quite a break from blogging, if you follow my pinterest boards,then you know exactly how busy I’ve been around here. I had a friend ask me, at our monthly luncheon last year, who was getting married with all the wedding ideas I was posting. I tend to be focused when I am on Pinterest. You’ll know if I’m planning a trip or getting ready for a special occasion with all the style boards, or where my home improvements are focused by the rooms and themes I’m stocking. You’ll also know if I’m caught up in gardening with all the outdoor posts I’ll pin.

Yes, it’s been a long time! So long that I haven’t had a chance to update you even since our computer crashed in November of 2017, taking with it hundreds of picture files that weren’t backed up. We’ve been through all of this before, but not to the point where we couldn’t restore photos. So if you had been watching from the Pinterest sidelines, you’d know that we’ve been remodeling again, (bathrooms to be exact), planning a wedding for my oldest son, who was married last July, and adding color to our very neutral color scheme. It seems I’m feeling better these days with all the color I’m adding back into my life!
So here it is, the before of our children’s bathroom:

It all started while we were remodeling our master bath…which took YEARS!
2 1/2 years to be exact. It was torturous and laborious and, at times, tear provoking. (More details later). But most importantly, we were at the tail end of finishing it when it became an emergency that we no longer use the downstairs shower, so our family was sharing the 3/4 children’s bath. Back to basic baths. Uh-huh, the teenagers weren’t too pleased.
So it was while relaxing in the tub on various occasions that my decorator mind started planning the updates on their bathroom once the master bath was all finished…which was happening quickly at that point.

The weekend after our master shower was back in use, I began implementing my plan which involved tearing out that ugly linoleum floor. I’m finished decorating around that terrible color that is so stained it never seems clean! (All the spots that you see are stains, the floor is “clean”).

Facing into the bathroom

Facing the closet and door from the tub

I still wonder if it had been beautiful at one time. I can appreciate a dated room and understand the once had beens of it, but this has been tough for me to comprehend because it had been such a crutch to my decorating since we moved into this house 14 years ago. The flooring is important because it can determine the whole scheme of a room, and how it feels.

The toilet was unhooked at this point, so I had a note on it to remind people not to use it. This is the toilet alcove next to the closet. It’s a large bathroom, but a different shape, so it’s hard to get a good picture of it.

Wall above the toilet.

The wall color is a soft turquoise blue color. It worked years ago when I added the plank wall and turned it into a coastal themed room.

The first thing we did was take out the toilet (of course):

I finally had the opportunity to paint behind it! 😁

Then we got busy on the flooring, which turned out to be a lot more than we had anticipated, pretty typical of this house, so we weren’t too shocked!

Yep, another layer of linoleum. Original 60’s style. (Ewww!-sing-songy 🎵)

I took a few days getting it all up with the edges tacked down the way they were and the flooring nailed down.

Luckily I had some help along the way:

My cute 16 year old and husband helped rip out a bit when I was feeling a loss of strength. 😉

It’s good to have some support when doing renovations!

Under that last layer, we found some mold and water damage (SO typical of ripping into this house! 🙄), so my husband pulled up this portion of the floor and replaced it with new particle board after which I primed the wood to seal it, and then we were ready to go. I also painted the rest of the bathroom and the halls while he was working on replacing the wood. (YaY!)

I don’t have a picture of the new sub-floor, unfortunately, I got too busy with the project and helping out. 😀

Let’s just say it feels so good to know that it’s replaced and completed now.

We laid down Red Guard first, that is what the red is. It’s a barrier to prevent mold and water damage. We learned the necessity of this the hard way. You use tile mud to tack it down. When it is dry, you can start tiling.

My husband measured and laid the first tile for me so that the whole design would flow and be at the proper angle. It’s that triangle piece right in front of the tub and part of the wall. The first tile is crucial for a design!

Once that was laid, it was smooth flowing. The whole pattern really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be once I got the pattern down. I had the WORST tile saw ever though, so once I rented an industrial one, everything went quickly. I’m really disappointed about my new saw’s lack of performance. We changed the blade, no luck. Let’s just say I donated it and hope it falls into some good man’s capable hands.

This is what our floor ended up like once it was all said and done:

We all love it so much!

Like I said, it is really hard to get a great picture of the whole room at once because of the shape. But you get the idea, don’t you?

while at Home Depot picking up the tiles, I almost chickened out. I’m really glad that after sharing my idea with the guy helping me, that he talked me into doing it. He said that if I took it home and decided against it after laying the tiles out, I could always bring them back.