Bathroom Remodel Reveal, Plus a Winner!
Bathroom Remodel Reveal
Today is an exciting day! I could hang my head and drag my toe around sheepishly as I tell you that not one drop of paint nor one square inch of flooring decked our hall, but I won’t! It’s true that the work hasn’t been done, but I don’t have time for hang-dogging! I have to do a bathroom remodel reveal instead! Not only that, but I have a winner to announce! See why today is so exciting? You get to see my toilet, and one of you is getting a free Tootsie Hug! It’s truly cause for celebration. No cheating and scrolling down to the bottom to see the winner… not until you check out the fantastic transformation of my most private of rooms: the master bath!
First, remember where we started from.
Here’s a telling “during” picture. The flooring has been pulled up and the sink removed to begin the structural repairs to the floor joists. The wall?
Nothing had been done. That’s right, this was my view in the loo…white vinyl flooring on the wall, and a piece of thin wood holding in my ugly tub fixtures. There used to be a big, ugly vanity cabinet in this bathroom; actually bigger than the one in the other tiny bath. For all of my youth, if one wanted to use this bathroom, one must sit sideways on the pottie because there wasn’t enough room to sit straight, thanks to the gargantuan sink cabinet. When Madre had that removed and the pedestal sink installed, the solution to the bare spot on the wall and the lack of wallpaper was this. Don’t judge her too harshly; Papa wasn’t doing well at the time, and spending money on a perfectly functional bathroom was the last thing on her mind. The thin, wood panel came along after the bathtub pipes froze, and broke, the winter after Papa passed away, and had to have some extensive repairs. Those repairs drained Madre of plenty of money…no room for cosmetic work then, either.
Another room done!
So that’s a little peek at the restructuring process. There are now jacks and piers, complete with cinder blocks, underneath my bathroom floor. It had to be done, folks! Once the floor shoring-up process was complete, the floor in my bedroom just outside the bathroom door began to quiver and shake, causing our huge gun safe to rattle, so our awesomely-wonderful-fixer-guys crawled even deeper into the pit and fixed that, too! That’s how the bathroom floor situation went from this:
to this (yes, that’s a little chunk out of the paint on the door frame, but it’s a fair trade):
There’s no space between the baseboard and the floor now! There’s no chunk of wood underneath the toilet to make it level! There’s so much more to show you! The ugly, impossible-to-turn bathtub fixtures went from this:
I won’t keep you in suspense any longer! Here are the rest of my low-quality, grainy pictures of my high-quality, remodeled master bath!
You wouldn’t think it would take so many pictures to show off a bathroom this tiny, but I didn’t want to leave out any important details! We kept the good features, like the pretty louvered doors over the storage shelves, and the nice pedestal sink. We ditched the stuff we hated, like the handicapped-accessible commode, the variety of wallpapers and linoleum on the wall, and the archaic tub fixtures. No, we didn’t have to scrape wallpaper…that’s paneling, made for bathrooms! As you can see, the wallpaper on the door will have to either be scraped off or paneled over, as well.
The best part is, the pottie doesn’t try to get away from you when you go to sit on it, and the sink doesn’t bounce when you walk into the bathroom! The structurally sound floor is by far my favorite new feature!
Our crooked house…
Our awesomely-wonderful-fixer-guys did complain a little about the bathroom…especially about the fact that every time they would measure and cut a piece of paneling, they would have to go back and make adjustments to their measurements for one end or the other. It would be a few inches shorter or longer from one side of the piece to the other, because nothing in the house is square! I just laughed and agreed…I already knew that! We’re probably just lucky the house is still standing, not to mention getting beautiful repairs like these!
So, that’s enough! Now that you’ve seen my gorgeous new water closet (it is kind of closet-sized), I will finally tell you who the big winner is of the Tootsie Hug (see this post for the contest description)! I used my usual method of choosing a winner: I number the entries and head over to Random.org to take advantage of their random number generator.
Drumroll, please!
Linda Bethea!
Congratulations, Linda! If you’ll shoot me an email (ahairinmybiscuit@gmail.com), we can confer about what fabric you’d like, and I’ll get started on your luxurious Tootsie Hug foot warmer right away! If you are having weather like ours, then you can’t imagine needing it any time soon…but a win is a win! {It has totally been in the 70’s here in the Deep South…in December…}
I hope you’ve all enjoyed the amazing transformation of my master bath as much as I enjoyed watching the room transform in slow motion! I, of course, made fast friends with our awesomely-wonderful-fixer-guys, and enjoyed witnessing their skills. As you know, the remodeling process fascinates me, and since the fellers were so friendly, they got asked lots of annoying questions. The same friendly fellers will be back in the warmer weather to restructure some more floors, and I’m definitely looking forward to their lengthy visit!
I’m going to go admire my new bathroom now!
X,O,X,O, Martie
December 14, 2015 @ 10:06 am
Looking good! I’ll bet the lighter colors in there make it feel bigger. ?
December 14, 2015 @ 11:22 am
Absolutely! It’s seems twice as big! ? Thanks!
December 14, 2015 @ 10:37 am
Awesome. One of the good effects of the shrinking number of factory jobs and other employment for mainly the non-college educated is that really clever craftsmen are becoming their own bosses, and are available for work like remodeling and reviving old houses. Lucky you, lucky us, too.
December 14, 2015 @ 11:24 am
We were very lucky to find these smart, hard-working gentlemen, who have made a 40-year career out of their trade. They know more than could ever be learned in a college classroom! We are very pleased. 🙂
December 14, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
So pretty!
December 14, 2015 @ 1:34 pm
Thank you, Jimmie! 🙂
December 14, 2015 @ 5:49 pm
You did a beautiful job. I won! I won! Haven’t been this excited since I won a cow in the FFA Raffle.
December 14, 2015 @ 6:46 pm
Yay! Just shoot me an email at ahairinmybiscuit@gmail.com and we’ll decide on a fabric for your foot warmer!
December 16, 2015 @ 4:06 pm
Your bathroom looks awesome! So much more inviting!
December 16, 2015 @ 7:28 pm
Thank you! I’m so in love with it! (I know it’s weird to be in love with a bathroom, but with a transformation like this, I’m not ashamed to admit it)
July 24, 2017 @ 6:57 pm
Hey Martie,
I recently came across your site and I’m wondering if I can post one of my articles here.
I’ve been writing up home improvement articles too and would love the chance to write
on your blog but I couldn’t manage to find your email. If you could get ahold of me at ikatie.jones@outlook.com?, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
Katie
July 26, 2017 @ 8:04 pm
Hi, Katie! I appreciate you reaching out! 🙂 You can reach me at martie@ahairinmybiscuit.com. I’d love to take a look at your blog!