Bathroom redo.

I'd like to begin by saying anyone who installs carpet in a bathroom should get his/her head checked. I don't care if that "anyone" is YOU reading this. Get your head checked.

A bathroom is a very moist place. Yes, I said moist. Carpet does not belong there.

________

Moving on.....

The carpet in our bathroom has bugged me for (how long have I known Mike?) 4 years! I think mostly because I imagine miniature sized creatures living under the foam and eventually taking over our house. It would be them or the spirit of the dead Amish boy in our basement that eventually does us in.

Just kidding, future buyer of our terrific home.
There is no spirit.
I speak nonsense. . .

Recently, I got an itch about this bathroom of ours and hastily decided to redo it. Carpet, cabinets, whatever needed done. This bathroom needed a facelift!

Our house is still for sale (details here), so any remodeling/revamping/reanything had to be done on a small budget and still look great. I had been mindlessly surfing Pinterest for 5 hours an hour or so one day last week, and I found a great tutorial on how to stain your cabinets to look more modern. I figured if she can do it, so can I. So the plan was to replace the carpet and snazzy-up the cabinets. Got it.

I made a trip to Lowe's to get all the supplies I would need for this bathroom overhaul.

I only spent $50 and I purchased stain, poly/topcoat, floor tiles, foam brushes, floor prep goo, painter's triangles and mailbox letters. No, the letters weren't part of the project, but we did need them. So I got them. Side note: If you've never heard of painter's triangles, hear it here first. They're amazing.

I drove home. Took one last sad look at our ugly outdated bathroom, and got to work.

That is when I turned into an animal.

I began ripping up and slicing the carpet, yanking out nails and tack boards and staples, hammering down staples that I couldn't get out of the dang floor, chucking pieces of foam and carpet out the window into our driveway. I was a hurricane. And I was sweaty. If you want a workout, redo your bathroom, I'm tellin' ya!

Again I say... carpet in the bathroom sucks. Seeing the underside of bathroom carpet that has been around for 20+  years (including around a toilet) is not for the weaker stomachs. Boys are gross. I'll let your imagination take that one away....

After the carpet was removed, I got to work on the cabinets. I won't go into great detail on the process of staining because Monica pretty much covers it, and I followed her steps. I didn't use the same brand of stain as she did, though. I found one by Rustoleum called "Kona" and it worked out lovely. I did, however, use one of Mike's old socks like she suggested for staining. That worked great! Thanks, Monica!

Here is the long and short of the staining adventure:

In between the staining steps, I got to work on the floor. We've used the peel & stick linoleum squares before in our foyer, so I was familiar with the installation process. It's pretty simple. 

1. Prepare floor with goo
2. Let goo dry
3. Measure tile
4. Cut tile
5. Measure again
6. Cut a little more
7. Measure again
8. Pray it fits
9. Press down

I repeated this process many many many many..... times. Luckily, heavy duty scissors do cut these tiles, so trimming and getting a piece to fit correctly is not complicated, only tedious. It involves some math... and geometry... 

The entire bathroom redo process start to finish took 5 days. We're very happy with the final product, and Mike is very proud of me for taking this on and seeing a great end result. He honestly wanted very little to do with this overhaul - not because it didn't need done, but because this isn't his sort of thing. But it is mine!! 

The before and after photos are the best, so I will share a few of those....

See how dirty that carpet was?????

We have a door to cover the trash can, but we can't find it. It broke a while back and we hid it before a showing, aaannnddd we're not sure where it is. Once we find it, I'll stain it and install it. Promise.

I am proud of our bathroom. And I'm almost SURE that the next buyer that comes to see our house is going to see this bathroom and be SOLD. (ha!)

We are still praying for the right buyer. 

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