Upstairs Bathroom Reveal!

Once upon a time, deep within the upstairs portion of our house, there stood a really... really... incredibly...

UGLY BATHROOM.

Our master bedroom is on the first floor, so besides the loft, we don't often go upstairs. (Or we didn't-- now that this bathroom is complete, I go up there a lot more!) :)

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I gotta say, I originally thought our kitchen was the biggest before-and-after difference we had made to a single room in our home. It was definitely the most time consuming thanks to the never-ending-headache of a task that is sanding and painting kitchen cabinets (the RIGHT way...), but this bathroom is definitely the biggest transformation in terms of looks alone. It's a completely different room! And we LOVE it. :)

First off, as you'll see, one of the walls was painted brown. And not even a pretty brown-- it was straight up poop-brown. I don't know about you, but while I'm in the bathroom, I don't really want any extra reminders of just why I'm in the bathroom, if you will. If I had to pick one thing in the house that I was most excited to change, it was definitely the poo-poo wall. Goodbye!

There was a super outdated light fixture (missing bulbs including!... Or not included?...), a vanity that was oddly short, seashell sinks (I don't love my nautical themes quite that much), and some pretty gross, beat-up tile. Not to mention the usual holes in the walls, paint all over the ceiling (tape, people, please use tape!), and dirt dirt dirt dirt everywhere.

Le Before Pictoors:

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 We had a few plumbing problems we needed to resolve... But we did! (Thanks, hubby!)

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 How NARSTY is this tub?? I felt a little like Monica on Friends when it came time to clean it. I was a little ecstatic about it. 

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 Gee, I can't think of where to put my towel while I shower... How about IN the shower with me! (Whose idea was this?) #fail

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 Honestly, the light came like this.

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 Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you:  POOP WALL! One of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

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 And just to solidify my point that this bathroom was so disgusting it had to be inhabited by demons, please observe this picture I took of a major hole in the wall and tell me it does not look like a scary face creeping back at you.

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Yeesh. Okay. Enough of that hot mess. Onto the deliciousness.

Sometimes I feel like Chip and Joanna Gaines from HGTV's Fixer Upper. I say this because a part of me wishes we were them (except Dan is so much more handsome, hee) and because for every room that we've done, I've been the design guru while he's been the engineer. I tell him what I envision; he finds a way to do it. And in this room, he came through marvelously. Dan, you are so incredibly talented and you work so incredibly hard at turning our blank-canvas (okay, super dirty canvas) house into our home. Thank you for everything you've done. I'm so grateful that you enjoy it because I love seeing your finished products! And thanks for letting me help you and teaching me along the way. :) Sorry I broke some of your drill bits...

We started by completely GUTTING the shower! Hello studs. :) And I don't just mean my husband.

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 To take down the freakishly large mirror, we taped it up first in case it shattered.

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Once again, I must give a shout out to our good friends, John and Baird. You both have helped us SO MUCH on our house and we would not have been able to complete half of the projects in our house if it weren't for the two of you. Thank you so much. (And I'm so excited that you just bought your first house! Now we can finally repay the favors. Look out, water heater!)

Here's my favorite Dan and John bro-mance shot. :)
(No, they're not related!)

I'll give you five dollars if you can tell them apart.
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After the cement board was in, we began tiling. We found the tile on a clearance sale at Lowe's. It was less than $1 a square foot! It was also the very first thing we bought for the bathroom. That's a little trick I've learned from the house. If you wait to find the "focal point" of a room at a good deal, you save so much money in the long run.

Tiling's almost done!
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While Dan worked on tiling, I sanded and stained the vanity. I used a Gelstain which have become ever-so-popular on Pinterest and decorating blogs, but I've gotta say, it didn't work quite as easy as I had expected. (Does anything on Pinterest?) To do a stain correctly, you are supposed to brush it on and rub it off, or brush it on with an old sock or something so you don't get much on the wood. When I tried that, it just looked streaky. And not in a pretty faux-wood-grain way. I feel like I sanded enough before staining and I'm confident in my actual method of applying it-- so if you feel like you know what I missed, please tell me! I'd love to know for the future.

Streaky cabinet door. It looked much worse in person.
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To solve this problem, I ended up just using the stain as a paint and did two (three counting the first, streaky layer) coats. Then I finished it with a high-gloss poly. I LOVE IT. The color is just gorgeous and although there's no color difference in the wood grain, you can still see the lines. I'm obsessed.

My husband also added legs to the cabinet both for aesthetics and to raise it up from its original height. He screwed blocks of wood into the corners and then screwed the legs into those.

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The floor tile was our token "splurge" in the bathroom. Partly because I couldn't find anything that I liked for the room, and partly because I LOVE IT. I'm obsessed with octagon tiles. They're so vintage, so classy, so clean, and so beautiful. Somebody please call Nicole Curtis to come over to my bathroom and compliment my new bathroom floor. :)

Get it, Dan. :)
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Two other things I'd love to share about this room. We bought the mirrors on massive clearance at Lowe's because some of the pieces were missing. We purchased them, then wrote to the manufacturing company and they sent us the missing pieces free of charge. Thank you, Head West Inc.!  Secondly, we painted the tub in the bathroom using an epoxy kit. It worked beautifully! It was back-breaking work but it turned out great... However... I also tried this on the tub in our master bath and it failed. Miserably! You need to do a test spot on the surface (and I thought I had!) but apparently my test failed a little. It's peeling. :( But, it's the first thing in the house that we've really messed up, so I guess we're not doing so bad? Eh?

Alright-- here's the final result!! :):)

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IT'S A LIGHTHOUSE PICTURE!!
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Here's the vintage tile that I'm so obsessed with. :):)

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It doesn't even look like the same cabinet...

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The legs! Way to go, Dan.

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I'm obsessed with this hardware, too.

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I'm also super obsessed with this fake eye chart sign! I made it. :) If you want a copy of it, shoot me an email. I'll be happy to pass it along :) Ugh-- I just think this is such a super cute little corner... Even if it has a toilet. :P (Hey, at least the poop wall is gone!)

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Eeee I love it!
It says, "The sea sings songs of love and grace to each and every bead of sand."

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If anybody knows how people take pictures of their light fixtures, let me know! Mine always turn out washed out or super dark.

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The painted tub! Can you tell it's a DIY project? That bad boy used to be brown... 

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This is a shelf my husband installed into the shower (instead of the super cool towel rack that soaks your towel for you before you even get out of the shower!). I didn't know this, but you have to ever so slightly slant the bottom of the shelf so that water will run off and not sit on it.

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Fake wainscoting! Thank you, billions of fellow fakers on Pinterest for the idea. 

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Hello, door we haven't painted yet. This is the color our trim used to be. Why so much brown???

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More cozy corner pictures! Mason jars + baby's breath + sign about nautical stuff = love love love!

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Token artsy shot. :)

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And that's our bathroom! I hope you enjoy it. We certainly do. It's just another part of our house that makes us feel ridiculously blessed and provided for. We are so grateful for each and every little inch of this room and every room in our home. :) I could write 1,000 blog posts about that.

Here's the cost breakdown:

Shower tile (plus cement board, thin set, grout): $150 at Lowe's
Floor tile (plus cement board, thin set, grout): $180 at Lowe's
Mirrors: $140, Lowe's clearance
Faucets: $80 total, Lowe's clearance
Light Fixture: $10, Habitat for Humanity
Light Globes: $4 total, Habitat
Vanity Refinishing (gelstain and supplies): $30, Woodcraft
Vanity Legs (and wood to fasten): $60
Vanity Top: $60, Habitat
Hardware: $8, Lowe's clearance
Toilet: $100, Lowe's
Paint: $60, Lowe's
Tub Epoxy Kit: $40, Lowe's
Shower Faucet: $20, Groupon
Shower Faucet Trim Kit: $30, Lowe's
Wainscoting Trim: $50
New Receptacles, Caulk, and all that extra little good stuff: $30

For a grand total of: $1,052. Not bad at all for such a significant change, right? If we had hired a contractor and bought everything new, it could have easily cost us over $5,000. 


P.S. The picture taking process was interrupted a few times by this little curious cutie. :)

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And while I was trying to write said post!

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Thank you for stopping by! I love sharing these adventures with y'all.
If you have any questions, please let me know! Also, if you want a copy of the fake eye chart sign, let me know that as well. I'd be happy to share.

Until next time!
Agape,
CC

When Grandma Leaves

I've had to say goodbye to a lot of people recently. Two different women from my church group moved overseas within a week of each other. My husband and I visited with so many family members and friends over our holiday break in Ohio and then turned around and left them all. And lastly, most importantly, my grandmother passed away shortly after Christmas. My caring, silly, stubborn, cookie baking, chicken frying, hard working farmer's wife, kinder-than-anybody-you-know grandmother. She was truly an amazing woman for all her 95 years.

However, this will not be a post about how much I miss her. I do. Greatly. But she was unwell and in a nursing home for so long and I live so far away that each time I went to Ohio and visited her, I would say goodbye just in case. This went on for years (Grandma was quite the fighter!...) so my heart was more than well prepared to let her go.

This will not be a post about how much my grandmother touched my life. Please do not mistake that sentence for saying that she didn't touch my life at all. I am a different woman because of her and only in the most incredible ways. She shaped so much of who I am and who I still desire to be.

But this will instead be a post about what my grandmother left behind. What she did not take with her into her grave. How the pinnacle of all the lessons I learned from her actually occurred after she had passed. (And I promise--this will not be a depressing post!)

It was the day of her funeral.

It was raining coldly. (Of course, because it was a funeral winter in Ohio.)

The viewing was finished and the funeral was about to begin. Friends and extended family were gathered inside the church, while the immediately family waited outside in the lobby, ready to walk in following Grandma's casket. It was just Grandma's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all their spouses-- but there were So. Many. People! Grandma had four children, who then had ten grandchildren, who then had fifteen great-grandchildren (and more currently on the way!... NO, not from me...) Throw in the spouses of each of these and you have a group of over 40 people.

And all I could wonder was, Not a single person in this lobby would be standing here had it not been for my grandmother.

I'm one of those dreamers who really believes that just one person can change the world. Can you imagine the change that can be created by 40 people?

My grandma left behind amazing recipes, beautiful handcrafted quilts, and a 30-acre farm that is home to countless memories. But she will not be remembered for that like she will be remembered for the way she inspired, encouraged, loved, prayed for, and cared for the people around her. She had one of the kindest hearts that I've ever known and that's what will be her memory. Her legacy. Her impact and significance. While amazing and tasty-- a recipe will only go so far. While cozy and intricate-- a quilt can only do so much. Lasting change is made by people. To create enduring impressions, my grandmother invested in the people around her. She cherished her children and grandchildren. She adored her husband better than any girl on a chick flick can replicate. And she loved the Lord her God with all her heart, soul and mind.

And because of this, I am different. Her family is different. The friends and neighbors and loved ones in her life are different.

Therefore, by changing little bits of people's hearts, itty bitty pieces at a time, my grandmother has changed the world. And she will live on, first inside of me, and then inside of everyone who follows thereafter.

Here's to you, Grandma. And all that is different now because of your amazing spirit. I've been singing your favorite hymn over and over ever since your passing, and I love that for every day you've been gone, you've no less days to sing His praise. ❤ Love you.

The current message on the chalkboard in our kitchen. For my Grandma. ❤
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And I love you, too, sweet readers!
Agape,
CC


In case you are interested, here is the "unconventional" eulogy my sweet cousin and I wrote together and read at her funeral. 


Ruth lived a long life filled to the brim with love, hard work, and family. She was raised in east Dayton and graduated from Stivers High School. In 1942, she married Clarence (Perk) and through 61 years of marriage, they remained devoted, faithful, and adorably in love. They worked hard together building homes, maintaining farms, and raising four children while living in the Dayton area.

Five thousand hand planted trees and a cozy glider swing-- that's what greeted you when you went to visit Ruth and Perk at their farm. Walking into the kitchen revealed the unmistakable embrace of homemade care. There were always oatmeal cookies in Ruth's cookie jar and a container of her famous jam to be retrieved from the basement.

From winning square dancing titles with her husband all around the country, to beating all her relatives in Euchre, (her favorite superstition: if you were losing, just get up and walk around your chair), Ruth was full of life and joy. She also enjoyed making beautiful quilts, goofing around with her grandchildren, and hosting great family events, including the annual Easter egg hunt.

Faith was a prominent part of Ruth's life. Together, she and Perk were charter members of St. Luke Catholic Church. When you held her hands in church during the "Our Father," they would be so very cold, but she'd just smile and say, "Cold hands; warm heart." And with that simple sentence, she described herself perfectly,

Today, she is succeeded by her four children, ten grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren. Ruth leaves behind a legacy of faith, love, just the right amount of stubbornness, and unmatched kindness. Ruth will be missed but never forgotten because she has certainly planted herself in our hearts forever.