Monday 8 April 2013

Bathroom Updating

Hi everyone! It's been so long. You have no idea how much I've missed this blogging thing that I used to do. Ever since I was hired at Staples (right before I disappeared) things have been busy. As in "I really haven't even been doing things to improve the house, let alone blog about them" kind of busy.

But I've gotten some easy changes made every here and there, and since I had about half a minute this evening (between getting home from work and eating supper and pizza night) I thought I'd squeeze out a blog post about a couple things we've switched out in the bathroom. And at the same time, share my to-do list for that room. I think because the bathroom is so small, I've focused a lot on it because even simple changes make the whole thing feel different. It's really nice.

First off, I introduced a new handsoap pump! For awhile now, we'd been using soap pumps that Lana, Vickie, and I had bought back in the day from places like Bath and Body Works, but we'd finally run out, so I actually purchased this guy from Walmart, and got some soap (that doesn't stink like soap!) from Superstore. The past two pumps we had were apple scented. And they were nasty. Seriously. They left this apple stench in the bathroom. all. the. time. I actually generally love apple scents, but these two were not nice. So, it's really relieving to have soap that actually has a very gentle, subtle scent again.


Here's another shot. Of course, I went with something white and ceramic-y (technical term), because what else would I do? It was my favourite. Like, I actually spent some serious time considering pumps, both at Superstore and at Walmart, and this was the one I liked. White, simple, ceramic-y, cute little crooked spout. It's great. And you'll notice on the other side of the vanity, that things have been switched up a bit.


That particular corner is semi-constantly being updated. With the starfish-in-jar being pretty much the only thing that stays the same. It went from this:


To this:


To this! The latest update was mostly because I figured what kind of bathroom is complete without kleenex? So, kleenex. And with the added kleenex box, neither of the previous decorations seemed to fit, so I moved in mine and Derek's ring-holding giraffe. He's pretty fantastic.


Finally, we switched out our previous bathmat for a new one that actually fits. It's pretty fantastic to not have to have the mat either folded in half, or sitting the wrong way, or bunched up, or something. And this one also has a rubber back, so it doesn't slide around on the ugly linoleum! It's great. :)


As for our to-do list:

- remove window in the shower, and fill in the opening
- raise and even out the shower ceiling
- reglaze tub (in white, not pink!)
- replace shower faucet/handle/spout
- install lights in the shower
- tile shower surround (I'm thinking white subway tile, but we'll have to see!)
- replace rusty curtain rod
- replace plastic curtain rings
- move towel rod closer to shower
- tile floor
- install shoe moulding
- change toilet to eco-friendly dual flush
- replace door (we'd love to change out our old hollow cores to something with a bit more architecture)
- frame out mirror
- remove ceiling light/fix electrical so vanity light turns on with switch by door
- clean and paint air vent behind the toilet
- repaint the doorknob (again; the first time I did, I was impatient and didn't let it dry long enough, so     
  now there are scratches)
- replace vanity
- build wall shelves
- remove old linoleum wall surround, and fix drywall behind
- replace rusty hand towel rod
- paint trim
- remove old second towel rod
- paint room
- and, always, accessorize!

So, it's definitely a pretty hefty list, and we're clearly less than 5% done, but we hardly plan on doing it all at once. It'll be something of a do-as-much-as-we-can-in-stages-before-finally-doing-major-overhaul. But we're excited to see how it goes, and what comes of it. Let the games begin!