A World of Difference

Tile and Grout. Best buds. They make a world of difference.

Here you can see the beginning tile work in the tub surround. We didn't want to go more than 3 high until the lower tiles had time to try. We were using tile spacers, but we worried the tiles might sag, plus it was getting late (check out the pitch black view in the window).

We started working on the floor tiles while we waited for the tub surround to dry. My mom and Tim had to carefully work their way out of the room, leaving sufficient walking and work spaces for the multiple people in the room since you can't walk on wet tiles. At this point, I think they called it a night.

Cue the magic of the internet and 24 hours later, the bulk of the tiling was done. They finished the remainder of the tub surround including framing the window with bullnose trim tile and finished tiling the floor (placing materials on the floor tiles that were dry).

Up to this point, I've done no work in this bathroom. Tim did the demo and cleaning, Rex installed the drywall and set the tub with my mom, Steve patched holes, and my mom and Tim tiled. Why? Let me tell you...

Our first bathroom renovation took place in January. At that time, I was 3 months pregnant so Tim did all of the work himself. It was a small bathroom, so there wasn't much room for a second person to help anyway. I of course worked hard to avoid all of the dust, debris, and fumes in the process. You feel like a pretty helpless DIYer when you can't be involved. I continually offered "suggestions" to Tim as he worked. I didn't mean to be rude or condescending. It was just so hard to be a bystander when you want to jump in and help!

Our upstairs bathroom renovation took place March through May. These projects take a while when you're working full time, scheduling family visits to help with projects, and doing it largely alone (Tim that is, not me). During this renovation, I was 5-7 months pregnant. Again, pretty limiting in terms of your ability to be involved in DIY projects. I figured I could successfully grout since there are no fumes or dust involved with pre-mixed grout (our preferred product).

Here I am grouting our bathroom while 6 months pregnant. Overall it was pretty easy since I didn't have much of a belly yet. It was still pretty easy to crawl around and bend over to grout (I maintained a pretty physically active pregnancy-- no I wasn't running marathons, but I refused to be a couch potato).

In this photo the floor has been grouted while the tub surround hasn't. What a huge difference that makes!

And now, all of it is done. Tim and I tackled the tub surround together. So much tile and grout!

Here's our beautiful new tub. We tried hard to keep the tub clean as we installed new sheet rock, spackled, tiled, and grouted. It was a challenge though, so we needed to give the tub a good scrub to clean up bits of dried grout and other gunk.

After all, I don't want my baby in a dirty tub!

Check out this beautiful masterpiece, new floor vent included (plastic so it doesn't rust with the bathroom moisture).

Tim painted the door already, but the trim is still brown in this photo. That will come a bit later. In this photo, we didn't have new carpet yet. That actually happened mid-renovation.

Here's the plumbing where the new vanity will sit.

The closet is small, but had several cuts. It wasn't too bad to tile this in though. I had to be careful grouting around the trim.

I stayed pretty far away from the painting process due to the fumes. We actually purchased this paint during a sale and intended to use it for our downstairs. We decided to wait on that project since the room is large with a lot of furniture and instead opted to use some of the paint for the bathroom.

When we first saw this color on the walls, we thought oh no... it's too dark. We decided to proceed with the color until we got the rest of the pieces in the room. If we didn't like it, repainting is pretty easy and cheap.

Tim is only painting half way down the wall because we decided to do wainscoting. My mom put some in her bedroom earlier in the year and a lightbulb went off in my noggin. I thought I would put some in this bathroom to give it a light, crisp look. We figured the wainscoting would help lighten the room too since we were going to paint it white.