This post was originally shared on my former website, OurFiftiesFixerUpper.com, in Spring 2018.
A brief introduction…
For those of you are new to my blog, welcome! My husband Josh and I have been renovating our home since we bought it back in April 2016. We do 90% of the work ourselves, from design to construction to decorating! So far we’ve finished our kitchen, master suite, guest bedroom, mudroom, and living room. This bathroom project is the last major project of our upstairs. This summer we’ll move on to our exterior (new siding, patio, landscaping, fixing up the sidewalk, replacing exterior doors, and adding an egress window), and then next winter we plan to tackle the basement (completely gutting and remodeling!). Needless to say, we have a lot of work ahead of us, so I hope you’ll stay tuned!
If you’re new to the One Room Challenge: this is an interior design event for bloggers/designers/renovators put on by Linda of Calling It Home and House Beautiful, during which participants complete a full renovation of a space in their homes in a short time period. The Spring 2018 reveal will take place on May 10. There are hundreds of talented participants and 20 featured designers which means plenty of inspiration to tackle a project in your own home!
If you missed it, last week I talked about how we knew we weren’t going to finish our bathroom remodel on time. We came to terms with that, and we’re still working hard to get it done before the end of May. It’s definitely a disappointment to not be able to ring in the finish with everyone else, but we’d much rather take our time and do a good job than rush things and regret it down the road. The reality of a home renovation is that timelines go by the wayside when you’re trying to balance working full time, a social life, and a budget; not to mention the fact that things just take a little longer when you’re doing them yourselves. There weren’t very many people doing a complete gut-to-finish bathroom remodel completely on their own (MAJOR props to them if they finished on time), so we don’t feel super bad about not being done- our goals were definitely lofty on this one.
Although we didn’t finish our project in the five weeks, we sure have come a long way. Take a peek at where we started in the beginning of April! I’m really gonna miss that blue wall and that high school bathroom tile (not)…
Week 5 was fairly productive for us and I think things will start moving along faster now that some of the bigger, more time-consuming activities are checked off the to-do list. My biggest problem in this process has been forgetting how long things take, specifically all things tile and drywall-related.
Week 5 Goal Recap
- DONE: Finish patching drywall (taping and mudding)
- DONE: Finish tiling the shower surround
- NOT DONE: Tile the floor
- NOT DONE: Grout and seal all tile
- DONE: Sand all drywall
- DONE: Prime the entire room
- NOT DONE: Paint the ceiling
- NOT DONE: Buy the toilet
- NOT DONE: Buy materials for linen closet shelves
- NOT DONE: Install lights
- NOT DONE: Install shower fixtures
The tile turned out to take much longer than we had thought it would. Although you can hardly tell, every one of the side tiles on the long wall had to get cut about 1 inch shorter. It also took quite a bit of time to line up the tiles perfectly and add the trim pieces. Because we are human and certainly not professional tilers, there are a few mistakes- they’re hardly noticeable when you stand back, but I worry that the black grout we had planned on will make them stand out like a sore thumb. Because of that, we decided to go with white grout. It will be much more forgiving and also yield a more modern look- I was also worried that the black grout might look too rustic, which I wasn’t going for. We also realized that having a shelf in the corner where the fixtures are was a little awkward, so we ended up just going with the one shelf in the other corner.
I primed the walls today with two coats of primer, so it will be ready for paint this weekend. We’ll install the board and batten as one of the last steps.
As you can see, the Week 5 list left quite a few things that have yet to get done. This week we’re going to try and finish all of them. And by “we,” I mean Josh- because I’m going to a bachelorette party in Scottsdale, AZ all weekend and then come home and work all next week. He has agreed that he wants to get as much done as possible though and thinks he can make this list happen!
Week 6 Goals
- Tile the floor
- Grout all tile
- Prime the entire room
- Paint the ceiling
- Buy materials for linen closet shelves
- Install lights
- Install shower fixtures
After the floor tile goes in, we can start thinking about installing larger items (toilet and vanity) next weekend. We can paint the entire room and build the linen closet shelves as well. I think we’re still on track to finish the entire space by the end of the month!
Although we weren’t able to finish the bathroom on time to be able to showcase it in the official One Room Challenge reveal, we’re still proud of the work we’ve accomplished and are thankful that we even started the Challenge in the first place- it definitely provided inspiration to get our butts in gear and get this project moving. Who knows where we’d be without it. See how far we’ve come over the last few weeks: Week 5, Week 4, Week 3, Week 2, & Week 1.
We’re just weeks away from turning my moodboard into a reality- I’m so excited to share it with you all and I hope you’ll stay tuned!
Make sure to check out the reveals of some of the other One Room Challenge participants– it’s so incredible to see what people are doing in their homes across the country!
Update July 2018: The bathroom is DONE! Check out the finished space here!
