Functional Bathroom

First of all, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  Andrew and I made a quick trip back to the burbs to visit with family.  We were with Ange's family for fondue on Christmas eve and my family for Chinese (my parents are in the middle of a kitchen renovation) and rock band on Christmas. 

Here are some pictures of the bathroom with the first layer or wallpaper off.

 Ready to scrape.

 We used Dif to help us.  It made it a lot easier.

 Ugh, but look at that mess.

When we returned back to Madison, we really had to focus and get our bathroom done.  With the wall paper off, we primed the whole bathroom.  The bead board took two coats of prime while the rest of the wall and ceiling only took one. 

Oh yeah, we did some filling of holes too.  Here is Ange filling those holes. 

 I'm the rolling machine.

 All primed and ready to paint.

We then had to make the tough decision about paint.  We are kinda of nervous paint buyers and have to get several samples to make sure we pick the right color.  We were not worried about the white, because white is white and we went with White Fur.  The green, however, was not so easy.  We had 5 samples to choose from, which I had painstakingly narrowed down from about 15.  In the end we went with Chinese Jade.  We thought it looked the best with the shower curtain and that it didn't look too much like baby poop.  It's the color that is second from the left.  White fur only needed one coat, but the green needed two.

 

Our green paint choices with a glimpse of the shower curtain.

All done painting!

 You can't really tell the color in the pictures, but you can tell that it's green.

So after a break for pierogies with Patti and Dan and the Ellefsons, we were back to try to finish the bathroom.  

Look at those pierogies!! 

After the pierogi break, we did some caulking, major scrubbing of the tub and floor, some electrical work and drilling so we just about have a functional bathroom.  We did have some electrical issues and had to call up our old friend Jamey, the electrician, as Andrew just about blew up the house.  Not really, but after a shortage and puff of smoke, we decided we better be safe and give him a call.  So now, we are waiting for him to come check out the bathroom until we can put up the mirror and some other shelving.

But for now, at least we can shower!  Next post will be the reveal!  Make sure to check back soon.

Goodbye Wallpaper

We are in the middle of another renovation.  This time, it's the main bathroom.  Our plan: take down the wallpaper, prime, paint, add new fixtures, new tile, shower curtain, and voila, new bathroom.  This will be the first renovation project without the help of my handy father.  Wish us luck, I think we are going to need it.  

It started yesterday when I went to start the process of removing the wallpaper.  The top layer peeled right off--woohoo.  I took off the top railing of the bead board and the mirror just about fell on me.  I then realized it was going to take more than just a quick scrap to get the rest of the glue off.

Taking down wallpaper is just awful but it was pretty easy for us.  With the recommendation from my wallpaper expert mom, we dowsed the ugly wallpaper from 1995 with Diff, let it sit then scraped the hell out of it.  It took two sprays of the Diff to get everything off.  Then Ange rinsed it with water.  It took us about 5 hours to completely remove the wallpaper but after some hard labor, we are ready to prime and paint.  I'm just glad it wasn't the WHOLE bathroom.

I'm still working on paint colors, but I know I will be painting the bead board on the bottom half of the wall white, and the top half a nice, zen green color to go with my new shower curtain (take a sneak peak).  I'm hoping for a relaxing spa-like feel.  You can take a look at my inspirations on my Rub-a-Dub-Dub Pinterest Board (and follow me too!).

I tried really hard to keep with the corn theme from our kitchen (see here), but I'm thinking it's just not going to work.  The only green that corn produces is the stalk and I'm not about to paint my bathroom that color.

Here's a picture of our bathroom before just to refresh your memory of the awesome bead board and wallpaper.  It actually doesn't look that bad and that's what it looked like when we bought the place.  I forgot to take before pictures of the bathroom we've been using the last 3 years, but to give you a clue, the wallpaper started to peel, the tile is hideous, the towel hook fell off and I was just ready to trade out the dark bead board for something more fresh and relaxing.

 

Next up, after Christmas, we plan to remove the toilet (a project in itself) and paint!  I'll make sure to keep you posted on all our hard work, and if we can manage this reno without the help of my dad.