Before and After

We have finished another house project.  I'm always so relieved to finish something, knowing how many more somethings there are still to do.  But rather than seem like I am complaining, I want to say that I am excessively pleased with the way it turned out.  We have finished up the loo, the half-bath on the main floor.  This has previously been a boring little space, unpainted even since before we moved in.  When we were painting initially, I didn't know what color I wanted, and I really wanted to completely redo the loo, so we just left it.  Over the Christmas break when Kent wasn't working, we launched in and were pretty much able to finish before he want back to work after the new year.  So here are the before and after shots.

 

Kent had replaced the toilet last summer, but the linoleum on the floor was boring and peeling up, the wall color was a yellow tinted white, the vanity was uninteresting (the black door was a trial for the upstairs bathroom to see how the oak would take pigment), and the light fixture (which you can't see in the picture) was a cheap glass panel with bulbs sticking out.  Uninspiring and not up to snuff.

So, we painted . . . twice, because Kent didn't like the initial color I chose, and so I toned it down a bit.  In the end, I like the second color better too.  We tiled using the same checkerboard tiles we put in the kids bathroom, then added beadboard and a railing, put in a pedestal sink, and added a new light fixture, hooks, and a mirror that was my great-grandmother's.  I wanted a green leafy wreath which I found at a little shop, and voila!  Finished bathroom.  I do need to put some pictures on the long wall you face as you walk in, but I haven't found frames I like yet, so that may be a while.  However, all in all, I'm very pleased with the end result. 

I do want to make an observation here which Kent won't appreciate, but which makes me laugh.  There was a heating register on the floor.  We always have the vent closed because in the winter it gets super hot in the little space, and in the summer it gets super cold.  When we were going to start the floor, Kent said, "I'm just going to cover up the heating register.  We always keep the vent closed and I don't think we'll need it."  I suggested that with with shared wall to the garage, the bathroom would be very cold without any heat getting in there at all.  Kent disagreed, I ceded, and we tiled over the register.  As I was doing the tiling, I will admit it made my job easier because I wasn't having to work around the hole in the floor, but I was also convinced it would be cold.  Only two days ago, Brandt said to Kent, "I don't like using this bathroom.  It is really cold."  Kent graciously stepped out of the bathroom and said to me, "Go ahead and say it."  So I did.  "I told you so."  We may try to break through the floor and uncover the vent, but my guess is, with all the other stuff to do, we'll just have a cold bathroom.  Maybe I'll look for a cute rug.

Cute floor and beadboard.

Lilac paint and wreath.

Pedestal sink and mirror

Hooks and light fixture which you can't see very well.