A DIY bathroom renovation

It only took us 7 months to remodel a bathroom. And by “us” I mean Will. My Sasquatch husband worked so hard to give me the bathroom of my dreams, working weekends and nights after work, all while I stood around scratching my head, micro-managing, and changing my mind a hundred times. And while many Americans spent the better half of 2016 deciding on Hillary vs Bernie, I spent my days pondering herringbone vs hexi floor tiles. And then it was to wallpaper or not to wallpaper. Chrome vs brushed nickel… the list goes on. But we finally have a guest bathroom that we love. And not only is this the guest bathroom but it’s also Liam’s new bathroom. And having a brand new, clean space to wash the kid makes this one happy mama.Before I smother you with photos of Liam in the tub, let me just say that the previous version of this bathroom was not bad by all means. But there were a few problems. The tub was old and dingy and had a major crack in the base from prior roommates perhaps dropping shampoo bottles..? maybe? Either way, the crack caused a leak. Luckily we are on a concrete slab so there was no damage to the floor but the cracked tub had to go. The toilet flushed like an 90 year old man coughs. You know the cough. Pathetic and weak and showing signs of it’s last day. So toilet had to go too. The walls were covered in a textured wallpaper that was impossible to clean and showing stains. So they had to go. And since scrapping the old textured wallpaper was a nightmare, Will decided to just take down the dry wall and start anew. So down to the studs we went:Will did all his own tiling, which included both the herringbone floor tiles and the white subway tiles. We came to one obstacle, which was what do we do about adding the crown molding along the ceiling when the tile sticks out further than the wall!? Will discovered that you can notch out the bottom of the molding and voila! Molding so nice that a king and queen could bathe here. The recessed shelves were my idea but Will’s execution. We knew we wanted the recessed shelves in the shower, but adding a second set of shelves into the main wall added a nice decorate piece and also some light storage in a relatively small bathroom. He also stained the shelves to match the vanity. That guy. Always thinking. (Just kidding, I told him to do it.)
Let’s just talk about this vanity for two seconds. We searched EVERYWHERE for the perfect vanity that was small enough for this space and the perfect shade of maple wood. Eventually Will decided to build it and stain it himself and I LOVE that we now have a custom “Will Brown” in the bathroom. Our brother-in-law hooked us up with a marble guy in North Charleston who then cut a piece of marble slab to fit Will’s new vanity. And despite Will’s suggestion that marble in a bathroom is “too fancy,” he listened to me and now my marble dreams have all come true. By the way, this is what a tulip looks like if you let it really bloom. I mean bloom to the point that the poor flower is screaming to be released outside. But I just love it. I think all tulips look better this way!
Here is what our view is each evening from around 7:45-8:15. This kid loves bath time! We decided to not to add the shower curtain for now. It is so nice to be able to bathe Liam and not have the shower curtain pushed up and crumbled up to the side. We will hopefully get a tension rod shower curtain and just hang it up when guests come and then remove if again after they leave.
Here are the sources we used for our bathroom renovation.