A Beautiful New Bathroom!

Greetings Blog Friends,

Our Main/Hallway bathroom remodel project is Complete!  What a joy it is indeed!

Here is the Old and Ugly:

So, what did we do, exactly, you ask?  Well....

• New vanity.  Well, not new exactly, but new to us.  We bought it second hand and refurbished it!
• New sink and toilet.  Not the standard, boring white, but an cream color called Biscuit.
• New sink faucet.  From Moen in Oil Rubbed Bronze finish.  It's very striking against the sink.
• New counter top.  We chose a textured laminate that coordinated well with the neutral color scheme.
• New paint.  We painted the walls the same color (Sherwin Williams Alabaster) as the rest of the house.  It is a white base with just the slightest hint of tan.  
• New woodwork and trim.  Out with the white painted stuff and in with a beautiful golden oak.
• Medicine Cabinet Update.  Denis made new trim and a cabinet door for the in-wall medicine cabinet, again stained in Golden Oak. The interior got a new coat of paint and we replaced old wooden shelves with glass ones.
• New light fixture.  Again, in the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish.
• New mirror.  Out with the standard and boring wall mirror and In with a smaller, framed mirror, again in the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish.
• New wall storage cabinet.  This now resides where the laundry chute used to be.  Since we now have laundry on the first floor, a laundry chute to the basement is useless.  We removed it and enlarged the opening. There was a void there, 20" deep, so Denis made an in-wall cabinet, door and trim.  We use it for linen and other storage.
• New floor.  The hated ceramic tile is now a distant memory and in it's place resides a very pretty vinyl plank in a darker brown color.  
• And finally, the "pièce de résistance"...A new shower. The old shower doors and tub/shower combination was removed and a new shower only enclosure was put in it's place.  Shower trim and new fixtures are in the Oil-Rubbed Bronze finish.

Accessories are all in Oil-Rubbed Bronze and the new color scheme for linens is tans with a pop of peach.  We still need to add some decor to the back wall and we are slowly accumulating what we want for that.  

We did most of the work ourselves, from demo to finishing touches.  The only thing we hired professionally done was the shower install.  

We love it!  When I used to give house tours to guests in our home, my one remark on this bathroom was "It is't pretty, but it's functional," knowing that it would be one of the last projects to be done upstairs.  Now, when I show people my new bathroom, all I say is "Gorgeous!!" 

And now, after all that, is "The Big Reveal".  Here is New and Beautiful:

'Til next time...

  

Catching Up...and a Month's Hiatus

Greetings dear Friends,

It seems as though I have been on something of a hiatus and have been gone from blog-land for about four weeks.  It was not intentional, but just a matter of life happening!  Days seem to pass into weeks and weeks into a month!  Sometimes I'm reminded of the lyrics to "Time In a Bottle" by Jim Croce (1972):

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do,

Is to save every day

'Til eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you.

Our main focus the since the beginning of May has been our bathroom remodeling project.  Phase One (main/hallway bath) is now 100% complete.  Phase Two (master bath) is now underway and about 50% completed.  I'll devote a separate post to that! 

My Corona Quilt-Along has ended and I have a completed Corona Quilt Top.  What fun it was to participate in this event.  I love the quilt!  I still need to get it quilted and on display.  Here's a photo of the top...I'll give you more in-depth details once it is finished.   

We've ventured out of our comfort zone (the "stay-at-home bubble") several times with no ill effects.  At the beginning of June, we hosted a family get-together as a group birthday celebration: me, my son-in-law Doug, and my granddaughter Hailey.  It was a joy to visit and play with everyone that day.  It had been since Christmas since those children had "Grandma Hugs"!

Denis and I also visited a local restaurant for birthday dinners.  Although we went on my birthday, the dinner was also for him...his was in late March when no restaurants were open at all!  It was good to let someone else do the cooking (and clean-up) for a change!

I've taken a break from sewing and have done a bit of scrapbooking in the past couple of weeks, in preparation for a retreat happening next week.  I'm going with my daughter and only 10 others.  There will be twelve of us spread out in a big, big room.  We plan to practice prudent social distancing and increased sanitation practices.  My focus next week will be on Florida...our trip to Disney in 2018 and our month in February earlier this year.  I know the people in the group very well and have confidence that we will all come home both happy and well!  I'll share some of my favorite pages next week.

We had scrapping monthly group last night, for the first time since February.  We made these pages from Close to My Heart Aurora paper collection.  I love this paper and the pages we made from it!  I already know that I will use these particular pages when I scrap the South Dakota/Colorado family trip we took last August.  That project is scheduled for the September scrapping retreat. 

So, there you have my life in a nutshell for the past four weeks.  I'll post again in a couple of days to show you our beautiful new bathroom and again once I'm home from retreat.  

'Til then...