It is Finished (well, mostly)!

Well, I think Ethan's flushing fiasco has finally (almost) ended.  After a LONG week of workers in and out of the house all day long, the bathroom is finished (except for the installation of a sidesplash, which didn't quite match the counter).  I'm still on a quest to find a better match to the granite (and why it wasn't included....well, that's a mystery to me, but it's a minor detail.

 

Here's the finished product.  Brand new everything except the tub and paint (although I have some touch-up painting to do still).

 

 

 I agonized over the tile floor, as evidenced by the pile of various colors and sizes of sample tiles sitting right outside the bathroom door.  Then I agonized about whether to include the mosaic pattern or not.  I'm so glad I did.  It makes me happy everytime I go in there.  It adds just a little touch of class and sparkle.

 

 

 The granite countertop, new vanity and new faucet.  I love it all.  So shiny and new...and clean and I almost hate to use it...but I have.

 

 

The faucet.  Andrew didn't have many opinions (that he was truly brave enough to express, except that he thought that "I" might think the countertop was too "busy" after a while.)  For the record, I LOVE the counterop even more now that it's installed and not sitting in a box in my living room.  But he did mention that he thought this style of faucet was pretty cool and since we 100% agreed...it now lives in our bathroom.  It's brushed nickel, even though it tends to look a little gold in this picture.  It's awesome.  Enough said.

 

 

 

So that's the bathroom tour.  I am responsible for repainting the new bathroom trim (no big deal) and touching up the paint behind the new toilet and vanity, since of course they aren't exactly the same size.  I can handle that though.

Progress?

Well, it's been close to a month since Ethan's flushing fiasco, and honestly, until this week, there wasn't much to report.  Frankly, I think there should still be more, but there is finally some progress.

 

We went from a large rough hole in the ceiling with exposed piping to a larger, squared-off hole and lots of insulation in our ceiling on day one.

 

On day two of repairs, we had drywall and mudding done, along with a coat of primer on the ceiling (not reflected here).

 

 

Upstairs, we went from an ugly, but mostly functional bathroom with bare sub-floors, and rotting  vanity and large dehumidifier (which at times brought the temperature in the 5x9 room to a whopping 94 degrees!) to what it is now....

 

An even uglier, slightly moldy (but we're fixing that) and completely non-functional bathroom.  The only thing that works is the shower, but no one has been able to use that for almost a month now.  The vanity and toilet (probably both 20 years old) are now in the trash.  There is currently a cement fiberboard backing that looks clean and fresh and most importantly, is the right way to proceed before the tile is laid.  Oh and the door leading to the bedroom is propped up where the toilet used to be. 

 

We laid out all the tiles yesterday and picked which ones and a nice mosaic design, so now we wait...apparently the tile guy was called away on another emergency project, so while it was supposed to be cut and laid today....no tile so far.  I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow. (Please, please, please!)

 

We have a brand spanking new vanity and toilet sitting in the garage waiting to be installed, along with a sweet (although I don't think Andrew likes it) granite vanity top and very cool new faucet.  I'm just ready to be able to use my own bathroom again and not have to share with the kids in an even smaller bathroom.

 

Oh, and this it the new look we're sporting in the living room these days.  I took the Christmas tree down on Monday and by Tuesday, we had the plastic sheeting look blocking off half of the room in an effort to keep the drywall dust and mess to a minimum.  It's like something out of the weird scientist part of E.T.  Oh, and a loud fan is back part of the time so that paint and mud and spackle can dry faster.  Good times.

 

So that's our "progress".  I was hopeful that everything would be done by the end of the week, but I'm doubting that timeline at the moment.  We also have to have some painting done on the living room walls and baseboard reinstalled and painted, plus the carpet cleaned....so yeah, I'm pretty sure we're well into next week. 

 

And have I mentioned that it is very strange to leave my house with almost complete strangers working in it so that I can go pick up Emily every day?  I mean, I'm sure this happens all the time, but it's just weird.  Of course, by the end of this week, I'm pretty sure that Ralph (the ceiling/drywall guy) and I will be best buds because he's VERY chatty!