Two Mini Bath Renovations

We're not going to stay in this house forever but there were several fixtures that were going to need replacing before we sell.  First it was the toilets.  Then it was the faucets.  Decade-old cheap paint from before we moved in is peeling.  The house is over 20 years old and the builder-grade-ness is starting to show.

 

This was an opportunity to fix up a couple of bathrooms.  However, since that can be an expensive prospect, my goal was to take a bare-bones approach so that we're not investing a ton of money that we certainly won't get back when we sell the house.  The toilets/faucets were a priority and everything else was going to be cosmetic, but nicer than what was original.

 

I started with the master bath right before the holidays but upon running into some challenges and delays the project took about a month to complete.  The old vanity removal was a giant pain in the ass and Hans and I threw just about every tool we owned at it.  The part that made it difficult was how the existing water and sewer lines were run into the space.

 

The old mirror was really showing it's age and just looked so sad.  It was a relief to tape it up and carefully remove it from the wall so that I could properly paint.  We're not going to talk about the bare and un-primed drywall that was behind it...

Look at this utter nonsense of pipes.

The end result was absolutely worth it.  I just love taking a long bath with all of the soothing green space around me.  I would have liked to replace the vinyl flooring just because it's kind of dated looking but that is something that the next owner can do easily.  The faucet and vanity replacement is the biggest aesthetic impact but the toilet really really needed replacing because the original was all rotted on the inside.  The total cost of this update was around $1,400.  We did not touch the bathtub or shower because they're still in decent condition.

The downstairs powder room was done in 8 days and I'm SUPER proud of how it turned out.  The lessons learned during the master bath project really made the next bathroom job much quicker.

 

The old faucet and sink were in really bad shape.  And the sink was GLUED TO THE WALL.  So I learned how to cut away and patch drywall during this project.  Hans had already replaced the toilet last summer so at least that was one less thing to take care of.

When I first started painting I got a little scared that I had overdone it with the saturation level of the color.  It's hella peach-colored.  In the end I'm really glad that I went for a bold color in such a small space.

It looks so freakin' great!  I would 1000% replicate this in a bathroom at our next place.  I love the sunset color paired with an earthy slate blue.  It wasn't pre-meditated but the color scheme goes exactly with some old national park postcards that I framed over 15 years ago.  I love it so much.  The total cost of this update was around $650.

 

I will say that after installing two Moen brand faucets (one wide-set, one center-set), they are really almost stupid-easy to install and so far they've held up very well.  I also strongly recommend buying sink/faucet combinations that work with the newer "pop-up" stopper systems instead of the old pull-bar ones.  They're so much easier to deal with and are supposed to clog way less.

 

 

2024 Recap

It's nearly April 2025 and I'm finally getting around to this.  2024 slipped by in chunks.  To be honest it's kind of amazing.  Partly it's due to the fact that I was on TDY in Virginia for 19 weeks at the end of the year.  I did this back in 2015 and this round felt like warp speed.  I don't have a lot of details to fill in here.  We hung out with friends, I did some astrophotography travel, the garden flourished even with my "toned down" plan.  The big vacation was when we went to Germany in September.  I was back home for good by Christmas and that's when Hans and I traveled to New Orleans to visit my parents.  New Year's Eve was quiet.

In the spring our local brewery did a Girl Scout Cookie and beer pairing event.  So yummy!

We got our obligatory late-winter snow and the cool weather veggies that held on from the previous autumn came out on the other side just fine.

I saw American Ballet Theater's production of Swan Lake for the second time.  Beautiful.

All of the animals have reached equilibrium, more or less

May is probably the best month for my roses.  The orange one in the back has refused to act like the shrub that it's supposed to be and it's determined to be a climber. 
I've moved it to a new location that will hopefully be suitable in 2025.

 

The baby snake on the left was found hanging around the front of our house a couple of times until I moved it to the woods and away from people.  In late summer we had a very hungry monarch caterpillar.

This was my first successful year of growing okra and it finished the year absolutely towering over ten feet tall.  When I cleared out the beds for the fall I left some zinnias running wild so that the birds and insects would have food.

I did not get to participate in Halloween at home this year but I still made my dorm room festive.  Hans took over decorating duties and also purchased a fun new accessory.

In early November I stayed at a cabin in West Virginia and had two flawless nights of astrophotography.  Hans made a Cajun feast for Thanksgiving.  Holy moly.

Christmas Eve at the jazz club.  NYE spread at home.

Bathroom Refresh

I don't want to call this a remodel since it really was just the toilet, sink/vanity, accessories, and some fresh paint.  It's amazing what a difference that can make for a dated space, however.  This project started in December and finished in January.  The hardest part was getting the new sink plumbing attached to the existing wall pipe.  Many life skills were acquired due to this project.

Before and after below: