All in a Weekend's Work: The New, Blue Bathroom

The bathroom is done and I LOVE IT! Is it weird to want to spend all your time in the guest bathroom? Here is the run down of what we did:

• Took down all the old wood fixtures (towel bar, towel ring, toilet paper holder), spackled the holes, and in some cases used joint compound.
• Added knobs to the vanity drawers and cabinets, and the cabinet above the toilet.
• Painted with Behr "Blue Fox" and I am SO happy with the color!
• Installed new faucet, worlds better than the ugly old one.
• Installed new light fixture.
• Put up new brushed nickel fixtures and over the door towel rack.
• Put on new brushed nickel face plates for the outlets and light switches.
• Installed curtain rod and hung curtain.
• Added new towels.
• DONE!

This list is pretty concise, but it doesn't include all the roadblocks we encountered along the way. One thing we have learned, if anything, is never under estimate the amount of time it will take you to do a home improvement project. Also, when in a bind quick runs to Home Depot are usually necessary, even if you have already been twice that day. Even though we had a few hiccups, we still got the project done in one weekend and as far as I'm concerned, never have to do another thing to the guest bathroom as long as we live here.

One small side project Andrew worked on while I painted was changing the ceiling fan in one of the guest bedrooms. We bought the fixtures for the whole house before we even moved in but left a few unchanged when we ran out of steam. For the two guest bedrooms we bought pretty much the cheapest ceiling fans Home Depot sold, so we were interested to see how well they would actually perform. After getting it installed we can honestly say it is a great bargain!! They are about as plain as a fan can come, but they create a great breeze, give off good light, and don't wobble or make any noise. What more can you ask for in a $20 fan? I really hated the light on the old ceiling fan in this room because the glass cover had an etched criss cross pattern that cast weird shadows on the walls. It drove me crazy! The old fan was HUGE with shiny brass hardware and was really obtrusive. The new fan is smaller and neutral colored so it doesn't have to be the focal point in the room.

We did go over the $75 budget that I had in mind, mostly because we decided to change the faucet. If we hadn't changed the faucet we still would have come in around $100. The faucet was one of the cheaper models they carried, but one that we still liked. Again, I guess you should never underestimate the cost of a project. Several of the materials we already had so I'm not including those in this weekend's total. But all in all, I think the end result far exceeds the the cost involved. We didn't go over the top, but we made the room look really nice and ultimately added value to the home with just a few small upgrades.

I'm kicking myself because I didn't take any good "before" pictures of the whole room to compare for afterward. You can just trust me that it was pretty blah with very basic hardware. In fact, on one of our Home Depot trips I saw that they sell the whole set of oak fixtures that were previously in our bathroom for $10!! I obviously like a good bargain, but these looked so crappy you could tell they were worth $2 a piece. Sometimes it is worth it to pay a little extra. Enough blabbing, without further adieu, here are the pictures!!

And to think one week ago this bathroom was home to a turtle!!