I am not a clutter person. If I lived alone, I’d probably have fewer knick-knacks. But even sharing a home with Travis and Jack, I try to keep things mostly organized. Otherwise I get a little twitchy. Yes, things get messy when Jack is in creation mode… but mostly, the house is pretty neat and clean. Or at least we have ‘clutter corners’ where the crap goes to live – like Travis’ area where papers get piled, or Jack’s Lego/creation desk in the kitchen.
With that being said, I tend to get into a super purging mood this time of year. With a big gift-giving holiday coming up, it seems like the perfect time to get rid of some things we may no longer love.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve finally gotten around to filing a towering pile of papers that have been living on top my filing cabinet. Travis and I also tore into the basement, making a big pile to donate and an even bigger pile to go to the dump. I purged through my holiday crap section, finally donating our ragged Christmas tree. Which forced my hand in ordering one that will actually fit the space we have for it.
Next up is clothes. I keep a big bin of clothes in my office closet that I currently have listed on Poshmark. Well, I just finally went through and deleted items that haven’t sold over the past few months. Instead, I added them to a bin to take to a local consignment shop. If I can sell them and get some money back, fantastic. If I can’t… then it’s all getting donated. Either way, I have the space back in my house (and in my head). I also added a new round of things into my Poshmark closet, just to keep things moving around here.
If you needed a little nudge to do some pre-holiday purging, this is it! Some years, I wait until the week around Christmas when Jack and I are both home on a winter break to get my chores done. But this year, I decided I might as well do them early so I could (maybe, possibly) use that time to just relax!
It’s FINALLY the day where I can say our Master Bathroom project is 100% done! Done. There is NOTHING left on the ‘to do’ list other than post a gigantic blog update of the whole project. So, let’s get into it!
And as a warning, this may be the most photo-heavy post I’ve ever done. I’ve included ALL THE PHOTOS. So, you’ve been warned.
Even though I’ve written about this project a bunch of times as we’ve been going through it all (you can click over on my Home Reno & DIY link if you want to read through all the posts), I’m going to give you all a quickie recap.
We had an extra bedroom that over the years had served as a playroom and an exercise room, but had the ultimate goal of it one day becoming a Master Bathroom and a Walk-In closet.
However, since it was a regular old room and NOT a bathroom, the project was very involved and snowballed to include pretty much the entire house.
What we wanted:
A new master bathroom
A finished walk-in closet
What we got:
A new master bathroom.
A finished walk-in closet.
New heat ducting running from the basement to the new bathroom.
New plumbing running from the basement to the new bathroom. Resulting in tearing down about half the ceiling in our living room and then putting a new one up so all the pipes and ducts can fit in there.
Our cased opening between the kitchen and living room reducing by 1 foot on one side, for the new heat ducting and plumbing. Resulting in: new drywall, trim, re-painting the kitchen, re-painting the living room and entrance.
Gaining 2 feet in space in our bedroom due to a wall moving. Resulting in us having to re-paint the bedroom and re-carpet the bedroom.
Taking the old ‘master bathroom’ down to the studs and capping off the old plumbing to make a ‘his’ closet for Travis. Resulting in: new drywall, trim, lighting, paint, carpet and closet accessories.
And yes, there’s blog posts every step of the way: my Home Reno & DIY.
We started our project on April 24, 2022 and I put the last bit of silicone in the shower on September 24, 2022. Which means the entire project took us 5 months.
Sure, it could have been done quicker if I had hired it out to a huge team. However, we utilized my dad (he’s a ‘mostly retired’ custom home builder) to do most of the work and he had other responsibilities as well, so he’d come over once or twice a week. We also hired a subcontractor sporadically, a plumber (who was in high demand and took a bit to get to our house) and a tiling guy who was even higher in demand and pushed our project back a month or two. Travis and I did all the demo ourselves, all the clean-up, I repainted everything (basically the entire house), and we assisted everywhere when needed.
Here were my initial thoughts for what I wanted:
Source: Home Depot
None of these were the actual exact things we were using, as I just grabbed some inspiration images off the Home Depot website to give you an idea what we were going for. We already owned the cabinets (sourced from an old job by my dad), which I was planning to refinish and paint dark blue. I was planning on white subway tile for the shower walls, gray penny tile for the shower floor, a gigantic glass door and a gray plank vinyl floor.
And here was my completely thrown together (not using any actual measurements) plan of where things will go:
So, did it end up like I imagined? VERY, VERY CLOSE!
Before we get into the oooh and aaaaahhh photos of the ‘after’ reveal, let’s first talk about what changed in my plan. Basically, just one thing: the cabinets.
As I mentioned, we were planning to use cabinets sourced from an old job by my dad. They had been living in my basement for 10+ years and to be honest, I wasn’t sure how good of shape they were in, so I figured I’d have to refinish and paint them.
Well, once we set them in place and cleaned them up… they looked fantastic. I did switch out the icky gold knobs with some nice black metal knobs I bought from Home Depot. The wood was still in perfect condition and I figured I’d live with them until we finish the project to make up my mind about painting.
It’s been a few months and I still love them, so no painting is required! However, it’s always an option down the road.
Okay, let’s do it. We’ll do “the before”, “the middle” and “the after”!
The Before
The Middle
The After
Yes, the shower is gigantic. We are aware. But part of the reason we wanted to design a new space is the fact that my 6’4” husband couldn’t bend over in our previous shower to wash his feet without bumping his head and elbows on the walls. Also, I found out recently that every other mirror in the house only shows him his chest… not his face. So, he may be loving our new bathroom even more than I am!
As it is, we held off on doing the project until we were mentally ready to deal with the house being a mess for months on end. AND until we had saved up enough money to pay for it. It took us 10 years of living in this house to get there, but we are both very, very glad that we finally did it.
I had the opportunity to go thrifting twice this month and both times I totally struck out when it came to clothing. HOWEVER, I didn’t strike out in all areas. The home goods sections totally spoiled me…
Fall-Colored Knit Blanket, $6
I 100% bought this blanket because it looks like one my grandma made for me many years ago. It’s the most wonderful assortment of fall colors and it practically jumped into my cart without me even thinking about it. It found a home on my living room couch, where it fits over both me and Jack for cuddling time while we watch She-Hulk on Thursday nights.
Handmade Quilt, $15
I paid up for this quilt, but it’s handmade and looks to be about queen-sized. Not all of the stitching is perfect, which adds to its charm for me. Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure where this one will end up in my house as I don’t have a spot for it at the moment. It may be added to Jack’s bedding set when the weather gets cooler. Or perhaps be added to my quilted nest of blankets out in the sun room.
1950’s Fire King Jadeite Bowl, $4
I recognized this adorable little 1950’s bowl immediately when I saw it shoved along assorted bowls on a shelf. It’s in perfect condition and went straight into the dishwasher when I got home. It’s now in heavy rotation at my house, as it’s the perfect size for a bowl of pretzels for snacking or salsa for sharing.
Yellow Crochet Blanket, $8
Yes, I know I have a problem. I just can’t resist handmade blankets. We’ve talked about this. It’s an ongoing personality problem. With that being said, I don’t regret this purchase at all. It’s a HUGE blanket and it’s already found a home in my sun room.
At some point, it may live on my bed because I love the intricate design and the mustard yellow color. Fully worth the $8 though!
Squares Crochet Blanket, $6
YES, it’s another blanket. And now I really do vow to try and skip the bedding section the next few times when I thrift. But look how there are so many different squares?! And LOOK how perfect it looks on my den couch!
But yes, my house is chock-full of snuggle blankets. In fact, I can invite all of my favorite people over and have a snuggle blanket to share with every single one of them.
