A Bathroom Tale, Part 2

Well, it's not decorated yet, but as far as actual construction goes, the bathroom is done! 

When we last left off we had put up drywall and painted, and the tub was in. Next up were the shower walls.

All of the tile was secondhand, from both the ReStore and Craigslist. We mixed and matched and came up with this design. We ended up with one extra of the main tile. God is so good! Total cost for tile wall, including materials: $76

(Oh, and a cool story about the caulk: we'd gotten grout for $5 at the ReStore, but since it wasn't Home Depot's or Lowe's brand, we couldn't get a matching color in caulk. We bought three different shades and opened one, and didn't like any of them (and they're $7 each). At Community Forklift,  they had a random box of grout, only about 6 tubes in odd colors. I found one that I thought might be close (we had nothing with us to match but memory) and it turned out to be a) 75 cents, and b) the exact perfect color. That was pretty exciting. :))

 

Next we had to make the shower more than just a pretty wall.... we agonized quite a bit over the fixtures. We want to be wise with our money, and we know how easy it is to be halfway through a project and start thinking of everything in just numbers and start spending more. However, we'd been watching craigslist and yard sales for months for fixtures, and there had been naught to be found. The difference in price between basic chrome and bronze, our metal of choice, was not very much at all. So, after prayer and deliberation and waiting for my wonderful hubby to decide for sure (I love having a Leader Man!) we went for it armed with our 20% off coupon.  Cost:$150

The drain was a great find. We had been floored by Home Depot's price of over $80 for bronze, and over $60 for the basic chrome... then we scoured eBay and the prices were even more, and we weren't sure what we were going to do. (I mean, come on, it's a drain!) Then, making a full convert out of Jack (who used to work for Scott's at Home Depot and was therefore anti-Lowes) we found a bronze drain at Lowes for $20!

(Digression alert: Actually, we are not very loyal at ALL. In general, we find that Lowes has better prices and they're more helpful. However, Home Depot tends to have more thing in stock, and for a while they had better coupons, but now they won't take them anymore so we're back to hopping, using the coupons that work in either store. Basically, we will go wherever is cheaper for each item. We visit each at least once a week. End of digression.)

We'd been keeping an eye out for a vanity on craigslist as well, and I was finding that everything was either junk or crazy-priced antique-type stuff. We came across a really pretty one at Lowes, on clearance from normal $389 to $278, and at that point were willing to spend that much, but they were sold out. We went to three different Lowes looking either for one in stock, or one willing to sell the display model.  On the third try we hit it: a manager willing to sell his display model, which had a tiny nick in the door, and no box, meaning he was willing to knock it down to $200. :)

The granite countertop is part of one of our very best stories: We were visiting Community Forklift for the first time, based on a friend's recommendation, in February right after "Snowmageddon." A hotel had recently installed a huge number of granite sinks, but found that they were the wrong size or something (don't ask me how you realize that after installation.) They donated them to Community Forklift. Because there were so many, they took up a ton of space, and the folks there, wanting to move them, had them priced amazingly: $50 each with backsplash, $25 without. These were complete with undermount sinks, already mounted. Worth over $500 a piece retail. Well, of course we started counting bathrooms in our house... then saw a big sign announcing that because of the snow, they were overstocked, and so everything in the store under $200 was half off. Dude! :D Thus, cost: $12.50. (We're planning our own backsplash as a future project.)

Oh, and an additional note about the vanity: we had carefully measured the length of the countertop, but assumed the depth would be standard. Well, when we set it on top for the first time, the vanity was about 3 inches too deep for the granite! Jack actually rebuilt the vanity to make it the proper depth, which involved some fancy footwork (so to speak) with the plumbing to make it all fit.

We had gotten a faucet off of eBay for in here, but when it came it was a weird shade, not the right scale really for this sink, and defective. Thankfully, the seller was happy to give a full refund, so we didn't lose any money. We decided to go ahead and get a new one though (we were in the middle of installation when we realized what was wrong with the eBay one). So, again with a coupon at Home Depot, we found this one: much better size and scale and we love it. (Tragically, we found a very similar one $30 cheaper at Lowes after we'd installed it, which I swear wasn't there last time we looked. But oh well, with comparing prices on 37 things per week I guess we shouldn't be surprised to miss one... we just have to let that one go.)

The toilet that was in the bathroom originally was white, and one of those swoopy modern designs that we're not so into, but are expensive and new so we didn't want to trash it. At first we were going to sell it and try to find a bone one on criagslist. But then we found out that my business, Lampstand Press, was moving its warehouse. A few years ago, Jack and I had remodeled that bathroom, and put in a lovely bone toilet we'd gotten at the ReStore. Now that we were moving, we could take it back so long as we left one there. So we switched it with the swoopy one! :) Cost: $1.29 for a new toilet ring

The floor was a fun challenge: we had gotten a very limited number of similarly-colored tiles from the ReStore, and we spent a while figuring out exactly how to make it work without running out. It's a good thing Jack's so good at math... I'd offer an idea, saying "this would look good!" and he'd start calculating numbers; I'd glaze over but nod encouragingly, until he got to the part where he said "no, that wouldn't work" which I understood. He finally came up with a brilliant design and once again we ended up with scraps only left over. Jack's amazing at the math of this.  

The thresholds were pretty funny too: there was one in this lovely tan color in the downstairs powder room originally, so we got the bright idea to get one more and use that one (downstairs we're doing hardwood throughout), cutting our costs in half. Jack very carefully got it out, taking care to get off all the old mastick so it wouldn't crack. Then, he very carefully set it down, and two seconds later accidentally stepped on it, snapping it cleanly in two. Woops! Oh well. Another one to let go. :) As it turned out, they were only $13 each, instead of $30 each (what we'd thought they would be). That took some of the sting out of it.  Cost: tiles $20; materials left over from shower tiling, $0; mastick & thinset: $45; thresholds: $26; durock: $8 on craigslist

And now, it's done and usuable and ready to put up pretty stuff! :)