A Designer At Home

Hey guys,

As I promised, I’m checking in with an update on our bathroom remodel. Things slowed down quite a bit with the Thanksgiving holiday but there’s still a bit of progress to share with you.

I had a few questions from you all about grout. Originally the plan was to use turquoise blue grout. And then my contractor used it as adhesive for the shower tiles. And then told me he couldn’t use it to grout the tiles because he needed unsanded grout for the measurement of gap between the tiles. How discouraging!

I was pretty bummed out that he used the grout as adhesive without speaking to us about it first. The cost difference between generic ol’ adhesive and the turquoise grout is hefty. And I have used it in a tiling project where the grout size was quite small (remember my tiled ottoman tops?). So the whole ordeal has been really frustrating.

With the use of the turquoise grout out the window because it’s a sanded grout, we went shopping at The Home Depot to check out their selection of grouts. We chose an inexpensive unsanded grout by Polyblend in the color “New Taupe.” It’s a very pretty color. Striking against the white. A very classy combination. Not exactly the vibe I was going for, but I think that it’s offset by the patterned tile insert quite nicely.

Speaking of the insert, I’ve had to put my foot down and demand that he use the turquoise grout here. I know it can be used in a smaller tile gap and I really wanted it used in the space. With only 1 tub left (out of the 8 I had), this is going to have to be the unexpected pop of fun I crave.

I don’t want to come off completely underwhelmed, ungrateful, or pissed off. I appreciate all the hard work my neighbor has done. And I’m not pissed off. Things didn’t go quite according to plan. While I would have preferred he discuss the use of the product in this way with us, he wouldn’t have used it to grout the whole shower surround anyways. And it really is beautiful how it’s turning out. I’m betting this color will be a whole lot easier to keep clean looking anyways so this could just be a blessing in disguise.

So that’s what we’re looking at for progress on the shower surround.

The floors are really exciting. They’re actually going perfectly according to plan. We’re using the same Polyblend grout in “Tobacco.”  The floor tile is from Lowe’s and it’s GBI Tile & Stone Inc. Madeira Oak Ceramic Floor Tile. It’s a touch warmer than the picture online shows. We bought ours online and picked up in store.

*Lowe’s & The Home Depot are Ebates stores so you get cash back when you buy online and pick up in store 😉

So there’s a lot of really good things moving forward right now. With the holidays upon us, I’m not so much focused on getting projects done for the bathroom. Our contractor is doing what he needs to do on his end, but I won’t be picking back up on any projects until after the new year. I’ll still keep updating, but keep a look out for a few holiday themed posts. It’s the most magical time of year 🙂

Hey Guys!

Today I’m popping in with one of those nitty gritty posts that have a better looking after but it’s far from pretty but what I learned may help someone else so I’m sharing for the love of everyone being capable of doing things to their home to make it a space they want to be in. That was probably a run on sentence. If you have a sliding doors enclosing your bathtub and want to remove them, I’m going to walk you through how we removed ours (Unfortunately I can’t say for any certainty that mine were installed like yours and different models may have differences in the deconstruction process).

We have 1 single freaking bathroom in our home. We aimed to buy a house that we could afford in the event one of us lost our job and that meant making sacrifices like 2nd bathrooms and square footage. We hope to one day have the funds to add onto the house and in that addition a second bathroom, but for now we are renovating the existing bathroom to be our “dream on a budget bathroom.”

One of the first things we did, even before the full blown renovation, was remove the shower doors. They were obviously harboring mold and they’re a pain to keep clean. I prefer the ease of use and interchangeability of shower curtains. These doors had to come down. So I mentioned to my dad that I was removing them and was running into a few issues figuring out how they came apart and my dad is awesome so he came over to help out.

The doors were easy. Ours hung from wheels on a track from the top. So we just lifted those right off and hauled them off to live in our garage for a few years.

Then the top piece lifted right off the sides.

And this was where I was a bit stuck. The sides were screwed into the tile. But when I took the screws out, the sides didn’t budge. And I didn’t fully expect them to since I could see an adhesive oozed out from the sides in a few spots. So with the direction of my dad, we took putty knives and worked it behind the sides. And it was a simple matter of prying and working the putty knife further down the frame.

The pieces were not salvageable because they were quite flimsy and bent with the slightest tug against the wall.

Once the sides were off, we started to see just how much mold these doors were harboring. I cannot recommend sliding shower doors after seeing what was growing after living in the house for just 2 years (the bathroom was “remodeled” just before we moved in). We have a great exhaust fan and use it every time we shower.

And then it became abundantly clear what kind of situation we were living with. Things. Were. Gross.

I will forever be a fan of shower curtains.

So all in all, I would have to say you shouldn’t ever install them. And if you have them, grab a screwdriver and a putty knife and get that thing out.

Warning- this makes my stomach queasy-

So I hope you’ve found this post helpful. And if this is the first post of mine you’ve seen, please stick around and check some other things out. I’m normally not showing you gross pictures of mold! I prefer pretty things 😉