A New Year, A New Bathroom, or Two

Ok, so we are already into February and no blog post for 2013 yet.  I could blame it on being too busy remodeling bathrooms, but the problem is I haven't done much of the work on that, Dave has.  Supervising all this remodeling has been exhausting work, however. (wink, wink).

January 2013 has been such a miserable month weather wise.  Single digit temperatures too many days to count, plenty of snow and even worse, plenty of haze.  When we finally had blue skies and sunnier, warmer temperatures (I know, who knew that mid 30's to mid 40's would seem warm?) lo and behold we found ourselves in February.

Dave decided to turn his attention to our bathrooms given that time outdoors was NOT an option.  The first bathroom worked on was our hall bathroom.  It had been waiting for this makeover for some time.  I can't even remember how long ago I had Jenni help remove all the wallpaper off the walls so I could paint them a nice refreshing baby blue hue.  But I do remember it was a time, far, far away when temperatures were reasonable and you actually saw the sun regularly.  But I lost my drive to complete that project when Dave told me mudding the walls would have to come first, something I don't know anything about.  Painting yes, but mudding no.  I asked him a number of times to show me how so I could complete this project so I could get it off my to-do list.  Dave had too many things on his to-do list to show me apparently and so finally, Dave just took the project on himself.

Well, it morphed into much more than a mudding and painting project.  By the time he was done, he had mudded, of course, but he had also used linoleum to decorate the bottom half of the walls (yes, I typed correctly.  Ask Dave to explain that, please), installed a wainscotting using a custom made marble with blue streaks through it just above the linoleum and then finally painting the walls (a neutral color, not my baby blue I had envisioned).  He also decided to take out the medicine cabinet above the vanity and put in a wall mounted mirror but the medicine cabinet (a smaller version) was then installed within the far back wall and another mirror mounted on the wall opposite the vanity so that a personal groomer could have a nice view of the back of the head for styling purposes. This meant Dave had to cut a hole in the wall to recess the smaller medicine cabinet so the mirror front sits flat against the wall.

You can see the linoleum used on the bottom half of the walls

 Not sure if you can make out the blue streaks in the marble wainscotting

And of course I had to coordinate the shower curtain to the new blue color of the bathroom.  I found this fun snowman curtain that was just perfect.  Of course, I'll have to switch it out to something else once spring arrives.

The bathroom looks lovely, much better than either the wallpaper or non-wallpaper version had been.  But I tell you all this in great detail so you will be prepared for what has followed...the remodeling of our master bath.  You see, Dave tends to take a simple project and turn it into something much greater and grander.  I'm not complaining mind you, oh no, not at all, especially when it comes to all the hard work he has put into FINALLY turning his attention to the master bath.  It has needed it since we first moved in 4 years ago.   I've been patient because it isn't like he has been a slacker all this time and finally has gotten his rear in gear.  No, quite the opposite.  It is just that this home has had some many fix-it up projects that were more pressing, that I've held my peace. 

But now that Dave has opened the door to remodeling the master bath, I was not going to hold my peace any longer.  I made it clear to him, that I wanted the master bath remodeled MY WAY.  You see, I've had four years to envision how I wanted my inner sanctuary to be.  Because if you are anyone that spends a fair amount of time on personal hygiene, you are going to spend an awful lot of time over the course of your lifetime, in the bathroom.  So I had definite ideas and I was going to make my voice heard. 

To understand why I am being so forceful about this, you need to realize that in all the remodeling we have done over the last four years to our home and property (which has been a lot!), Dave has planned, envisioned and orchestrated the vast majority of what you see today.  He has, after all, had more experience in this sort of thing, and has done probably 98% of the work so seems only right that he has gotten his way most of the time.  But there are time when a woman wants what a women wants.  This was one of those times. 

Well, once I got Dave to understand this, I must say he has been wonderful about trying to please me.  There are some features of our master bath that I've compromised on, but over all, I am very pleased with it so far.  The remodeling is still going on, but has come a long way.

One of the things I felt strongly about was the color scheme.  I wanted sage green walls, no ifs, ands or buts.  Accent colors chocolate brown and cream.  I also wanted a longer counter top so I could have a sitting place (a built in vanity) to do my make up and hair.  I also wanted a countertop that was made of nicer material.  I wanted tile flooring and I wanted a bathtub that was workable, not the monstrosity we inherited when we bought the place. 

Here are some photos showing the master bath to date.  It is a work in progress and not completed, so there may be more photos on a future post.

 My sage green walls with cream accent around the windows

 My extended counter top of beautiful marble (sink is yet to be completely installed)

Chocolate brown dresser which we are converting into the vanity (Dave's idea) and the beautiful tile flooring

The nice thing about this is that I have never felt more loved.  Dave has gone out of his way to do everything top notch and to perfection just the way I want it.  What more can I girl ask for?

PS - We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary Jan 9th.  Needless to say, I am still very happy with my choice.