Bathroom Ta-Da!

Everyone keeps asking if we're finished with the house renovations... well, it's a house - one is never "done" a house!

But here at least is one finished room... or at least it's mostly finished.

Of course, despire poring through my files, I can't find a "before" photo.  So here's a photo of the old vinyl flooring that I found underneath the vanity in the upstairs bathroom:

Ick.  Interestingly, I actually found a very similar design in one of the major flooring companies' online catalogues.

So this room was completely gutted - walls, flooring, windows, the whole nine yards.  We re-arranged the layout a bit, since the original layout had the toilet facing the door.  We also made the doorway a bit wider, which came in handy when Kid 2 was in a wheelchair for a few weeks.  I love the way the flooring turned out... it's a Tarkett fibrefloor (vinyl) that is lovely and warm and cushy, but it looks like marble tile.  Did I mention it's warm underfoot?  A treat for the feet.

I hate tile surrounds in a shower/bath enclosure, so we went with a one-piece fiberglass tub/shower enclosure that the contractor picked out for me at Glass World.  I'm very happy with his choice - it's narrower at the foot/faucet end so filling it uses a bit less water, and it's nicely contoured for leaning back against.  

The contractor usually likes to recommend Toto dual-flush toilets for their reliability, but it just wasn't in our budget.  He did say that he'd had clients who had picked up toilets from Costco (without asking him) and while he had misgivings about it, they seemed to have no problems with them, so we went to Costco to check them out.  I was thrilled to see that they only had 2 toilets available, both at a very good price, so we went for the nicer and slightly more expensive one.  And I didn't have to look at an entire aisle of toilets.

A few weeks ago I installed some open shelves above the toilet for holding all the bathroom stuff.  I re-used shelves and shelf supports that I had on hand, but I think they came from Ikea.  The galvanized mini-buckets are plant pots, also from Ikea, and the green baskets are from Daiso.  On the windowsill is a tower of swing-out containers that we use to store all our hair do-dads.  Every woman with long hair should have a hair do-dad storage tower.  And that oblong thing between the toilet and the wall?  A brilliant Ikea item from a few years ago - the lid lifts up to reveal toilet-paper storage (it holds 9 rolls), and at the back is a toilet brush in its own container that you can lift out so you don't drip icky toilet water anywhere.  

When it came time to install the vanity, I didn't have much time, so I had to go with whatever I found in stock at the home improvement store.  This one was an all-but-the-faucet-in-one and while it was more blindingly white than I had in mind, I really liked the clean-lined sink top on it - no weird corners for gunk to build up.  The shaker door style fits in with my kitchen cabinets and, fortunately, the bathroom door swings such that you can't really compare the colours directly.

The mirror actually came with the house - it was a dusty old mirror with a tacky gold lumpy/carved frame that I found by the furnace in the basement.  I painted the frame shiny black, and replaced the old mirror.  It took a while for Husband Man and I to sort out how it would be mounted - and then he surprised me by putting it up one weekend while I was at work!

Kid 2 insisted that we had to have this faucet.  It cost about $40 more than I wanted to spend, so I told him that if he wanted it, he would have to chip in from his allowance savings, and he readily agreed.

I'm glad he insisted.  This is a lovely piece of jewelry in my bathroom.  It's a Price-Pfister faucet and despite the same brand's failure in my kitchen (long sad story), this one has performed well.

Of course it's not completely done!

If you were paying attention, you might have noticed that the door swings towards the vanity.  I reversed the door swing hoping that it would work better this way.  But it means you have to close the door to use the sink.  That's not a big deal.  A bigger problem: we forgot to tell the electrician about the change in door swing, so the switches are all behind the door.  I hate that, but will have to live with it for now.  

The plastic drawer unit next to the vanity holds important supplies like band-aids and the like.  I just needed that extra little bit of storage and we had this one on hand.  It's not very attractive, but it works just fine for now.  Eventually I'd like to put a set of cabinetry drawers here, but it's tricky finding fully-functional drawers in that width (it definitely can't be wider than 12")

And I'd like to install a small tile backsplash behind the sink.  Just a few rows of subway tile would do the trick.  I will likely tackle that job when I do the backsplash in the kitchen.

I Love Cats and Broc-co-li

Our cat Ollie is an escape artist.  When we adopted him from the rescue agency as a 6-month old kitten, we had to promise to keep him inside.  We don’t mind because we understand that indoor cats have much longer lifespans.  They have a lower risk of catching communicable diseases or being injured by cars, people or other animals.  Not to mention less likely to bring fleas in.  But Ollie likes to go out and rumble with the other neighbourhood cats.  He likes to chase (and catch!) birds.  And he likes to eat grass.  It’s a world of adventure out there for him, and he wants out!  

He waits by the door, so we have to kick as we come in the door to keep him from escaping.  (He’s fine, he backs away in plenty of time, so we don’t actually kick him.)  But sometimes we forget, or we’re carrying something in or out and he manages to escape.

Sometimes this leads to problems.  Lately he’s come back a couple of times with badly scraped carpal pads (the pads that go with the claw up by the “wrist” area on the forepaws).  Either it happened fighting or - more likely - climbing trees.  Then he bites them so they don’t heal well, so we have to put the “cone of shame” on him.  And he looks so silly, we can’t help but laugh.  Once he’s healed a bit, the cone comes off and he’s back to his usual escape artistry.

One day last week, Kid 2 and his grandma, Yan Yan, were walking back from the local outdoor swimming pool when they saw Ollie outside.  Kid 2 called him, and he came over, so they grabbed him and brought him home.  Then they realized that there were 2 identical black cats in the house!  Oops.  But which one was Ollie?

Fortunately, Calvin remembered that our cats like broccoli (they get really upset if we cook some and don’t give them any) and we happened to have some left over from dinner.  He put a piece on the floor, and once Ollie pounced on it, they kicked the other cat out.

Careful - they also like chips!  (No, we don't normally give them any... they just try to sneak them, and they eat any crumbs they find.)

Sign of a happy house...

 

I happened to catch this one as I was going through the house taking pictures of all the "inside the walls" stuff before they put the insulation and drywall up.  I think she's happy with her new back door!  (Yes, I think of my new house as a woman - and she's a fussy one!)

We are now happily ensconced at our next house-sitting gig in Dunbar.  This came about as a result of my very first post here!  Husband-man's friend D. shared it with his parents - the W's - via Facebook.  They happened to need someone to house-sit just around the time we needed a house to sit in.  And they kindly let us stay in their little basement suite for the week between the end of our previous house-sitting gig and the beginning of their vacation.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but we made it - it's a good thing we still like each other!  Now they've headed out on a grand adventure in Italy (have fun!) and we're taking care of their lovely home.

The W's have bird feeders in the backyard, and Kid 2 has enjoyed watching the birds and refilling the feeders.  He was even able to pick up one of the birds in his hands for a moment, which was very thrilling.

The house is lovely and homey and filled to the brim with interesting books.  It's been a pleasure so far.  But it is also a little bit saddening, because this house is a very similar design to our new house, but of  course it's the higher-end version (it has an upstairs and stained glass in the front door and windows), and it's been kept up over the years.  It makes me just a little sad to see what our house might have been, poor neglected girl.  But it also gives me ideas and inspiration for things I want to do.  Oh, little house, just wait and see what pretty things we have in store for you!

Oh, and the kitchen?  Good friends advised and the budget decreed: Ikea!  I ordered all my cabinets last week... now to sort out the delivery (which was supposed to happen yesterday but... well... it didn't work out.)