Basement Bathroom Remodel

This summer we had planned on trying to sell our house and move into a larger one closer to our family but after talking to our real estate agent we found out because of the economy we wouldn't be able to sell our house right now for even close to what we paid for it. He recommended we wait a year or two. Isaac was pretty upset so I suggested we take our tax return (we had planned on using it toward moving)and fix up our currant house. We talked about doing laminate wood floor on our main level. While researching that I discovered you are not supposed to put it in a bathroom, um . . . that is exactly what we had in our basement bathroom! That is the bathroom we use for the kids and of course they splash water onto the floor and the water was going under the flooring and some of it was being soaked up by the carpet outside the door and also when you would step on the floor water would come up through the cracks. So we decided the first thing we needed to redo was the basement bathroom.

First thing first we had to rip up the old floor so it could dry out. Evan went and got his little tools and helped me rip it up.

We went to Lowes and picked out a gray paint for the walls with a darker gray for the baseboards and the frames around the mirrors. My dad says professionals don't use painters tape so I took that as a challenge and didn't use tape. I just used several smaller brushes to go around edges. I find the tape very tedious anyway so I prefer not to use it. When I got the first coat of paint on the walls I was a little stressed because the gray walls matched the gray cement floors and I was afraid it would look like a concrete dungeon but after I got it all finished I loved it.

Me and Isaac had never tiled before, I had seen my dad do it but never paid much attention, but we decided to try it. After many many calls to my dad I think we did a pretty good job. Me and Isaac layed the tile together and I grouted and sealed it myself while Isaac was gone on a business trip. A little tip when grouting, wear gloves. Grout drys out your hands really really bad. I wish someone had told me this when I grouted the floor.

Of course we need something to hang on the walls in our new bathroom so the first person I thought of was Carlye. She had asked me to babysit while she took a friends photos so I said as payment I needed some photos for my bathroom and she agreed to take some. I definitely earned the photos. I had 6 kids all on my own! Ages 5, 4, two 3 year olds, 2 year old, and a 8 month old. And I had them all for 4 hours!
But the pictures turned out adorable.
After getting some new towels, a bathmat, a new garbage can and a medicine cabnet (which I put together all on my own) we were all done.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After
Please ignore the messy shelves.

And our amazing new floor.

Thank you dad for all of your help! And thanks Carlye for the cute pictures!
Now onto the next project.