Alright, friends!
Here comes the big news... We are starting a RENO! That's right, the first-ever, complete renovation of any interior room of this house... Which is where it gets interesting. Because the only experience with a reno for this blogger is the ever-glorious yard. Which, in itself was a huge feat! But, in comparison, far less intrusive as a renovation.
Our plan? Spend less than $5,700 in less than 5 days. Above, you can see the mood board and purchasing list for this project. The only possible way of accomplishing such an affordable reno of a master bathroom is if you are extremely frugal in your purchasing and exceptionally good at negotiating...
Happy to report that thus far, we have been doing pretty well on both accounts. It has been a bit of a give-and-take (as usual) so our ability to save on some items has enabled us to compensate for some mistakes. For example... my math on how much tile we need, as it turns out, was way, way off. But, by saving on the bathroom vanity and the faucets and finishes, we are still within budget.
So, where have we made some changes already?
- We have swapped the faucets for the bathroom vanity and the bath tub with more affordable options.
- We also changed the bath tub model for the one we were able to see in person.
- We found more affordable mirrors (more on that below).
Where did we save big time?
1. The mirrors.
Originally, we had planned for these geometric Umbra mirrors with black frames to contrast the future white walls and complement the wood, grey and white palette. However, during a random walk through our local Target, we came across Dwell's Modern line for Target (ON SALE!). Before we knew it, these two babies were in our cart on the way home.
2. The faucets!
The original plan had some sleek faucets from Home Depot and Allmodern.com. And as much as we liked those, we found some more affordable alternatives at IKEA and the Home Depot that we got to see and pick up in person!
The best news from our shopping excursions though was the bathroom vanity! We had originally planned to spend north of $500 on that from IKEA. After some back and forth on inventory availability (and minor panic attacks that the centerpiece of the remodel is... um... nonexistent), we lucked out to secure on of the last three vanities in Houston... at half its price! So exciting!!
Okay, enough bragging about the savings. Where are we NOW?
You may think... Hey, this is not a TERRIBLE bathroom... Why change? Well, hold on! Let's show you some close-ups (SPOLER ALERT: not for those who get grossed out easily):
Yup... GROSS. One of our skylights had leaked thus creating some serious leakage and mold. After fixing the skylight sealing, we let the whole thing be... Resulting in this! In addition, it's safe to say that the vent in the bathroom was anything but effective. We are fixing that with a new, powerful fan that should be arriving tomorrow...
And this is it for now! After today's demo is done... you can expect more images to follow :). Wish us some good luck, please!
A few months back, a co-worker of mine convinced me to join my company's Spartan Race team. He didn't talk it up much: he mentioned it's a long-ish run with a few fun obstacles. You know, no big deal. Something someone who runs as much as me should complete more than easily (read, you don't really need to train for it). Ha ha ha.