Remodels are tough.  How do I know?  We’ve remodeled almost every room in our house.  They are messy, dusty and pretty much a pain in the butt.  And did I mention how disruptive they are to everyday life?  But once they’re finished you forget how horrible the whole process was.  You’re happy to finally have the new improvements you’ve worked so hard for.

I do have one little confession though.  I don’t think we’ve ever fully 100% finished any of our remodels.  We always move to the next project before putting the finishing touches on the current one.  And you know what always seems to be forgotten?  Trim.  Not really forgotten, but more so ignored.  I don’t know why we do this but I can honestly say none of our remodeled rooms are completed.

Now that I got that out in the open I want to show you the bathroom remodel my hubby and I are working on.  This is the second remodel of our guest bathroom.  Here’s what it looked like after the first makeover ten years ago.  We painted the walls and ugly fake wood vanity and laid down a peel and stick floor.  It was mostly superficial, nothing too intense .

Fast forward to last fall and I knew that our bathroom was screaming for a real remodel, not just a makeover.  The toilet was barely working.  My kids wouldn’t flush it anymore (that is not a pretty picture, trust me) and I was pretty sure there was a leak under the tub so we dug in and started tearing things out.

Always buy single tiles to try before you buy!

I’m all about trying to save a buck if I can so I researched flooring and decided upon another type of peel and stick tile.  I chose a groutable vinyl tile from Armstrong.  I really wanted to grout the tile but my hubby didn’t so we chose not to.  If there is one thing you take away from this post this should be it … buy a couple of different colors and or styles to try at home.  The color you see at the store is SO different from the way it may look in your room.

I learned this the hard way.  Well it wasn’t really an issue of the tile appearing different it was the fact that I chose the tile before I painted the walls my new color, a very light blue.  I bought the shade French Gray which was very nice – with the old wall color before painting.  Unfortunately when we laid the flooring down against the new wall color I started having second thoughts.  Okay, I’m the most indecisive person on the planet and I’m constantly second-guessing myself so should I have been that surprised that I wasn’t thrilled with the way the new floor looked?

At this point my husband installed the toilet which is pretty much like hammering the last nail in a coffin.  There was no turning back now.  Yep no turning back.  Even if I really, really, really wasn’t loving this floor.  No turning back.

If Momma ain’t happy then nobody’s happy.

But that’s not how I roll, so the next morning I went to Lowe’s and grabbed a bunch of different tiles to take home.  I knew the hubs would want to kill divorce me, but I could not live with that floor.  It’s not that the floor was ugly, it just didn’t look the way I wanted it to look.  I wanted a floor color that would warm up the cool blue room.  Another thing I came to realize was that I wanted to grout the tiles and I was not taking no for an answer.

Stay tuned for the second part of My Bathroom Makeover Remodel!  I’ll show you how far we’ve come and how the new floor and vanity look now, too.