Bathroom – “Phase I” and Long Overdue!

Thanks to the online diary that is this blog, I can see that I finished up “Phase I” (AKA Lipstick on the Pig) for the bathroom on September 1st.  So that means we have been without a mirror in our only bathroom since probably sometime in mid-June of 2012 . . .

It wasn’t the end of the world — there’s a full length mirror in the little hallway just outside the bathroom and we have a little Ikea double-sided vanity mirror that filled in for our missing bathroom mirror.  We adjusted.  But with a light fixture waiting patiently in a box in the basement and some pennies scratched together, it was time to get that sucker finished!

First we reminisce . . .

This enormous clunky medicine cabinet and beauty of a 5-light exposed bulb bath bar came with the house.  When we demoed out the medicine cabinet, it turned out there was a random square of bead board missing on that wall . . . so it had to be covered!  Mirror to the rescue.

(Apologies for the picture, I took about 500 but trying to get a light fixture while it’s on and on top of a mirror in the world’s smallest room was no easy feat.)  We still have some patching/painting/trim work/caulk to do in that corner but this large mirror (29″ x 48″ with a 4″ hole cut out) is such an improvement.

Here’s a better image of the light fixture since it didn’t photograph too well:

It’s the Trinity bath light by Hudson Valley Lighting and poor JT really had to wrestle it into place.  We had a lot of install shenanigans for this thing including hacking an extension cord to extend the wires late on a Sunday night because the mirror was getting installed the next morning.

The bathroom now feels brighter, happier and so much larger.  The combination of the large mirror and dark wall & ceiling paint really have improved this room.

We have plenty of storage with the drawers and cabinet under the sink and the new acrylic shelves on the wall that taking out the medicine cabinet wasn’t a deal breaker.  Heck I’ve even been toying with the idea of a pedestal sink for Phase II but I’m pretty sure there’s no bead board behind that base cabinet either.

Doing a lot of this work ourselves has been such a learning experience.  It feels like everything that can go wrong usually will.  We had the glass company install the mirror because I didn’t have a good idea of how JT and I would even survive something like that.  We would be found three days later bleeding under mirror shards.  The nice thing is that by reading others blogs, I know we aren’t alone in the “old house renovating is a lot of work and unforseen conditions” pity party.  So we move on.  And enjoy the heck out of our newly refreshed bathroom and use it to wash away all that blood, sweat and tears!

So that’s the latest at Living Analog, what’s new in your world?

I think my expression says, “Um, how do I work this thing!”

Cheers – CT