Kitchen Makeover #1

This is the original kitchen ad from when we bought the house. Everything was white and neutral tones. It didn't look bad at all. There just was no color or pop. Life seemed a little bland.

In the next chronicles you will see changes in the walls, cabinets, and light fixtures.

Stay Tuned!

Master Bathroom Makeover #6 Finished

When we first started the bathroom, it only had 2 light fixtures. We added the one in the middle from an existing bathroom. They were gold. We spray painted them a hammered black color.


The walls were painted with a antique white color, which is not a white at all to me. It came out to be a warm butter yellow color. It turned out really pretty.

The shower area. We re caulked the whole shower area and doors.

Toilet area

We found these faucets at a discount home improvement store for $64. We saw similar faucets at another store for $129. I think we got a great bargain on these.

View of the finished sinks and bump out.

We used white ceramic tiles for the the top part of the bump out. It created a nice shelf area for accessories. We used a premixed grout/adhesive to lay the tiles.

Notice the wall. Remember that this is the antique white that I was talking about.

Total job cost for the bathroom was approximately $1,222, we saved ourselves $3,000 doing the hard work ourselves. This was our first time laying a ceramic tile floor and we did ok. We did get on the internet and did some research on the project. Don't be afraid the think outside of the box. The wet saw that we used to cut the floor tile and the white ceramic tile used on the bump out was the best investment. It was truly a life saver!

Master Bathroom Makeover #5

We put these vents in behind the sink for air flow. This also allows us to have access to the pipes if we ever need to.

We use panel beadboard on the bump out.

Master Bath Makeover #4

This is the sink area. We had to make a bump out for the pipes that are coming up through the floor. This is also an exterior wall. The wood on the wall is 2x4's. Then we screwes 2x8's to the 2x4's.

Notice, we put plastic bags over the opening of the pipes to keep the gnats at bay.
View of second sink area.

Second sink placement.

Putting the sinks together so that the wall can be marked for permanet placement of the sinks.

Stay Tuned!

Master Bath Makeover #3

This is what the floor looked like with the spacers in it. The floor was allowed to set for 24 hours before the grout.

This is the floor grouted. The plumbing is set up for two face bowls.

This is the view towards the shower. The linen closet is the door on the left.

Toilet area. Shower is on the right.
Tub is in the foreground.

This is looking into the closet.

Finished floor without baseboards.

Finished floor looking towards the sinks.

Looking towards sinks.

Toilet area.

Finished floor in closet.

Finished floor in closet.

Master Bath Makeover #2

So let me start by saying that when we started the bathroom we did make mistakes. The first thing that we did was to tear up the vinyl floor that was down when we bought the house. That was a job that brought on instant sweat!

Then we bought Lauan board for $108.80, which was a mistake. We put it down only to have to take it up because it was too flimsy, and it wasn't the right sub floor for putting down ceramic tile. The tiles would have cracked under the pressure. So we returned five sheets of the Lauan board and got a refund of $49.87. So it cost us $59.83 for the sheets that we ruined.

First we put down Thinset, which is an adhesive/floor leveler compound. Then came the Backer Board. We screwed the backer board to the existing 1/2" plywood sub-floor. Be sure to sink the screws all the way in below the surface of the board so that your tiles sit flat. We started out using a hand tile cutter, but ended up taking that back to the store and got a wet saw, which was much easier and quicker for us to use.

After that we used the Thinset with joint tape for the seams in the Backer Board .

The next step, we used a white Thinset adhesive, with a trowel and spacers to lay the tile evenly on the floor.

Stay Tuned!

Master Bath Makeover #1

So, we decided when we moved into this little house that we wanted to do the bathroom ourselves to save money. Remember, I am 1 frugal queen! Yes, it was a lot of work and we did save money. Even with the pain of backaches, headaches and feeling like someone beat me up when I wasn't looking , my husband and I managed to stay married and still love each other.

Bathroom before. Everything was blue and plain. I couldn't stand the old sinks in the house.Later you will see what we did with them and how I changed the mirror and lighting.The door to the right is our closet.We have the kind of bathroom where the closet is in the bathroom. It does make getting dressed a little bit less hectic. I didn't think I would like it when we bought the house, but now it saves so much time when getting ready.Stay tuned!