I shared a little bit of our powder room
here, but realized I never shared any before pics. It's nothing too exciting, but here she is:
The day we closed, we were at Lowe's spending way too much money on garbage bags, mops, brooms and various cleaning supplies (why is it sooo expensive every single move?!). I spotted a carrara marble vanity top (pictured above) that was a special order return marked from $600 to $250. While we LOVED it, we both thought the price was still too high so asked to speak to a manager. My salesman husband pulled out all the stops, but they absolutely would not budge on the price. Sam and I were both a little bummed, but we agreed it was too expensive, considering a vanity base for it wouldn't exactly be cheap.
Fast forward several weeks, we're at Lowe's again, and I spot that glorious marble top in the same spot (obviously- that sucker isn't exactly light). This time it's marked down to $100- the exact price we wanted to pay. Sldkfjdlfj!! High-fiving ensued, even though we had no idea where we were going to put it. We knew we had 2 bathrooms to completely renovate though--I'll have to post pics of the 2nd floor bathroom soon so you can see it in it's 90's glory-- so we'd find a place for it. Originally, we thought we wanted to go with this
Martha Stewart vanity for the powder room, but in the end opted for Martha Stewart cabinetry from Home Depot to fit the super clearanced top. For just a little more money, we're getting a fairly large vanity with a solid surface top. I will never say no to more concealed storage. Never. The lesson here: look for special order return items. Typically, the price is negotiable (and if not, wait it out, cause chances are pretty good you'll get it).
When I left off way back in February, we'd ripped up the floor. In March, Sam's dad, Tom, drove up with my brother-in-law Phil's fancy tile saw. They decided to do a dry fit first, so the majority of the weekend was spent getting everything cut and laid in place. Finally finally finally in April, we had a free weekend to put down the underlayment and lay the tile (again with my father-in-law's help).
We decided to go with the
Schluter Ditra underlayment instead of traditional Durock cement board. Even though it was quite a bit pricier, it was easier to cut and not messy at all. Plus, knowing that we won't ever have to replace cracked tiles in here is worth its weight in gold.
We still need to seal and grout the tile, sand and repaint the trim, and add shoe moulding, but those are fairly easy in comparison to laying a herringbone floor. I am beyond thrilled with the way it turned out, and cannot wait to start putting the room together. Sounds like that'll be May. Hey Tom, wanna drive up to Minnesota again?! ;)
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