Five years ago we moved into our tiny three bedroom, one bathroom home and even though it honestly was not much, we have been slowly turning it into our dream home. I took it from “doodoo brown” to a beautiful shade of teal on the outside, and Steven has been AMAZING at clearing out and making our once overgrown property look beautiful again (I have at least done SOME yardwork, but it’s not as awesome as what some of you could probably do). The one thing that I have hated since day one, but not had the time or money to deal with, has been our bathroom. While the big boys were gone to their dad’s this summer though, we had to take the opportunity to do some repairs and updates. I am so happy to introduce “Lemonade”, what we made out of the lemons life through at us.
Our home was seriously neglected for years before we moved in (we actually rented for a year before purchasing too). There were leaks that were allowed to go on for forever, on top of cheap flooring, on top of cheap floors. We found our first issue the night of our first Thanksgiving in our home. My poor husband got up to get something for heartburn and fell through the kitchen floor. Turns out, there had once been a leak to the waterline to the old refrigerator and no one bothered to fix it. The fridge was new when we moved in and no one ever hooked a waterline up (didn’t bother us, we didn’t intend to use it) but when the floor was being repaired, we definitely found out why. That brings us to the bathroom…
Our poor bathroom had some of the worst plumbing I had ever seen in my life. While we were still just renting, we made several repairs to the sink drain, the shower, and the toilet. After we bought our house, we ended up having to replace the toilet and making repairs to the floor around it, because it started to cave through the floor. Turns out, someone had repaired a spot in the floor, but the SUBFLOOR was rotten, Yay us! Not being prepared at all to fix those major things at the time, we did the best we could, and put it back together, knowing that we would definitely be getting back to this project sooner rather than later.
The day finally came this summer. We bought all the lumber we needed for the job (and extra, because we didn’t want the same problems as before) and we went ahead and bought new flooring (super cute linoleum from Lowes) so that we no longer had to worry about the cheap peel and stick tile that the previous owners had used. Because of all the leaks in the past, the original vanity (made of pressed wood) was ruined and had to be replaced, so I found one I loved at Home Depot that had TONS of storage (I love storage!!!) that actually takes up less space than the original vanity and the weird little shelf that was attached to it. I found a larger medicine cabinet at Lowes for only $40 that I am still super in love with.
I won’t bore you with details on all the work we had to do, mostly because I am not a professional, we may not have done it right, and most of it is over my head anyhow… BUT, yall… It is amazing what paint, a new vanity, medicine cabinet, and décor can do!
Shopping for flooring, lumber, and all that jazz… 
Poor Steven under the house working while I handed tools to him. 
Our old vanity was so small that someone decided to install a shelf next to it. Only problem, I found 50 year old newspaper and paper towels stuffed between it and the wall when I ripped it off. 
After some paint. 
Removing peel and stick tile, flooring, and subflooring. 
Laying linoleum. 
Oooooh… Pretty knobs for the new vanity! 
The best soap dispenser ever from one of my favorite local stores- The Warehouse! 
Coming together so nice! 
Not finished yet, but take a look!
I couldn’t decide between two bathroom rugs, so I got this Lemon “Squeeze the Day” rug to put at the door and this adorable Lemon Wedge Rug to put beside the tub. We decided it was time for a new shower curtain so I got this Yellow and White Striped Shower Curtain and Double hook Shower Curtain hooks to hang the liner behind it. I’ve actually been impressed that these hooks haven’t tried to pop off the rod too!
My favorite new things in the bathroom are Hand Towel Holder/Caddy and Toilet Paper Holder. They are just the perfect amount of rustic charm for my house AND… yall know how much I love the extra storage. I can’t decide on new towels for now, so I picked up some cute cheap handtowels at Walmart to get by until I can make a decision.
Steven thinks this is crazy, but I had to get the The Cutest Yellow Trashcan EVER to match in our little Lemonade bathroom, and the Perfect Yellow Valance for our window. We still have to update the faucet in our shower, but I did at least get us some nice Shower Caddies to keep everyone’s shampoos and bodywashes in.
I’m so happy to finally have a bathroom that I’m not embarrassed for people to see when they come over. I have a local artist friend painting me some cute pieces to dress it up even more, and I’ll have to update with more pictures once I have them!
Until next time,
Alicia
