Bathroom Occupied

My poor blog partners have been stepping in for me, because, frankly, I've been a bit occupied. For over three weeks, my mind have been focused on nothing but grout, grout color, tile pattern, and toilet and fixture selection. Remodeling when you're trying to be your own designer is exhausting, especially when I lack style or worse yet, confidence in my choices. I get easily paralyzed by all the choices out there. That's why I turn to Costco.com for some of my stuff, including this fabulous sink.

First, I have to tell you, our house is 102 years old, but the previous owners remodeled it in the early 80s and removed all the charm of homes of that era. Since we've moved in, we have been trying to restore a bit of that charm to our house, as well as modernize it along the way. Here's a peak into one of the dirtiest/cleanest room in our house. :)

Before: Ugly vanity and narrow bathtub

Before: The slippery tile and no room for dirty laundry

We were trying to empty our bathroom contents when we took this picture. That's why it's so messy. Yep, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

After: The bathroom looks so much bigger

After: A place to throw the dirty laundry in

Every remodeling project from, the kitchen to our new bathroom, involve copious amounts of subway tile. I love them, can't you tell?!

One funny thing about this bathroom remodel was that I was at the plumbing store A LOT. Seriously, almost every weekend. It took us a bit of time to shop for a toilet because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do at the plumbing store. There was a row of 30 toilets and aside from assessing them for aesthetics and water conservation, how was I supposed to pick a toilet? I wanted to sit on the porcelain throne and try out the seat...you know...for comfort, but no one else seemed to be doing it that way. When I did finally try to test out a few of them, the salespeople gave me a weird look and a few people smiled politely and looked away, as if they were interrupting me. (You know you want to test it too, people!) I finally just picked a dual flush Toto toilet (I highly recommend the dual flush) and when it arrived, I again immediately tested the seat in the privacy of my own home. Much to my relief, the seat proved durable, clean, and comfortable. Whew!

I hope you enjoy the little tour of little bathroom. Happy 4th of July to you and your family!

-Thuy