Guest Bathroom

Remember how I mentioned that when I see something in our home that I want to change that it needs to be instantaneous? Well, sometimes my OCD kicks in and my Type-A personality revs into overdrive without thinking. This is basically how and why our guest bathroom was tackled in one day. Crazy right? Well, how about if I tell you that it was actually only 18 hours before my in-laws were supposed arrive. from out of town. to stay with us. for the weekend. Okay, now do you see how crazy I am?

Well, let me preface this by saying that the shower, vanity, toilet, mirror and floor stayed the same.

The bones of the room was in good condition, but a few items would irritate me everytime I looked at them. It was fully functional, but just wasn't my taste.

Enter: towel bar and toilet paper holder

BEFORE

Taken during our walk-through

The towel bar was located over the toilet, which meant that when you washed your hands you had to walk a few steps (dripping your wet hands all over the bathroom) to get to the towel. The TP holder was a different problem. It was the first thing that you saw when you walked up the stairs. Much to Mamasita's dismay, I have a tendency to leave the door open to the bathroom. When it's not in use! C'mon give me a little more credit than that...anyways, when we were growing up, my sisters and I were notorious for leaving our bathroom door open when we left it. Which wouldn't bother most people except for my extremely sweet, yet OCD mother. (I wonder if that's where I get it from?) I swear it was her biggest pet peeve (or maybe it was leaving dishes and pop cans in the sink) and we never failed to do it constantly. So now that I have my own home, she will still close the door everytime she stops by and give me "the look". You know the look. The one that says "you know better than this". Yeah, I am currently working on perfecting my look on my husband. It is good, but not as effective as Mamasita's look. Anyways, the TP holder had to go. Did I mention that both fixtures were the ceramic kind? Yeah they weren't anything close to the brushed nickel hardware that I was dreaming of. So they had to go. Immediately. Like before my in-laws arrived.

Why I decided to start demo-ing these fixtures around 10 PM (when Lowe's and Home Depot are closed! "Smooth move, Ex-lax" 10 points for knowing that movie reference), I have no idea. I got home from some activity and was literally itching to get started. I remember thinking that the cermic pieces must simply be covering a metal bracket like our TP holder in the powder room downstairs. So, out comes the hammer and the screwdriver. Tap, tappy, tap...next thing I know there is a HUGE hole in the wall above my toilet. WHAT THE...sweet molasses?! At this point there was no turning back. I figured there was one hole, why not add 2 more? So I continued to remove the other side of the towel holder and then the TP holder. By now it is close to midnight and Home Depot doesn't open until 6 AM. So I formulated my plan of attack for the next day and hit the sack. Did I mention that I have visions of grandeur for this room? Like new shower curtain, hooks, paint, light fixture, vanity pulls. Yeah, well I also didn't have any of it previously purchased. Okay, now I am treading on insane. What was I thinking?! I was thinking that I cannot live one more day with this bathroom in this state, let alone have my in-laws see it this way. Now my in-laws are some of the sweetest people ever so the bathroom would never have bothered them if it stayed that way for 100 years, but it bothered me. So at the crack of dawn I leaped out of bed to head to HD. An hour later, I headed home With Materials in hand and a rough plan for tackling these holes. My mind was on warp speed. I had 2 hours to get these holes filled so that when I ran out to get a shower curtain (and pick out paint to match), the light and the vanity hardware, they would be dry enough to sand down for the first coat of paint. Okay, at this point my in-laws, let's call them B & K, were set to arrive "around 3". Yeah, i know you are saying "Are you crazy?! You don't know when they are arriving?" or maybe you are saying "REALLY? You HAD to start the project the NIGHT before they were arriving?" YES. I. DID.

Anyways, after a Super Market Sweep-esque shopping trip, I returned home to paint. By this time, I had enlisted my parents to help. Please keep in mind that Mamasita was recovering from surgery on her shoulder and had her arm in a sling. But she was a trooper. She climbed a step ladder in our tub to do the "cutting in" portion. (I know it was not safe at all! for goodness sake, the woman was in a sling! I was trying hard not to think of her falling. Egads!) So by the time B & K arrived, we were sweat-dripping, sling-toating, back-aching, yet extremely proud of what we had accomplished. You may be asking yourself, "uhm, where was  Ben?" yeah, he helped where he could but it was tough enough having 3 adults in that bathroom, so he took care of cleaning /prepping the rest of the house for their arrival.

AFTER

Since their visit, I have made some minor tweaks by adding art taken by my sister in law, Rachel , a towel rod behind the door, free-standing TP holder, and some accessories to the counter.
Who would have thought that a candle and some rice would work as a decorative accent? Not I! I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love.

Have you ever tackled a project on a crazy timeline? Did you make it? Would you do it again?