New Year's Renovations

It seems like instead of resolutions, we make renovations for new year's. Last year was the big kitchen remodel of '13. Since we never ended up re-doing the floor in there, we finally decided it was time. We had to put down area rugs since the new counters weren't in the exact same places as the old ones, and the only area rugs we had were brown. The kitchen is already a small room, and it only has windows at one end, so putting dark rugs down makes it seem even darker. So sometime next week we will be switching it out for big, bright tiles.

And since we were going to have the tile guy out here already, we decided to go ahead and re-do our first floor powder room. One of the lovely things about this old house of ours is how many pink bathrooms we have…THREE! The master bathroom is pink, the upstairs hall bathroom is pink and our powder room is pink, too. With maroon and brown accents. Observe...

Isn't that special? Here are some closer looks...

True confession time: I love this sink. If we could somehow re-enamel it and re-chrome the fixtures, I would keep it. While those are actual things you can do, they were not very cost effective, and so a new, similarly shaped sink and faucet was purchased. But it isn't as cool.

This is the medicine cabinet. This also doesn't offend me, as it is very true to the style of the house. However, the edges are kind of yucky, especially at the bottom. The back of the mirror is metal, and after years and years it's gotten rusty. We are replacing it with a simple oval mirror with a beveled edge, like this one. Here is a closer look at the lights...

These lights wouldn't bother me so much if the crystals were original. When we moved in there were more missing then not, and we couldn't find a good match, so we ended up replacing them entirely. I have the old ones in a bag because they match another old chandelier we have. Also, they are incredibly dim. The replacements will look something like this. 

And finally, the pièce de résistance, the toilet. 

In all of it's maroon glory! First of all, you can't ever really tell if it's clean. It's maroon, and it's located in a dimly lit room. Secondly, it's incredibly low to the floor. Good for the kids, annoying for the adults. Thirdly, like all of the old toilets in this house, it's got a big water tank and takes forever to refill. Since this is the only toilet on the main floor, it gets a lot of use. The kids aren't patient enough to wait for the tank to refill to flush, so it can often be found with wads of toilet paper floating around in there. It's getting replaced with a standard issue white toilet. Easier to clean (or at least know it's clean), higher and with more efficient water usage. Oh, and that pink, brown, beige and maroon floor tile? OUT! It's getting replaced with black and white hexagon tiles on the floor. The pink and brown wall tile? OUT! Replaced with white subway tile with a black bull nose. Oh, and we'll have to paint the top parts of the walls. Right now they are a light beige, but they will be painted a very light gray, eventually.I'm hopeful that this project won't take too, too long. I mean, the room is only 4 feet wide by 8 feet deep. The demo might be a bit dodgy, but our tile man works quickly, so hopefully I'll have new photos to share next week!