We built our home and moved in in November 2002. It was exciting and stressful and wonderful all at the same time. One thing that was a non-negotiable for me in our master bath was having separate bathroom sinks. I wanted my own space to get ready for work in the mornings. And I really mean separate!! Not just two sinks on the same vanity with space in between. I mean TWO separate areas. I’ve decided over the years that boys are just gross. They don’t clean their sinks and they leave stuff laying out everywhere and I like things to be tidy. Well, come to find out, girls are also gross because my two daughters’ sinks are not very clean either! Between the bottles of hair and face products, and brushes, and hair ties, and headbands, and toothpaste remnants in the sink. It’s all there, whether it’s my boys or my girls. Which brings me back to the design of my bathroom! We took the space in the model floorplan and redesigned it so we could have two separate vanities and a walk in shower. In doing this, the closet had to become smaller but it was worth it to me. Over the years, the shower has leaked and the design probably was somewhat flawed, but it has functioned for us and we have been happily getting ready in our own areas. However, this year we decided it was time to take care of the leaking shower once and for all. It had been patched in the past, mold had been found in the wall, you know…the not so glamorous part of home ownership.
We got numerous bids and I started selecting tile and parts and pieces needed. We pivoted and changed and made adjustments and at the end of the day, the design is still great. I still have my separate vanity and we no longer have a giant corner tub. I bathed a lot of adorable kiddos in that tub and I will cherish all of that time I leaned over the side trying to grab slippery kiddos to get them clean. On special nights, they got to fill it all the way up and use the jacuzzi jets! I will always have those memories, but since my babies have grown up, they really don’t need me to give them a bath — so out the door it went — and it sat in our front yard for a time. Morgan took her last picture in it and eventually it was hauled off to someone nearby that wanted it. Jake, in his typical laid back fashion, swooped by and said “wait, you’re getting rid of the tub? I love that tub, I need that for my sore muscles.” Somewhere along the line, after all the discussion and people here working, he never got the memo that it was no longer in the bathroom. Love you Jakey, but sometimes you are just not tuned in!!
The bathroom looks great, but it’s still not complete and there were some challenges along the way (as is the case with most home projects). To address the problem of our smaller closet, I decided to add some custom cabinetry to the old shower space for clothing storage. We hired someone and he showed up with the most gigantic cabinet that was in one piece! With multiple neighbors, we managed to get it up the stairs and in the space. Ultimately, it didn’t fit properly, it wasn’t the look I wanted, and it just wasn’t right! We gave him a chance to fix it, but even that was too much of a task. After a huge leak occurred in my family room, and the work that had already been done being compromised, we decided to cut our losses and let him go. It was a lot of stress, a lot of tears shed, and quite a bit of money down the drain, but he was truly not a cabinet maker and we had correct the issue. So, we are still waiting for a finished cabinet, and hoping and praying it will be just what we want. Lesson learned.
All the while, we were also expanding our basement bathroom and adding a shower. In preparation for Morgan going to college, we knew we would need a place for her to come home to on college breaks that would have a little privacy and also not have to come up two flights of stairs to take a shower. Plus, as the kids get older, sharing a room is apparently less desirable!? I call this our quarantine project. It started out closing off our open floorplan playroom and making it into a bedroom for MoMo. We added a small closet and a door and she painted it perfectly. We grabbed a new bed from Ikea and some baskets to hold her clothing and it’s an adorable space for her! The bathroom is also complete and the construction went just fine. Morgan and I became buddies with, Andrew, our contractor and it’s actually been a little sad to not have him around! Apparently remodeling two bathrooms at once is a very big project! And we also discovered a cracked window on the front of our house and mold in our entry coat closet, so there you have it, A LOT was going on around here and it became my full-time job to manage all of it. I’m going to admit, I really just prefer the design part and the rest of the details are not in my wheelhouse. We all have our strengths and weaknesses I suppose.
So in the throws of my first born’s senior year, a world wide pandemic, kids schooling at home, and Brian working at home, doing a double bathroom remodel is really not advised!! I wanted to document it here because years from now, we won’t remember all the stress surrounding it, but we will be enjoying our new spaces. Our house has grown right along with us and it has served us well! We have made it work in all the situations our family has needed it for, and after all, it is our home, it is the place I brought home all 4 of my babies, and it is the place where so many memories have been made! I haven’t, even one time, had the desire to move and upgrade. I guess you can say that I’m quite attached to this place!!
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