when i left home, i had this vague idea in my head that my vacation would consist of sipping fresh, home-brewed mint tea on my parent’s porch, watching my nephew toddle around being cute and maybe getting some good reading done (me reading, not my nephew). however, when i arrived at my parent’s house, i had a project brainstorm! here’s a little background. a few years ago, my parents moved from their home in texas to a farmette in (very) rural kentucky. there, they work for a non-profit organization that builds and repairs homes for people who can’t afford them (correct me if i got this wrong, mom). needless to say, this organization puts most of its funds toward helping other people. they also own the house my parents live in. what this all boils down to is that since they’re working on other people’s houses all day, and since the things in their house generally work fine and don’t neeeeed to be replaced/updated, there hasn’t been a huge effort on their part to do unnecessary cosmetic improvements on their own home. they’ve painted a few rooms and hung some lovely paintings and added some more cabinets and counter-space to the kitchen, and added a very nice closet to their master bedroom, but that’s pretty much it. my dad almost always ends up doing some sort of “project” whenever he comes to visit me, so i thought i’d return the favor and re-do their small bathroom. here’s a before picture:
this picture doesn’t quite do it justice, really. can you see the sponge painting? from this far away, the morning glories look almost cheerful, but in reality, since the door was also covered in morning glories, when the door closed, it got rather claustrophobic. you can also see in the mirror’s reflection that the cabinet door on the back wall was partially open. mom said that she didn’t like to keep the doors closed all the time because she stores all of her cleaning supplies in there and the fumes got worse if the doors closed it all up. you also can’t see the bare bulb light “fixture” in the ceiling, but if you look closely, you can see the string they used for a light pull. when i took this “before” picture, i had also already removed mom’s ironing board that she stored on the wall beside the toilet when not in use. now, there is nothing really wrong with this bathroom. everything works. but i thought it could use a little updating.
so…. we bought some paint (matched to one of my mom’s arucana eggshells)
and we bought a light fixture, new faucet, new toilet seat, new flooring (the easy sticky vinyl tiles that sort of look like slate) and … a few other little things. as much as i wanted to do everything on my own as a gift to my parents, dad did have to help with a few things — replacing the light fixture, measuring where to lay the first tile, replacing the wax seal under the toilet, cutting a few of the trickier tiles, painting some of the more fiddly bits of trim (because he can do it a little more perfectly than i can) and helping with a special woodworking project. see, i decided that there were more attractive ways to vent a cabinet than leaving the doors open, so i sketched a few designs and had mom pick her favorite. then, dad drilled and jigsaw cut the doors according to my pattern (i did help with the project, but even dad was struggling with some of his power tools (his best tools were at the worksite), and i didn’t want to mess the doors up, so i just provided auxillary support where i could). All in all, we spent a little over two days (with generous breaks) and a little over $125 (which i helped to finance) and ended up with a bathroom that looks like this:
ahhhhh….. i love a good feeling of accomplishment.
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