A little duct tape can fix it.
Here it is friends! My first big One Room Challenge is complete and we survived with minimal damage... kidding.
I've watched home renovation shows since childhood. You know, where everything goes smoothly and they cut to commercial. Three minutes later they are lighting candles and setting out croissants and recapping how easy it was to install that sink and light fixture.... Well, that's NOT how this project went, but, we learned a ton of tips and lessons along the way and that's what it's all about right?
So, let's begin with the nasty, ugly beginning. (Cue the horror film music) THE BEFORE of it all... We got our home with a few "as is" features that I convinced my husband we could tackle and it would be soooo simple. The guest bathroom being one of the biggest eyesores.
There is so much NO going on here. First, why did they use wood glue to repair broken cultured marble? Second, why did you need a million hooks on the broken area? Third, was someone murdered here? Since this isn't exactly "cozy" for our guests we got some hammers and saws and quickly got to work. The entire tub and the wall surrounds were cultured marble that we removed (with the help of our handyman brother-in-law) and stripped down to the studs.
There are hundreds of tutorials for how to remove and replace a bathtub on the internet so I will link the ones I sourced at the bottom. I am no Chip Gaines so I will leave the step-by-step to the pros. What I WILL share are the crazy shenanigans that took place while doing this "very easy DIY".... (my husband is probably eye rolling me as we speak)
Once the tub area was cleaned and gutted we installed a new tub and toilet.
**Fun Fact: Most homes have a 60 inch opening for an average tub.... Our opening was 59 inches. Ugh. You can imagine the fun of trying to fit a tub into a too-small space. It had to be notched out and wedged in. I'm sure if a hurricane comes the tub will still be there.
Cement board was installed to give the new tile I had selected a water resistant backing. I did an extra layer of protection with RedGuard to make it completely waterproof. (It looks like melted cherry taffy... if someone invented a scented version they could be millionaires.)
Next came the fun part.... deciding which pattern to do the tiles in. (Bigger eye roll this time) Tiling isn't something I had on my resume before now, so simple with room for error is what I chose. (a.k.a. classic subway pattern) Using a tile cutter and lots of team work we got that tub surround tiled in no time. We broke up the tasks to get more accomplished quickly. He did all the cutting in the garage and I gave him "marked" tiles and added thin set and got them on the wall. We had plenty of thin set mixed up in a plastic tub and I used a marker to make dots where I needed the next one cut.
PSA: America, tile spacers are little hell spawns that will haunt my dreams forever. I'd rather catch my toe on a bed frame than have to deal with those lil suckers again. It's like they were jumping out of their spaces just to mess with me.
We finally got all of the tiles cut and in place with thin set. I taped the end caps in place because there was nothing below them to keep them from slipping down the wall throughout the night. (We keep it classy, haha) Once everything was in place we allowed it to cure overnight before we added the grout.
Speaking of grout.... this is what we chose and IT. WAS. SCARY. It was definitely black and I'll be honest, I second guessed myself.
Sooooo, there was no turning back at this point and it seemed like I would never get all that grout off. After A LOT of elbow grease and fresh water buckets, I managed to get the black soot off the walls. It was really coming together, y'all!!
I finally chose a paint color after about 3 visits and 2 color corrections at Home Depot and this room was ready for the finishing touches! I settled on Behr Graphic Charcoal and got this space ready for incoming guest.
Since we plan on having multiple people stay at a time a single towel bar didn't make any sense. This was a simple DIY from hooks found at the hardware store, spray painted matte black and screwed to a stained and sealed 1x4. Easy, breezy.
The same process was done for this hand towel hook. I was luck enough to have some scrap wood and only spent $0.87 on the hook. Whoop whoop!!
I still have some minor updates to complete but for now our guests have a cozy place to wash the sand off after a day at the beach! La Casa de Kelley is open for business!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
XOXO,
Christina Kelley