One Almost Finished Room

First a warning. I know I have mentioned evil insulation but I realise I have been remiss in not showing it. At first I thought it was better to keep this sight from you, dear reader, so as not to damage your sensibilities but how can you be truly warned if you aren’t able to recognize this evil were you ever approached by it?
There I am going to take a risk and reveal it to you. Here it is.


It looks harmless doesn’t it? That’s what it wants you to think. Don’t be fooled.

My duty done, let’s trot up to the guest bathroom upstairs as big things are happening there.


This is the sink unit we chose for the bathroom. Because a lot of the older beach-close homes have small bathrooms compared with those in newer homes in lower priced areas we wanted a small but functional sink. Since this is a guest bath the sink didn’t need to be large (particularly not deep) and it would make the room feel more spacious.
This is an off the shelf item from Lowes and was under $100 if I remember right. The doors are wood while the sides are particleboard. It is more red than ours is because we sanded the doors and then stained it with Mission Oak. This makes it a bit of a mismatch but that was the look we were looking for.
This unit wasn’t necessarily our first choice but it worked in the room and was a reasonable price since we are on a budget. We determined that in the context of the room it would work well because, to us, it had more of an individual look than some off the shelf items and wouldn’t look like a price compromise. So unless we had bought some sort of antique (which we could not afford) this unit works better than something more expensive.


The barely visible taps (faucet) is from Delta (bought at Lowes) and was chosen for its small size and in bronze to match the bathtub fixtures. It was around $70. The small stand on the right is from Pier 1 Imports and was on sale for $99. We shopped a lot for this unit, as it had to fit beside the sink and generally fit in with the ‘Grass Shack’ look. This is mainly for guests so they have somewhere for their toiletries when they come to stay. A larger sink unit would have made this stand redundant but those units didn’t fit with the theme.


Mr. Remodel wanted a tub with a higher back but that style didn’t come in the 54” size. The distance between the walls there was about 60”, which would go down once the tile was installed. He looked at putting the bath in at an angle but it always looked like we were trying to squeeze in a tub where it didn’t really fit. It made the room look awkward and there were some issues of practically having to climb into the toilet to get in and out of the bath or tripping over the toilet as soon as you walk in the room.
So we decided on the 54”, which is big enough for us, and it doesn’t look tight. To the left behind the tub you can see the pig, the little unit that runs the air bubble system.
The toilet is a one-piece unit, T0213, from Tecsun Plumbing (bought from Lowes), which has a good but quiet flush. We also liked its low profile, mostly for the downstairs bath design, but for upstairs too so it didn’t take up any more space than required. Plus it cost around $140, which was a good deal. We had to order it and took about two weeks to arrive.
After a week we noticed there was a tear in the bowl material. We called the company and sent them a picture because they had never heard of such a thing before. Without quibbling, the company came out with a new unit which they installed since we had already paid Mr. Plumber to install the first one.


A Treviso towel rack from Price Pfister via Lowes. We didn’t need it to be a strong design statement, what was important was for it to be bronze to match the other fixtures. This is where the Tuscan look worked for us. There are a lot of bronze-look accessories and fixtures out there.


This shows the painted ceiling prior to the holes being cut for the lights.




Holes were cut into the drywall using a template that came with the canned lights we bought. Even though there is no shower, the lights had to be suitable for a wet area.


We couldn’t find a brown double switch cover so we bought a plain wooden one which Mr. R stained. You can buy dark brown switches but we quite like the two tone look and thought it might make them easier for guests to see.
The plain pole to the left is a clothes closet pole cut length-wise to frame the doorway, which could not go on until after the tile was done. The poles will be painted a dark brown.

To be continued…