Remodel Project # 2

It's a little bit disappointing to me that I've been living in this house for six months and I'm just barely starting to redo, remodel, repaint, and renovate the things I've never liked. I feel like this should have been done in late August or early September. But in late August, I was still sorting through boxes and finding spots to hang up pictures. Then in early September, I found out I was knocked up, and morning sickness started shortly thereafter, so doing anything besides surviving was out of the question.

Now I'm starting my third trimester. The 2nd trimester energy is still going strong and I think my 3rd trimester nesting instinct is already in full force, so I seem to suddenly have boundless energy (for fixing up the house at least. Not for laundry or cooking dinner or anything as mundane as that.)

So I already showed you the repainted upstairs bathroom (the only project I managed to get done when we first moved in. Now for remodelled bathroom # 2, the kids' bathroom downstairs!

This was it before:Dark, boring, dated, and completely lacking in any personality at all.


The first step was to redo the circa 1990 vanity. Oak with antique brass fixtures is not really my thing. And the old water stain in one corner was an eyesore. So I sanded the entire thing down to the raw wood.

It was quite an undertaking, I won't lie. There was sawdust everywhere for days. I had to wear goggles and a face mask (which steamed up the goggles) and use several sanding tools and grits of sandpaper. I was worried I might jiggle the baby loose! But I was pretty proud of myself when I got the sanding done. Such a manly job for a pregnant lady and I did it all myself!


Next was wiping down the wood and priming it. I got the hardware store to tint the primer brown -- painting a dark color over white primer just means more work. Two coats of espresso brown paint came next. And finally three coats of satin-finish polyurethane to add some shine, waterproofing, and durability. THAT was the hardest step. Who know that applying polyurethane would be so hard?? You can't just slap it on like paint. It is very watery, very persnickety, and it dries almost instantly. If you put it on too thick, it gets a milky finish. If you try to go over an area you've already done once it has begun to dry (which is 20-30 seconds after you've applied it) it starts to pill up in little gummy crumbs. If this happens, you have to wait for it to dry completely, sand it down smooth, and re-apply in that area. So basically, you have to do a super thin coat, only going in one direction, leaving no thick spots or drips, and you have about 25 seconds to get each area done perfectly. Any mistakes have to be allowed to dry, sanded, and then gone over again. And hopefully you won't sand down through the paint, requiring you to repaint that spot before applying the polyurethane again. And, of course, every step from primer to polyurethane requires 6-12 hours of drying time. Yes, the process took a LOT of patience. But finally it was done.




I ordered some satin nickel knobs online and picked up a couple of coordinating pulls from the hardware store. A very inexpensive matching satin nickel faucet got rid of the chrome and gold one (gag). Finally, some accessories and towels from Target completed the look.

Voilà!




A definite improvement, don't you think?