progress report, part I.

so, we've now lived in our house for six full months (as of friday), and even though i complain to john that we haven't done enough, while walking around at fuegerfest, i was reminded that some parts of this house have come a loooong way since closing day. i know i've promised to share the progress, but, like most blog promises i make, i haven't. but anyway, i'm on an adrenaline rush from finishing jack's thursday (aka, actual) birthday cake (yes, i believe birthdays should be celebrated all week, with different cakes each day!) and our halloween costumes, so here i am.

without further ado, i present our new and improved main floor bathroom.

here are some of the icky before's, from the day of our home inspection:

oh, lordy, where do we start?!? yes, all walls were painted a bright purple, as well as the ceiling. it was like a crazy cave. the wainscoting on the left wall had never been painted; it was just primed. the blind was one of those cheap and horribly dusty white ones. the woodwork was clashing with all the white wainscoting, and the fixtures were all mismatched, cheap faux-stainless steel.

so, we painted the ceiling white, and the walls a very soft green (olympic's milkweed). we primed and painted all the trim, wainscoting and doors, and changed all the fixtures to a brushed stainless steel.

i'm a simple gal, and one of my favorite things about our "new" bathroom are the hooks on the back of the door. seriously, these hooks improved my life exponentially. really.

ok, but now let's share two very interesting things about the bathroom makeover. (1) JOHN picked out the mirror. when we removed that cheap mirror that used to sit above the vanity, we discovered a large hole in the wall behind it, presumably from a former built-in medicine cabinet. while we will repair that situation at some point down the line, for the present time, we needed a large mirror to cover that hole. i was striking out everywhere (hobby lobby, pier one, kohl's, menard's...) i had picked out a white mirror from lowe's, but it looked cheap next to the vanity, and i was bound and determined to find a better solution than the original mirror. john picked out this mirror because he thought it might tie in with the bamboo shade... and HE WAS SO RIGHT. it looks really nice. maybe there is an interior decorator buried underneath all that "they all look the same" and "who cares if it matches" facade!

and now for the second thing: I INSTALLED THE NEW LIGHT FIXTURE. as in, i turned off the circuit breaker, hooked up the wires and messed with ELECTRICITY. just call me ben franklin!
the new one is a brushed stainless steel with seeded glass lightbulb covers. i really like it, and more importantly, I DIDN'T KILL ANYONE OR HARM MYSELF WHILE INSTALLING. (take that, guy from lowe's who suggested i wait until my husband got home to try installing... when john got home from his hunting trip to south dakota, he was very impressed!)

of course the room isn't completely finished. we need to add something to the blank space above the toilet... and eventually we'll rip the whole thing apart to add a shower in this bathroom, but for now, i can live with the new and improved version of our bathroom!