Bathroom renovations

So here is bathroom number 2...

 

After.



Before.
...a rather sad looking toilet

Before.
...small bath with shower over and a very
dodgy hot water tap!

 

 

 

 

 









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After.
...no bath, but I LOVE the shower



Isn't is funny how exciting one gets over a new bathroom? It feels a little self-indulgent to be writing a post about it...but I suppose it is part of everyday life here, and that is what this blog is about.

So now that I've justified that to myself I'll continue!

Upstairs bathroom was just as blue as the guest room one, except it didn't have the cage like tiles or the leaf tiles on the floor. If you want to be reminded you can read and see here. We deliberated quite a while about removing the bath from this bathroom, but in the three years that we have lived in this house I haven't used the bath once....seriously!!
(OK, explanation needed - subtropical Queensland weather lends itself to showers....lots of cool showers).

So out came the bath, and then we had the room for a dream walk in wet area shower. I'm so glad that our water restrictions have been lifted, because I'm afraid that I am using up my water rations daily! Oh, what luxury now that I don't have to battle with the 'little bit more cold water' then the 'little bit more hot - that's too much!' scenario every time.
The banging on the floor screaming "turn the kitchen taps off please!" is an almost distant memory  already. (kitchen taps used to make the shower water ice cold).

The 'clever' part of this bathroom is the laundry shoot. The whole bathroom was designed around it. Basically, there is a hole in the floor that connects to the laundry room underneath. For the benefit of UK friends - a laundry is like a utility room where the washing machine, etc is stored. It's very rare to find a washing machine in a kitchen here, and almost every home has a laundry. I'll show you my laundry room soon...


bye bye dirty clothes, see you downstairs in the laundry!

 The decision about which vanity to buy was made around the fact that it had to have a right hand side cupboard for the laundry shoot...little things eh?

So now it's all over...weeks of pouring over magazines of amazing bathrooms (I actually typed 'purring' over magazines, and with some of the show bathrooms that was also quite true!!), weeks of decision making - how many different taps are there? Weeks of dust and mess....and finally....we're there.

Now I just have to pretty up bathroom number 2 a little bit. It's a small room, and the large matt white tiles can look a little clinical at times? Maybe if I find a little left in the bathroom budget (big 'pfff" from husband!) I'll get some new towels. Any other ideas greatly appreciated. x



Nice new things...including a bathroom

I have been lucky enough to have some nice new things recently. I'll start with a gorgeous candle and shiny Christmas decoration courtesy of Jenny from The Five Year Project. How exciting, first to win something, and secondly to get a parcel in the post. The candle smells divine, thank you, and I can't wait to hang that decoration - I have a feeling it will find a place to stay hanging way after Christmas.

Now onto some new bathrooms. I have waited a couple of years for these bathrooms...

Here is a before shot of the guest room en-suite - complete with some tape marks for the new stuff. It was all very colour co-ordinated, but it used to make me feel like I was in a cage with those tiles!




Before



After

  Fast forward a few weeks and we have a much simpler version. We managed to get the ideal separate bathtub and wet area shower that we wanted. Remember the small stress about the shower head and power points here? This is the result of the power point dilemma...

clever eh?

..and the simple fix for the sliding door was to insert an internal stopper (before they rebuilt the wall) to prevent the door from opening fully and crashing into the shower bits. You can tell I'm very technical about these things!

Result = one happy lady

I have taken some very blurry photos of the upstairs bathroom, but even with all the enhancing that I can throw at them, the shots are sooo bad as my camera is refusing to focus....Which brings me onto the next nice new thing- a new camera will be arriving before the weekend. Once I get to grips with it, (as it has a few more buttons and gizmos than my current model), I will share bathroom number 2.

I can also.....drum roll please.....take some photos of the new pool fence - (story here). Yes, the fence man eventually turned up. The fence is a nice new thing, but the patio/courtyard area isn't so flash. The fence man is obviously not a 'red brick paver' man! Luckily we still have his money....

Thank you/Diolch  for the comments and messages re Words. It sounds like it's a familiar bilingual situation in other ex pat Welsh homes :(
x

Yes, no, well maybe, maybe not, yes!!

I am SO in awe of you people that have renovated houses, or built from scratch. I have a whole new level of respect for you! Quite major changes were made to one of my two little bathrooms yesterday, just on the spur of the moment, and just by asking the right person the right question.

Bathroom planner said no to the shower in a particular spot, plans came back yes, project manager said maybe, but probably not, and the plumber said yes,no worries mate!! (I think it's really funny that they call me mate!) I'm keeping everything crossed that the plumber is right.

How do you manage all those "where do you want this power switch?" type questions? They may sound like small trivial things, but hey, I don't want to be staring at a double power socket at eye level. By the way, clever electrician is going to locate it in the top drawer of the vanity - ingenious?! So if I wasn't at home yesterday my shower would have been in a different spot, I would have had two light switches almost next to each other and a double power socket slap bang in the middle of nowhere! Scary...

So with my mind buzzing after a day at work, the whole house 'tasting' of dust, a few cracks and bulges in walls (how did that happen?), my 'to-do' list for tomorrow completed, I'm off to bed. 

Nos da x