We’ve been working on renovating our guest bathroom and I’ve been trying to find beauty in the progress of the bathroom and not just in the end result. After a month of starting this project, we are almost done.
I’ve been holding off sharing updates of the house because we’ve made a lot of great progress, but we’re not done. Wall art is missing, furniture isn’t done, curtains aren’t up, I haven’t curated enough stuff for our house to feel complete. So, I haven’t blogged about it. I won’t share it because it isn’t done, because I want to do the big reveal… which could realistically take years, not days or months. And while we are busy working on various other projects around the house we inevitably start a new without finishing the last. Does this sound remotely familiar? Please tell me we aren’t the only ones!
GUEST BATHROOM BEFORE
Here’s one of the few shots I have of this bathroom before we demolished it. It was original to the house, built in 1998. With white formica countertops and cabinets, and a serious lack of personality, this bathroom needed an update. And I was itching to give it one from the moment I laid eyes on it.
On Labor Day Weekend, the hubs and I had the great idea of renovating our guest bathroom. This was not on our to-do list for that weekend. Sure, we knew we were going to renovate it, we kept debating the timeline, we wanted to wrap up the small odd and end pieces of all the other projects around the house before starting a new. By the way, those odd and end projects, yeah, those tasks were on our to-do list for LDW. But you know what got done? I can tell you it wasn’t the items on our list (surprise!), instead we started demolishing our guest bathroom. We had good intentions though, we started off with an item (yes, you read that correctly, an item) on our list: change guest bathroom door and door jam. This was the last door in the house that needed to be replaced, we purchased it with the rest of the doors, it’s just been sitting in the garage and it was time to put it up. Now, you might begin to see how this story takes a turn, a turn to the entire bathroom getting striped down to the studs. How this story ends with us up all hours of the night trying to finish this bathroom almost a month later, the night before our house is filled with 50 guests, how we had to call in the reinforcements two different times (aka our dads) to help us through. Oh yes, this bathroom has been the biggest, most stressful home renovation project we’ve done to date.
We’re still not done with this guest bathroom, touch up paint needs to happen, we need to grout the shower tile, install the shower and tub faucets, install the backsplash, add the baseboards and hang wall art to make it homey, but somewhere along this comical journey I realized we needed to enjoy the process. We were (and are) in such a rush to get the bathroom done, nothing like a huge deadline hanging over your head, you know with a house full of guests and no-where to go, to lose sight of the beauty in every step of the renovation. Not just the end of it. We forgot to appreciate the fact that we were doing this ourselves, we were creating the change we wanted to see, and the bumps along the way (oh my gosh, the bumps we came across for this project) are learning experiences, help us grow and teach us how to tackle this the next time around, because you know we’re crazy enough to do this again!
So, without further ado, these are the not so pretty mid-project photos of what it looks like when you’re renovating a bathroom. And, yes, I am missing many photos where there is nothing in here, because you know, I forgot to appreciate the journey.
GUEST BATHROOM PROGRESS
This bathroom renovation has not been easy, but there is definitely still beauty in the progress of this project. Regardless of the journey or the season in your life, take a minute, slow down and try to appreciate the little things going on right now, it might help. I know it did for me and this guest bathroom!
