New (kinda) bathroom!

It's been the month of home improvement projects for us, so first up, our new bathroom!! When we moved into the house, the one and only bathroom was pretty dated. It luckily was in very good condition, everything being clean, not chipped, nothing rotting, just dated and pink and not great. We had already ditched the pink toilet and replaced the linoleum floor with tile, but the pink tub and sink, and pink tile surround still haunted us. I'm normally a fan of retro tile, especially if it's in good condition, but the pinks were slightly different and it drove me nuts. Plus the grout was old and mildewy and impossible to clean. I don't know why it took us so long, but it finally dawned on me that would could get the fixtures and tiles resurfaced! 

If you don't know about resurfacing, then you obviously aren't watching HGTV. They resurface stuff all the time on their home improvement shows. Anyways, professionals come in, tape off every damn thing in the room, and then spray this enamel on the fixtures and tile (and over the grout lines), and you basically get a shiny and clean new surface without having to rip everything out to the studs. The enamel covers the grout so no more scrubbing grout. Just a smooth swipe and it's clean. 

You can get just about any color done, but to do a custom color match, they have to send it out and it takes a few weeks. I wanted a white tub and sink, white tile horizontally on the vanity, and a light gray tile on the tub surround and vanity backsplash. They said they could mix the gray on site in front of me to approve, which we did, but the wet gray I approved in the can was SO different from the final look. Not a surprise because grays are stupid hard to get right (this one dried very blue and I'm a fan of the warmer, browner grays) but still kind of a bummer. Oh well. I still like it and it's growing on me. Ready for before and after pictures!?

Toilet/tub/tile/floor before:

Toilet/floor after (you've seen this before):

 Vanity before:

Vanity after a new mirror and gray paint on the cabinet:

Vanity after with resurfacing!

Those crazy patterned tiles on the vanity stayed, but with the solid color, the pattern is super subtle and kind of cool. Here's a close-up:

Tub, tile, and shower doors before:

Tub and tile resurfaced and no more doors after:

We went all out and got a new shower head too. (Btw, this picture was taken after my shower- I couldn't wait- and you can see the water drips and condensation. That's not the enamel dripping I swear).

The patterned tile in the shower is also still there (all tiles were in great condition so nothing had to be chipped out and replaced) but classier now in gray/blue.

And the stupid soap dish also stayed. It would have been work to take it out and replace it but this thing was COVERED in mildew and mold before the job. I swear I scrubbed the crap out of it trying to clean it but it was impossible. It's sealed now and I'm going to keep on top of cleaning it regularly so it won't be a breeding ground for bacteria.

For the details, we used ProTub Resurfacing in Signal Hill for the job and they were great. Very nice and easy to work with, we'd recommend them. The job took two days because we did two colors (they can only do one color per day) and you can't use the bathroom for 24 hours after the paint job so our bathroom was out of commission for two days. The enamel takes 30 days to cure fully so you can use the bathroom normally after 24 hours but you need to be careful and wipe things down and not put heavy stuff on the resurfaced surface for the 30 days.

Resurfacing the tub and adding an anti-slip surface to the bottom (like a sandpapery finish) was $290. The sink cost $140, and the tile on the vanity cost $315 ($45 per foot of vanity, we have a 7 foot vanity). The tile surround in the shower cost $290. So altogether, $1035 for a much cleaner and more modern bathroom. Ripping out the tile and replacing everything can go up to over 10K in labor and materials, not too mention it's pretty wasteful if your existing stuff is in good condition, so we feel like we made the right decision. We also got a new ceiling fan to combat the moisture issue in the bathroom (about $100 for the fan and free labor from our electrician neighbor who wanted to get paid with a Jeff McMillan print) and Jeff repainted the whole room and ceiling, so I think it's safe to say that this room is DONE. We're calling it a wrap.