New Floor and Baseboards + Bathroom Updates

Before I tell you about the progress we are making in the basement bathroom renovation {I am determined to get it done this year!}, I’m excited to announce I’m not a contributing write for Houzz Product Picks! Each month I get to come up with new ideas and share my favorite items with you. My first ideabook is titled “Celebrating a Modern Holiday Season” and showcases some lovely ways you can bring warm modern style to your home this time of year.

Come see the ideabook here on Houzz. It’s also listed on the sidebar if you want to find it later. I’ve always wanted to do more style picks for you and show items I love and now this is my chance. I’m really excited about partnering with Houzz and will get to create an ideabook each month.

 

Also today I wanted to show you the new floor and baseboards in our basement bathroom. You remember the room right? It’s the forever renovation project? Yea, that one. Last we were there I had painted the space and put up a white wood distressed plank wall. Next up was time to put in the “furniture.” OK, it’s not really furniture for a bathroom, but it was the toilet and vanity. Since we had all the painting and plank wall done, we moved in the goods to see how things would look. {This pic was taken before the plank wall, but same idea}.

The vanity is from Ikea and the toilet we bought a long time ago (more than a year) in preparation for this project. See how slow we are! But, of course things were not as rosey as they seem in this photo, as if a dark, unfinished bathroom could look like we were moving along, sadly the toilet tank did not fit.

By about half an inch.

I guess our fabulous plank wall was the culprit. Apparently we either didn’t measure the rough in size correctly or it changed when we put up the new wall. Sigh.

Turns out we needed a toilet with a 10 inch rough in, not 12 inch. Rough in is the measurement from the bolts on the floor to the wall behind the toilet. 99.9% of the toilets they sell in stores are 12 inch rough ins. We only found 1 off the shelf at Lowes, which ended up being double the price of this original one we bought. Grrr. But thankfully we didn’t have to special order.

Anyone want to buy a new unused toilet? Emphasis on unused!

So we rushed around to get the new toilet to keep this train a-moving and in the meantime decided to put in the floor. We found a score at the local flooring shop on a remnant of roll-out vinyl for only $39. We used this stuff in my mom’s surprise bathroom makeover and Dan had used it in his previous apartment. It is a product that has no memory, nor does it need any adhesive to be secured to the sub floor, you just roll it out. The baseboards are what hold it in.

After some one armed pushups, crafty maneuvering, and precise measuring, Dan had the floor in place and was cutting up the baseboards to fit. We got primed pine and painted them right there in the basement. I gave each of them a quick coat of the same paint we used on the plank wall and waited overnight for them to dry.

We used the nail gun with the air compressor for this job. I still have to learn how to hook it up. I do’t know how to do that yet, all I can do is fire it *guilty* I let hubs do all the technical stuff with the air compressor. Pretty much I just stand around and take pictures like this one 🙂 The hoodie is a must-wear for DIY projects.

The baseboards went in pretty quickly. Since we keep all our tools, my crafts and furniture project items in the basement, I organized some stuff while I waited for him to finish. And then we had a floor! Now it really looks like a room.

Before I give you some close ups, here is what we were looking at waaaaaay before this point. This was the corner where the toilet is.

And here is that corner today, with new walls, paint, the plank accent wall, new flooring (not to mention the DIRcore sub floor) and new real baseboards.

The corner by the window where we plan to put shelves got a small patch of flooring because the size didn’t fit into that far corner. But this is fine since we plan to put shelves there anyway and it will get covered up. Can you see the seam in the floor?

And now we can really move things along and get the vanity installed – even with Ikea plumbing (help?). As you can see above I already put the vanity together, next we have to figure out the sink attachment and how to put the faucet on. Oh and we are waiting on light to come in any day, so then we will work on the mirror, and art and all that decorating stuff. Because this is about decor adventures after all!

Come back tomorrow and see my Gingerbread M&Ms craft and keep up with me on Instagram at tonight’s Home Depot Do It Herself workshop. I get to make a monogrammed wreath. Have you started holiday decorating at your place? I’m still deciding on an accent wall for the downstairs, thanks for all your tips!

Here is where things are with the bathroom renovation.

• Gut the whole space More on that here
• Fix the foundation wall More on that here
• Level the floor More on that here
• Install the subfloor More on that here
• Select paint and prime and paint the room More on that here
• Install lights
• Get plank wood, cut it, paint it, and install it More on that here
• Install the floor
• Figure out how to create a floor for the shower and install it
• Move plumbing in shower
• Tile the shower
• Install baseboards
• Install toilet
• Install vanity, sink and faucet
• Find and hang lights, mirror, art?
• Install the wall shelves
• Accessorize and decorate