Master (shower) bathroom upgrade

Since our house is over 20 years old and we are on a well we decided it was time to upgrade the toilet in the Master (shower) bathroom to a low water usage model.  While we were at it we decided to remove the carpeting (it still looked good, but I was so happy to see it go).

A while ago we decided to paint the lower half of our Master (shower) bathroom walls.  At that time I did a Faux finish – one color of solid blue painted and then a darker color sponged over the top.

 

 

Knowing that the new toilet had a smaller tank it became obvious that I would have to repaint the wall before the new toilet was installed.

 

So, instead of going to the work of trying to match colors and sponge marks I decided to just paint the walls and bottom molding a solid blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what we changed and what supplies we used.  All items were bought at Home Depot.

Note:  We paid for all the items and supplies we used for this project.

a) Paint (part of a gallon) –  Behr, Fragrant Breeze (semi-gloss, pastel base) – This paint was bought a while ago and it was also used above the Kitchen cabinets.

b) Toilet – American Standard H2Option Dual Flush (1.0 / 1.6 GPF), round front, Bone color.  **The wax ring and toilet seat have to be bought separately.

The builder of our house didn’t believe in large bathrooms so we had to buy a round front toilet for each bathroom (and our shower and bathtub are Bone colored so white wouldn’t work either).  This is the second one of these toilets that we special ordered through Home Depot – the first one was in February 2014 (for the other bathroom) and it works great.

This toilet was definitely not the cheapest one we could have found, but we were looking for one that would meet our needs: Round front, Bone colored and low water usage

c) Flooring – TrafficMaster Allure 12 in x 36 in Sedona Vinyl Tile Flooring (24 sq ft / case)

Since we have ‘smallish’ bathrooms we were able to do both bathroom floors with two cases of this flooring.  Which is good since the first bathroom took one extra piece than one case.  (Really!?!)

d)  I also repainted the bottom molding with the same blue color so they matched the walls.

I am happy how it turned out.  What home remodel project have you worked on lately?

And as a side note, I went  through Southwest Rapid Rewards so I will get points for the dollars we spent at Home Depot.  As an extra bonus I bought Home Depot gift cards at a local Grocery Store so the cost got me extra reward points there also.  Besides that I used our credit card (which gives us a percentage back) to buy the gift cards.  I think that was a triple play!

Later – H

 

 

Front bathroom remodel – part one

** Note:  This post was NOT sponsored by any person or company and all opinions are mine. **

We have a 20+ year old house.  A while ago we added wainscoting to the front bathroom (and updated the faucet), but hadn’t made any other major changes in years.

Original 1980s toilet

Well, between the current drought in Northern Nevada and the toilet having flushing issues we decide it was time to replace the original toilet (that used about 3 gallons per flush) with a new toilet.

You would think this was a pretty easy change, but we had to do some investigating to find a toilet that would fit our requirements:

a) Round bowl – Even though our home was a custom home built on spec (built between customer orders to keep the crew busy) the builder did not believe in large bathrooms.  I know of a few houses in our area that were built by him – I am wondering if we all have small bathrooms (the floor in this bathroom is about 6′ by 6′).

b) Bone colored – Our bathtub and sink are bone colored so a white toilet just wouldn’t look good.

We finally figured out we could order a round bowl, bone colored toilet (that had good reviews) online at Home Depot.  We had the toilet delivered to the local Home Depot store so we could verify that it was in perfect shape before we brought it home.  This is since we had tried to order a round bowl, bone colored toilet from a BIG online place about a year ago.  We had that one delivered to the husband’s work (luckily) since it was shattered when they took it off the deliver truck (it was packaged in only the vendor’s original boxes).  The one delivered to Home Depot was in perfect condition and the original boxes were actually packed inside another box with extra packing!

So, we bought an American Standard H2Option Siphonic 2-piece, dual flush (0.8 GPF or 1.2 GPF) toilet, bone color and round front

Model 2889.216.021

It had 192 reviews and was $256.01 plus tax.

The handy husband installed it about two weeks ago and it works great!  It is really quiet when it flushes and since it uses less water per flush you don’t get burned if someone flushes while you are in the shower (a bonus we didn’t even think about).

New American Standard Dual Flush toilet

The new toilet tank is physically smaller than the original tank.  We kept the tank of the old toilet since I want try use it in the garden, but the husband smashed the old bowl (took one swing) and the pieces were put in the bottom of a tall planter outside.

In part two of the front bathroom remodel I will show the new flooring we also put in.  (If we were going to the work of replacing the toilet we decided why not change the original vinyl out at the same time.)

What remodeling projects have you taken on lately?

Later – H

** Note:  This post was NOT sponsored by any person or company and all opinions are mine. **