It's no secret that Wendy and I have been more or less swamped at work over the last few months. Sadly, the more time we need to spend at our day job, the less time we have to commit to our various renovation projects. This sad fact shows us that we have somehow, and quite disgustingly, turned into adults with actual responsibilities. Blurg!

At the same time, we didn't want our end goal in renovation to suffer too drastically while our focus is on our work, so we've done the unthinkable (for us) and hired a contractor to renovate our bathroom. Gasp, the horror!!

Well, the contractor and his guys have been working through our project for the last several weeks and are nearing completion. As much as it pains us to talk about someone else doing work in our house on our blog, we need to come clean and let you all see the progress. It's about time we share the work they've done and air our dirty little DIY secret. While we could have passed off their work as our own, acting like we've been on the renovation fast track, that just didn't seem right.

They started the whole job about four weeks ago with the massive stage of demo. Due to budget and time frame it was a complete gut and rebuild. Everything came down.

Starting from a clean slate, the crew put the whole bathroom together very quickly. From plumbing to electrical, the trades were in and out of our house so quick (about four days) that I didn't even have a chance to really even observe the progress. What's their deal? Don't these guys take photos of every little detail so they can blog about it? I just don't get it.

At one point I was working from and and was able to be a bit of a creeper and sneak a photos or two.

The next phase started the most difficult part. Wendy and I were both under serious deadlines at the office, but the renovation had to go on. We didn't have much time to make a lot of design decisions, but we showed the contractor our "Bathrooms We're Drooling Over" pin board on Pinterest and he felt this was enough to go on. We were really nervous about the process and handing so much control over, but we risked losing the contractor and then having to live with a partially destroyed bathroom for who knows how long. With our trust, the contractor then proceeded to make the majority of the bathroom design choices, from fixtures to flooring and everything between. Talk about a leap of faith.

We would come home each night and check on the progress. It was like unwrapping a present each and every day. Sometimes it was a present you didn't really want, but needed, like underwear.

The bathroom flew together and eventually got to where it is today, all the while we were trusting in the judgement of the contractor. He promised top notch tile work, modern fixtures, and an efficient use of space. For some reason he just kept telling me that "Wendy will like the bathroom, but you will LOVE it!" It made us feel a little weird, but now that we have the nearly finished project, I see where he was going. Behold!

It may not be 100% what we would have chosen for our house. I mean, it's not particularly Victorian, historic, or anything like anything else in our house, but it is a working bathroom. We told him we wanted a double vanity, and he gave us three sinks plus an ADA sink.  We didn't specifically mention urinal-toilets, but now we have three. And our shower enclosure, well, he took it in a bit of a different direction giving us toilet stalls. I'm not sure where the shower control valves are, or how this will keep water in during the shower, but our contractor assures us it will all be perfect once he's finished.

I fear we've taken a wrong step in our renovation with our hiring of this contractor. What do you think? Were we wrong to put so much trust in him, or is he doing us a solid with a cutting edge bathroom? I mean, he did include that waste basket and one of the urinal-toilets free of charge.

Comments 27

Comments

Jen
4/1/2013 at 11:12 AM
April Fools! Very funny, you two :-) When I saw the title, I was hoping this would be an April Fools post!
Alex
4/3/2013
Hah, too funny that the title alone was enough to tip you off. You know us well. :-)
Tkraft Art & Interiors
4/1/2013 at 11:14 AM
Laughing my heart out... April fools!
Alex
4/3/2013
Glad you enjoyed.
Deeply envious of you hiring magical elves who complete projects while you’re away… And so practical. Especially if at some point you decide to run a boy’s boarding school.
Alex
4/3/2013
I'm not sure what's less likely, the idea we'd hire something like the bathroom out or that we'd open a boy's boarding school. Both are equally far fetched.
4/1/2013 at 11:51 AM
I can't even tell you how many April Fools posts I've read today, but this one got me for just a second :) I think I was just really excited and hopeful that you all would finally fix up that bathroom!!
Alex
4/3/2013
So glad that we had you fooled monetarily. I think you and Wendy are in the same boat, you both just want the bathroom fixed up!
Dean
4/1/2013 at 12:26 PM
Happy 4/1 to you too!
Alex
4/3/2013
Thanks, Dean!
Kristin Saveland Buchanan
4/1/2013 at 2:20 PM
Looks fab....perfect for a historic home. And he really made that room more spacious.....from the before photos nobody would have guessed you'd get 3-4 bathroom stalls in there!
Alex
4/3/2013
I know exactly what you mean! Had we known, we probably would have added a lap pool in there too.
Patrick
4/1/2013 at 5:58 PM
Gee, I'd think your contractor has pulled an April's Fools one on you guys. You know, with the extra space 'n' all. I do like the fact that you as well as the pets get their own toilets now.

:)
Alex
4/3/2013
I couldn't tell why Mel and Lulu were so excited about the new bathroom, but this totally explains it. Now we each have our own designated troughs.
Wendy
4/3/2013
Lulu is particularly thrilled that she no longer has to go outside to "go potty"! :-)
Christine Barbieri Sims
4/1/2013 at 9:15 PM
You'll be happy to know I didn't fall for it.
Alex
4/3/2013
Glad you know us well enough to know better. :-)
4/1/2013 at 10:08 PM
You had us going for a minute! Happy 4/1! Then again, sometimes we feel like every day is fool's day in our lives!
Wendy
4/3/2013
Wow, I'm impressed that we actually had you guys going for a minute. See, there's nothing wrong with taking your time on a bathroom reno, as long as it doesn't end up with unintended urinals! :-)
JC
4/2/2013 at 12:32 AM
(insert expletives here)

You got me. Up until I read that you were letting him pick the fixtures, I was like: no way, and I scrolled down and saw the last photo.

You got me though. I should have known.
Alex
4/3/2013
Hah! You're right, we're way too anal to give up that much control, even if we had gone off the deep end and hired someone.
4/2/2013 at 12:06 PM
I am glad I wasn't the only blogger that played an April Fool's joke. I was starting to feel badly for tricking my readers!
Alex
4/3/2013
I think it's one of those Internet rights of passage that you have to do at one point or another.
Tonya
4/2/2013 at 3:35 PM
Oh, you are funny. I almost started crying I felt so sorry for you guys.
Alex
4/3/2013
Occasionally I'll have dreams that we hired someone and the project is done, and when I wake up I'm so upset that I let it happen, then I realize it was all a dream. But for a moment, I have that profound sense of sadness.
4/2/2013 at 3:45 PM
Reading this on April 2, you totally got me. Ahahaha!
Alex
4/3/2013
We were too busy for a post on the 2nd, so I was wondering if we'd get one or two a day late. Happy to see we were successful. :-)
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