The Culmination

June 4th was the day we tore up the bathroom floor after seeing a leak (turns out there were two leaks). Today, I took a shower in the new, beautiful bathroom.

For those of you new here, we tore out the single stall shower, the garden tub, the double vanity, some of the floor and a good amount of the walls. We couldn't afford to hire people, so, with all of our determination we figured it out. A few minor tasks remain (trim, vent fan, mirror, etc), but here's some reflection on this huge project.

Things we didn't do:

We didn't get divorced.
We didn't go into couples counseling.
We didn't hire a contractor (though the number of one I chose remained close).
We didn't go crazy with extravagance, buying every single thing we liked.
We didn't agree some of the time, with some areas more intense than others.
We didn't go over budget because we did everything as we could afford it (with a fudge here and there).
We didn't do it alone, either.


Things we did do:

We worked together very well most of the time.
We worked separately, too.
We asked for help from Brother Troy (an unbelievable wealth of knowledge), and he was awesome.
We loved most of the hours working in small spaces, cutting tile, doing drywall, and fixing mistakes.
We took our time and still tried to hurry.
We had lots of support and prayers from family and friends.
We spent WAY less than the $10,000 the contractors told us we'd spend.
We possibly left our children to their own devices a time or two too much. They weren't such good helpers.

You're dying for pictures, I know. Here they are. :D

The view from the door

The new vanity, minus the mirror so far...


This is our new shower, all 3 feet by 6 feet by 7 feet of it.