When we first moved into The Someday Home, the very first thing we tackled (besides slapping some paint over the disgusting avocado green walls) was our disgusting bathroom. I was fully entrenched in all of the joys (and nausea, exhaustion, and overall un-wellness) of first-trimester pregnancy with Barrett as we rushed to unpack all of our belongings and settle in.

We decided to host Christmas for my family in our new fixer-upper so my dad could see our new home and get a grasp of what we were dealing with. He and my mom had agreed to buy us ceiling fans for our bedrooms (each room was poorly lit with 1 fluorescent light above a window, hidden behind a wooden valence) and help us install them as Christmas gifts. Oh, and while Dad and Nate were up in our attic, they decided to re-insulate it also, as there was NONE up there when we moved in.

It’s always amazing what new lighting will do in a room, and unfortunately, I don’t have any great pictures to show of this process. This was years before I planned to start blogging. These are the befores, though:

Anyway, that process only took the guys about a day. My mom and dad were going to be here for at least 3 more days, and if you know my dad in person, you know he is incapable of just sitting. So, he and Nate started brainstorming the next project. Our bathroom was the obvious first victim.

Again, we don’t have great before pictures. The bathroom space was really poorly set-up. It had a tub and toilet on one wall, and then on the opposite wall, a shower stall and a small sink. There was virtually no storage, and the tub was peeling (eew). It was pretty disgusting, but the fact that Nate hit his head every time he stepped into our out of the shower really put it over the top for him. It had to go.

Now, impromptu renovations can be really exciting (if you’re not 2-3 months pregnant and too sick to partake in any of the fun), but, as you may have guessed, they do come with some issues. Since we weren’t planning on demoing our bathroom at this time, I hadn’t given ANY thought as to how I wanted our new bathroom laid out, the type of vanity or sink top I wanted, or the flooring. All I knew was that I couldn’t continue to bathe my 2-year-old in a peeling tub, and he was too big for the bathroom sink.

We made a trip (or a few) to Menards to pick out everything we needed. Because we hadn’t planned to do this project, we also hadn’t budgeted for it… which was problematic. That meant everything we did in this bathroom was on a shoestring budget.

Luckily, we found our vanity on sale at a deep discount. I think it must’ve been their floor model, but it was in great shape and it was sized to fit the space. We also bought a new toilet and a tub-shower combo. Since we were bargain shopping, we found our flooring in their remnant section, also at a pretty deep discount.

This project was our first time tearing into the house, and we learned a lot from it. This was our first encounter with our terrible drywall, and the guys also had a heck of a time getting the tub out (it ended up having to come out in pieces).

5 years later, I’m glad I’m not living with the original bathroom, but if I could do things differently, I definitely would. I TOTALLY regret the flooring I chose and our vanity has not held up well to life with 3 kids. I really wasn’t thinking ahead to making our bathroom fit in with our long-term goals for our house, I was focused on just making it better at the moment.

Luckily (I guess?) we’ll get the chance to completely redo it in the coming years when we turn our kids’ room into our master suite. This bathroom will shrink back to a ½ bath and we’ll expand our claustrophobic dining room to where our tub currently is. Honestly, it’s embarrassing to share these photos of a bathroom that is still not even really finished, but I’m struggling to find the motivation to “finish” it when I know we will just be tearing it apart again soon.

Do you have any half-finished projects in your house? Make me feel better about mine by sharing it with me!