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Freshing Up in the Bathroom

OUR 2nd HOUSE

Our first floor bathroom has always been a headache for me.  I love it.  And I hate it.

Let me explain.  It started out like a crime scene…red textured walls, tile with pinkish red veining, and the world’s ugly vanity.  I take that back.  I don’t wanna hurt anyone’s feelings.  It’s not ugly.  Just extremely unappealing to the eye.  I may have a detached retina just looking at this photo.

One of the first things after we bought our house was tackle the walls.  It had to be done.  I chose a greige that blended well with the tile.  It also played along with the cream colored toilet and our flesh colored trim and the freshly painted vanity.

Well…dontcha know that our little bathroom decided to give us a huge headache.  I blame my own laziness.  Also I blame Will’s innocence.

You see, I was hosting  a lot more events in our home…and I knew that we were getting way more use out of this restroom.  So I decided that to help with the cleaning effort, I would utilize one of those little toilet bowl cleaners that hangs on the side of the bowl and refreshes the water with every flush.   We used these for YEARS without any problem.  Well…that was years before we had two very independent thinking babes in the house.

That’s when it overflowed.

Yes, that is a ninja star.  And I would totally numchuck those bleaches.

Long story short, we figured out from a very convoluted conversation that only a three year old would understand, that Will decided to ‘clean’ the pee-pee by flushing the hanging plastic piece down the potty.  Hence the overflow.

Isn’t it funny to discover things when you remove the toilet?  I never knew that this room was painted the exact same color as the rest of the house.  It’s like unraveling the story of the house.

Anyhoo.  We drained the potty and removed it from it’s home.  Then we called my brother (a licensed plumber in Alabama).  He asked us if we knew whether the ‘clog’ was in the toilet itself or if the plastic piece was further down the pipe.  Of course…we had no clue.  So he told us to take the outdoor hose and test the drain pipe by filling it with water for ten minutes….if it started filling up, then we knew that the problem was down the pipe.  If not, then we could try fishing around the toilet to find the clog.

Thankfully the pipe was fine.  And we soon discovered the plastic piece (and toilet paper and other ‘material’) wedged in the curved pipeage of the potty.

Since the toilet was removed, I suggested to Jeremy that we go ahead and replace it with a white version.  This has always been the plan…to slowly replace the toilets in this house with white versions and since the existing cream toilet was off, it made perfect sense to do it now.

We love Kohler toilets and this Elliston type was on sale at our local Home Depot so we picked it up for about $200.  It won me over with that first key point on the side of the box….no more clogs.  It also helped by checking off all the boxes on our toilet wishlist….

  • elongated bowl
  • chair height
  • white
  • Kohler brand
  • good flush rating
  • GOOD LOOKING LINES

It was somewhere between checkout and getting back in the car that I mentioned that we should probably paint the trim white in this room since the toilet would now be white.  Hello Pandora…let me open that box for you.

So when I got home, Jeremy removed the vanity (so that I could get the trim that runs along side the vanity nook) and started wiping down the trim with deglosser while the boys and I played outside.  The deglosser we use to prep all our trim states on the can that it can cause birth defects and is really smelly so we always set up Jer to do that task with fans and a respirator for proper ventilation.  I completely leave the house because I figure that it’s better just to leave completely.  Better safe than sorry.

See the vanity in the kitchen?  It’s hard to see when such a cutie is in the way 🙂

So after the trim got painted bright white (we just use a coat of no-voc primer and then three coats of untinted brilliant white base paint), I started brainstorming colors (might as well paint the walls too while we are at it, right?!)

In the end, I liked the way the red popped in the kitchen so much that I just decided to carry that color through to the bathroom.  Our kitchen is Benjamin Moore’s Metropolitan and it’s a nice neutral gray with warm green undertones.

At one point Jeremy and I discussed ripping out the tile floor while we were already tackling this space…but then we pulled back the reigns because dude…this started as a clogged toilet and we have a couple other rooms we really need to finish first (ahem the nursery/the laundry room).

The gray paint really makes the greige look very BEIGE.  And I love love love white trim.

While I was in the painting kick, I decided I really wanted to do something fun with the back of the vanity nook.  So while I decide what to do on a more permanent basis (probably wallpaper something fun and graphic like this or this), I just painted it white.

So this is where I leave you off.  I still have to take some after-painting-after-toilet-installed-after-we-put-this-room-back-together photos.  The good news is…we no longer use plastic hanging toilet cleaners…and the trim in one more room is painted.  One step closer to making this house OUR home….our home where there is no toilet water on the floor…which is exactly how I want our floor to be 🙂

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Comments

  1. Do you always use a deglosser when repainting trim? Is that so that it doesn’t come off? I skipped this step when I painted the trim in our hallway and it full of paint nicks. Lesson learned…

  5. Isn’t it funny how projects can do that to you…start in one place and take a totally different route than where you started!? Sometimes I’m like that when I start picking up the house, it leads to deep cleaning from top to bottom…oh wait, that never happens! haha! Anyway, can’t wait to see the bathroom. I love me some white trim too, I wish more houses here in Wisconsin had white trim. Dark woods are more popular here, but I am set on getting white trim in our next house:)

  7. Oh Katie! Is it wrong that I LOVE projects that snowball like this? I know they are always such a ton of work, but for me at least, I appreciate that they light a fire under my bum. Too often, I stay satisfied with the “for now fixes” for longer than I like to admit. I can’t wait to see what your powder room looks like when it gets put back together (especially when the vanity wall gets just so)! It’s come a lllllong way from ground beef. 😉

  8. I love the red vanity. Can’t wait to see what it looks like back in the freshly painted bathroom! I think you mean “freshening” instead of “freshing”. 🙂

  10. Hi!
    Over here in Germany we have these gel ‘buttons’ that you squish directly from a dispenser on to the porcelain – no more plastic baskets (which I think get icky too) Maybe you have those too over there and they are a good solution!?
    Best
    Jenn(ifer)

  13. I’m not sure what cleaner you switched to, but I want to recommend the Scrubbing bubble Gel – the one where it is in a tube and you push it onto the inside bowl of the toilet. It cleans really well, but it is also GREAT at giving my 3 year old somewhere to aim when he pees!

    The things you do with little boys, am I right? Even my toilet cleaner must multitask!

  15. Love the new toilet and trim. I’m about to repair all of the trim in our new (old) home; it’s white, but flat paint…and we all know how well that’s holding up. Anyway, what is the deglosser y’all use? I have tried one brand on my cabinets and wasn’t a fan, so I’d live to find something that works better so I don’t have to sand it all. Haha!! Laziness for the win.

  17. We are currently in the midst of finishing up our 1 week turned 4 week bathroom remodel. Gray paint, similar toilet, white trim and all…I can’t wait for the project to be over! Thanks for sharing all of this…it was so refreshing to see that someone else can relate. 🙂

    ~Sarah

  21. I had the same thing happen to me this summer! Unfortunately I live in an apartment..so they bought the toilet THEY wanted. I will never buy those darn things again! Even though they were convenient. I spread the word to everybody. I even hid them in the aisle at Target once… whoops!

  22. I just gave an audible gasp when I read the reason for the clogged pipes. My husband asked what was wrong, then I spent 15 minutes telling him about a Georgia woman’s problems with her toilet. And he goes, “You are pretty concerned about her bathroom. Do you know her?”

    I said yes just to save face.

  23. I can’t use those plastic hanging things either because my kids pull them out and put them on the floor. So helpful! What I have found that works really well – I think this is a new product, Toilet Cleaning Gel by Scrubbing Bubbles – they are gooey bleach disks that you stick to the inside bowl. There is nothing to grab or take out and they are hard to even see if you don’t know it’s there.
    http://www.scrubbingbubbles.com/Products/Pages/toilet-cleaning-gel.aspx
    (they also come in a clear version).

  24. where did you get your artwork in there? they are exactly like ones my mom used to have and i always loved them so much.

  25. Thank goodness for your brother! My mom always said everyone should have a doctor and a mechanic in the family. I guess we should add plumber too!
    Also, I just started using those plastic hanging toilet cleaners. I have a newborn and more visitors in the house than usual, but the last thing I want to spend my time doing is cleaning toilets. Thanks to this post, I’ll be sure to remove them all before my daughter is mobile!

  26. Love the new wall color. Makes the floor look better for sure.

    Just a caution about those bleach tabs-with small kids in the house, I would avoid them-they can cause burns/etc if handled, and the water always has bleach in it-if anyone were to drink it it would be a disaster. ( yes kids, like dogs, do stupid, stupid things) Bleach can also cause issues with a septic system-it kills the flora/bacteria that keeps everything moving along out there.

    I’ve used vinegar/lemon as a cleaner for years ( Thank you Martha S.) and it’s been great.
    Natural, no fume issues ( well, vinegar does reek but it’s not harmful) and it’s cheap.

  30. It was given to us by Jeremy’s grandparents when they passed away. We had them in our old guest bedroom but I’m afraid that they will need to get retired to another room now.
    xo – kb

  32. We do now. It is to help the paint ‘stick’ a little bit better….and since we already wipe down the trim whenever we paint (dust is not paints friend), it doesn’t require much more work.
    xo – kb

  35. Truly the best blog post about a toilet clog that I’ve ever (and probably will ever) read. 🙂 hello, pandora? Ha!! Cracking me up. Kudos to you, my dear. Only you can write a blog like this.

    I’m sad you’re all busy and stuff with your pile of kids now! When are we going to hear the gushy details about #3?

  37. Just in time to upstage / steal the thunder away from your BFF. “Oops I totally forgot! I’m so busy that I couldn’t remember”. Classic KB.

  38. She asked me when I was announcing and I told her and she decided to do it Friday. I hardly think that I could ever steal any of her thunder…don’t know if you know this but she is kindof a big awesome deal 🙂 That’s like saying that I could upstage a celebrity!
    xo – kb

  39. Probably not…it depends on if the trim was sealed with a poly…in that case, I would say no…that you still need to sand since that is harder to get ‘gritty’ or ‘soft’ enough to paint over.
    xo – kb

  41. We never seem to get through a home improvement or decor project without something breaking, or having to fix one the kids’ “mishaps”. Last night it was the doll hair that had been sucked up the vacuum.

    Love the new wall color!

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