28_Unexpected Renovations

On February 24^th, we were forced to have a little renovation project. On this morning, I found out that my toilet was leaking. We didn’t know what cause it because the night before, everything was just perfect. The leaking had made most part of the floor wet as well. We were then realized that there was a crack on the tank around the flush handle. This meant we had to replace the toilet.



Leaking from my toilet caused the floor wet.

A crack on my toilet.

Although this was unexpected, we realized this was the best time to have a little bit renovations on the bathroom. We should repaint it and change the lighting and the wall mirror. After all, the paint job was poor. When we took out the toilet, we could see whomever painted it, s/he just painted around it. So we could see an old green paint surrounded by brownish color.

Bad paint job.

Actually I didn’t really have a problem with the wall mirror. But once, I went to a McDonald’s restaurant nearby and saw that it has exactly the same mirror as in my bathroom! After that, I was so motivated to change it. I hoped the mirror in my bathroom was not stolen from there…

As for the lighting, now I had the chance to choose, I was thinking to have a wall mirror surrounded by row of bulbs like in the vintage actress rooms. However, I couldn’t find it around here. So I chose a similar row bulbs light and matched the mirror with it. Both had to be in bronze finished, to match with the wooden vanity. When I looked on different stores online, they all had prices above $100 for the size I wanted. We were lucky to find the matched mirror on discount while we shopping around at Lowes. It was unplanned but it turned out good.  

Changing the toilet, of course, didn’t take long. On the next day, I got a brand new toilet installed. It is a dual flush toilet, to save water, and of course, money. I was surprised that dual flush toilets are still uncommon here compare to Europe. When I talked about it to some people, they didn’t know that such thing exists.

My new toilet with dual flush.

 

The renovation took about a week to finish because I have to paint the walls and let them to dry overnight before I put another coatings. I used crème color for the wall because we already had this paint, so we didn’t have to buy something new. As for the accent wall, I chose yellow to contrast with the wooden and green tiles vanity.

Initially I wanted a mild or pastel color yellow, and the color sample looked mild on paper; but when I put it on the wall, it was pretty bright. In the end, it is still a good contrast. And now I have a comfier bathroom.

My new wall mirror and lighting were inspired by vintage actress rooms.