To share or not to share…that is the question….

For some reason, the original homeowners couldn’t share nicely.

Or at least that’s my interpretation as to why there are two side by side master bathrooms. 

The “man” side is smaller and before renovation, was the only side that could access the shower. The “woman’s side” had a massive whirlpool tub, and blingy light fixtures. Both sides were woefully outdated.

Since I don’t take baths that often (for my reasoning behind this, see earlier posts), I decided to give myself access to the shower from “my” side. My side does have the only windows, so I decided to help get natural light to Jeff’s side by installing glass shower doors, which our contractor (Richard) found and installed. 

To make the shower more spacious, we had Richard move the shower wall back a few feet, thus shortening the available space for our vanities, which was fine as we didn’t need that much space to begin with.

These bathrooms (because they each qualify as their own) were the only rooms in the house to be totally gutted. We contacted a local remodeling firm about the reno, but they wanted an outrageous amount upfront for “designing” before they would even give us a bid….

Um, no…I don’t think so….

I had already designed the bathroom into what I wanted which would require a minimal amount of moving plumbing and electrical. (Moving these things costs a lot of money). The shower, tub, and toilets were all staying in their original locations, so I wasn’t sure why I needed to shell out thousands of dollars to tell some designer that’s what we were going to do. I understand if you don’t have design skills that using a designer is crucial, but I know what I am doing.

In fairness, she didn’t know that I knew what I was doing, but I digress….

After the floors were ripped up and the walls were redone, we had our tiler (Tuffy) put in the floor tile with heated floors (wonderful splurge that we’ve been enjoying this freezing winter season) and build the shower which included niches and a bench. He also installed tile on the walls around the tub which was a godsend when I was shooting water all over the walls on my inaugural tub run (see earlier post: Adventures in Bathing).

Jeff was allowed to purchase any shower fixture that he wanted. We now have a huge multi-spray shower thingy that he loves. For some reason it also has weird blue lights…as does the tub, now that I think about it. What’s up with that trend? Do we need our bathing apparatus to emulate a nightclub? Probably not….

 I chose a porcelain hexagon shape marble tile (hexagons are the bestagons, as CGP Grey says) for the floor and a small hexagon tile for the shower floor. These were purchased from Murray Flooring.  Something to consider when installing flooring in a bathroom is slip-resistance. I chose a flooring that is rougher to the touch to prevent falls (as I clearly need all the help I can get). I also chose a smaller tile in the shower as it has more grout which is even more slip resistant.

We used the same blue tile that is on the fireplace in the living room for the shower walls and the wall around the tub. If you stood on that slick tile, your legs would shoot right out from under you, but they look great on the walls. As long as Jeff doesn’t cause me to “climb the wall” so to speak, we should be good.

I purchased marble topped vanities for each of our rooms from Wayfair. Since the plumbing was not centered on the wall and I didn’t want to move it, I chose vanities that had the sink on the left side. I chose a navy vanity to match my tiles and Jeff chose a gray vanity to feel like he had some say in our design.

He didn’t have that much say. It was “do you want this particular vanity in navy or gray?” I’m not insane….

Moving the vanities up the stairs was very difficult as the marble top came already affixed so they were enormously heavy. Jeff’s shoulder still hurts from carrying them. Thankfully, he likes his vanity, or I would be in trouble.

My side of the bathroom came with a bidet. We didn’t keep any of the original toilets in the house because…ewwww…and the bidet was no exception. My problem with a bidet is that I don’t really understand the need. I get having one built into the toilet but having a separate fixture to shuffle over to with your pants around your ankles seems like a dangerous proposition. Plus, if you are asses to elbows in “clean-up,” I think you should probably hop on in the shower.

 But there we were, with the plumbing for a bidet.

It’s not like you could use the plumbing for a water fountain, so we found a cheap bidet and installed it. I suppose if the world collectively loses their minds again and hoards toilet paper, I am covered….

So, there’s that….

I like how the master baths turned out. We saved a ton of money by using our own contractors and not a remodeler, which makes Jeff happy as the keeper of the wallet, and I’m happy with our new arrangement.

 I never have to clean Jeff’s bathroom again…so now I suppose I understand why the original homeowners didn’t share….