Progress, Not Perfection

In the renovation world this week I was guilty of a rookie mistake. I didn't order enough bathroom wall tile. Now, a couple of things could have made this really bad... one was if I couldn't locate any more tile and the other is that if I did locate it, it could take a while to ship, delaying everything. The first shipment of ten boxes came only two days after I ordered it so I was hoping I could get lucky. And I did but there was a little retribution thrown in. I received a notification at 5:58 pm last night that the tile was delivered and left in the lobby. For the THIRD time that day, I headed over to Horatio for the honor of lugging four boxes (weighing 37.4 pounds apiece) up to the apartment.

But a lot got done in the bathroom. The concrete sub-floor got poured:

The concrete sheetrock was put up:

The floor tiles were laid:

And the wall tile, until we ran out yesterday afternoon, was in process:

Now, this is the time where you discover certain things and make adjustments that always add costs to your bottom line. When we were doing demolition in the bathroom, I saw that there was extra space behind the shower wall where the shower panel will be:

So I asked David to make two inset boxes where I can put shampoo, soap, washcloths and all that stuff. More work, more tile, more time. But I couldn't resist utilizing extra space:

In an effort to utilize every bit of tile, I told David to use the white floor tile (we had a box left over) in the inset boxes. Well, honestly, even with the four extra boxes of wall tile, we were still cutting it close. Using the floor tile in the insets would give us just enough wall tile to finish. At least, that's what we're hoping. 

I made another rookie mistake. When I bought tile for the bathroom, I thought I would save the granite border tile that was there and reuse it. Mistake. When placed next to the new glass tile it looked lame and out of proportion. I ran to Home Depot to see if I could find something that I could use. I bought 48 pieces of 3x6 ice white glass tile by the same company who made the wall tile. The depth was exactly the same as the new wall tile and will look so much better than the black granite. It was an added cost but it's certainly worth it. Heaven knows I would have been grumbling about that granite border every time I walked into the bathroom.

And FINALLY, the purple sparkles and the textured yellow walls disappeared under "Coastal Fog":

I breathed an "Ahhhhhh" and a sigh of relief when I saw it.

Then a couple of other wonderful little things happened.

These showed up:

The cabinet pulls. They will be replacing these out of scale marble bowling balls:

But I have to wait because here's the kitchen right now:

And then another wonderful thing showed up. I was so excited when I saw the box since it wasn't even supposed to ship until next week:

It's the fixture for the main room. I opened it up today to make sure it arrived in one piece and it's beautiful. I can't wait till the day that we're ready to hang it!

Next week: I'm saying goodbye and good riddance to the trashed floor. 

It's getting refinished; sanded, stained darker and sealed. Hopefully tiling will get finished in the bathroom and the vanity, sink, faucet and shower panel can get installed.

I keep reminding myself: "Gail, it's progress, not perfection"