Press 2 for Solids

Inspired by $herdog's "Dude, Get On That Already" challenges and Matt's impending birthday party at our house I spent last week fixing this turd of a bathroom.





The obvious problem are the crazy bright walls. My eyes burned a little every time I was in there. Oh, and here's a fun fact: this was the color of the dining room when we moved in too. Other problems include a toilet that doesn't really work, a hideous light fixture, warping laminate floors, and the kitty litter box.





Since I really only had a day to work on it I decided to spend that time on the 2 biggest problems; the color and the non functioning toilet. Lucky for me we had some left over primer and paint in the basement, so that was a completely free upgrade. It took forever to do the cutting in, and painting behind the toilet required some acrobatics. Just look how bright the orange is with a coat of primer on it!



After the primer it took two coats to completely hide the orange. The first coat had a bit of a pinkish tone thanks to the orange. I also painted the ceiling because the previous owners were pretty sloppy in the painting arena and there were globs of orange up there, you can see some in the second picture. Not only were there globs on the ceiling, but the counter, medicine cabinet, the shower door and tile. I'll scrub it off eventually, but for now it's a like The Ghost of Bathrooms Past.



To remedy the toilet situation I picked up these two kits from Home Depot for about $35. One is a dual flush converter kit and the other is a replacement fill valve. This being my first toilet related project it took me longer than the advertised 10 minutes to install. Now that I've done it I'm sure I could beat their 10 minute install time. (here's a little video I found at Home Depots website)



Check out this artsy shot of the new button flusher. The top button is for going #1, and the bottom toilet is for "solids" according to the box. It's so luxurious!



Once the bathroom got its new grey treatment it felt a little sterile. I got some teal and grey towels from Ikea, along with a grey bath mat to kind of hide the gap in the laminate. I also loaded up this cute little oil diffuser (I got it a year ago from The Great Indoors) with some stress relief oil to distract from the fact that the cats don't flush after using the rest room. There's really only so much I can do with such a small amount of time.



I can't tell you how awesome it is to be able to take a quick pee break during Gossip Girl without having to go upstairs. I really wish I had done this sooner. Much sooner, like two years ago sooner. Oh well, I guess that's what the "Dude, Get On That Already" challenge is all about. Oh and just so you know this bathroom has quite a long way to go from here. Here's the abridged version.

1. New flooring
2. New sink and vanity
3. New lighting
4. New mirror
5. Get a shower curtain to hide the doors and so the kitties can still get into the shower to do their business

I'll be sure to let you know when and what we really plan on doing to this little turd of a bathroom, once we figure that out. But for now I'm just happy to have a toilet on the main floor that works. So have you accomplished any "Dude, Get On That Already" projects lately? Or are there some looming over your head right now?

P.S. the party was enjoyed by many. Actually everyone but Detective Tubbs. He spent the evening publicly pouting.