HGTV Live!

Our bathroom renovations began on Monday.  We started with a powder bath that looked like this:

Here's a close-up of that linoleum so you can get the full effect and perhaps understand why it was not our personal preference.

By the end of Monday afternoon, it looked like this:

 Tuesday morning, we got tile!

And today, it looks like this:

At the same time, we had this in our upstairs master bath:

This bathroom sort of jack-and-jills between a bedroom and a hallway.  The first pic is a view from the bedroom, the last one is the view from the hall.  The tub is across from the toilet.  This isn't a true master suite, but it works swimmingly.  While the kids are still young, we want to be on the same floor as them.  Later we will swap with the guest room, which is currently the downstairs master.  So if you come to see us, you get a big ol' room with your own bathroom.  (Except you still have to look at that linoleum because that bathroom is going to wait a couple of years to be re-done.)

Today, that bathroom looks like this:

No, I don't recommend a sideways bathtub.  But the drain needs to be scooted a smidge before it can be set in its final place.  Should be set right by end of today.

This kids' bathroom started out like this:

Very similar materials to the other bathroom.  When the tub came out, we found this:

Yes, there was some water damage to the sub-floor.  We were sort of expecting it based on the drywall next to the tub surround.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to get rid of the fiberglass one-piece tub/shower.  They seem to be more prone to leaking.  We were very glad it wasn't more extensive.  So we had to replace that part of the sub-floor before moving on.  Now we have this:

 Just backer board so far on the floor in there.

 Tub's sitting in place, but it will need an alignment with the drain as well.  You can see the problem below:

Our new tubs were supposed to be ready for pick-up on Monday along with all the other materials, but they were not.  If this were really HGTV, this is when the dramatic music would play and you would get a zoom-in headshot of me looking very frustrated and hear my stern one-sided phone conversation with Lowe's.  Real life isn't quite so theatrical.  It has been frustrating, but the contractor was able to do other work while we waited and we finally got our tubs today.

We've had a few hiccups like that so far, but overall everything is going very smoothly.  The hardest part for me has been the daily trips to Lowe's with three children.  Oy, vey!  The folks at Lowe's start ducking down the aisles when they see us come in the door.

We've been promised that the work will be done by Tuesday, so we're hoping for that but won't be surprised if there are still finishing touches to be done.  We are all living out of the guest bathroom downstairs in the meantime without too much conflict.  I'll try to post more pics when the work is all done.