The Bathroom Delay

Well, I was delaying posting because I was trying to finish the downstairs full bathroom, but it looks like that will not be happening for a few more weeks.

Problem #1: The mirror I bought to hang above the pedestal sink is too big. I thought the one I was buying in the Target store was the exact one I had seen online and carefully measured for, but it was not. It looked exactly like it, but unfortunately it was about 10 inches taller. But I did not figure this out until I put the whole thing together and tried to hang it on the wall. At that point it had been a couple months since I bought it, and the receipt was long gone.  I really do not feel like taking it apart and trying to return it, so I am going to try to use it in one of the other bathrooms now. Anyway, the new one should be here in a couple weeks.

Problem #2: I came up with a great plan to deal with the hideous/non-existent door frames, but I am intimidated to follow through with it. There are two doors in the bathroom, one to each of the downstairs bedrooms. One of them has a very cheap homemade door frame around it:

 The other door frame is completely missing:

My first plan was to make a very cheap homemade door frame to match the existing one. Then I decided it would be easier to just buy two new ones from Lowe’s which would look a lot better, but the problem with that idea was that it would not match the original door frames in the house, and I was afraid of how much it would cost to get something even comparable. Here is what the house’s original door frames look like:

Then as I was cleaning out the closet in the nursery, I had an idea. I realized that I could just take the original door frames from the interior of the two bedroom closets downstairs and put those in the bathroom. Then I could just replace them with door frames bought from Lowe’s, and it would not matter whether they matched because they are on the inside of closets, and no one will ever see them. Here is what they look like:

Of course after I typed about how great this idea was, I had to go take pictures from inside the closet. And that is when I noticed that a couple inches were taken off the one in the nursery closet to make room for some plumbing. So now my plan is once again more complicated than originally anticipated. I suppose I could just put it up as is and call it “character.”  I guess that will be my back-up plan. I have no desire to even attempt to carve a piece of wood to match it, so…I really think I will be cutting something out of Styrofoam. I know this sounds terrible, but the piece that is missing is at least a foot above eye level, and the whole thing will be painted, so maybe this will work.  Also, Styrofoam is very cheap, so I can buy a large amount to practice and not worry about ruining anything. And if it does not look good after being painted, I can just figure something else out.  So that is the plan. At some point during this plan I will have to learn how to install door frames. I am wondering if I will need a nail gun. I have no idea how to do this. My favorite part of this plan is getting to walk into Lowe’s and tell them I am looking for Styrofoam to carve a custom door frame because my level of craftsmanship if just too novice to be working with actual wood.

Problem #3: The new shower addition to the clawfoot tub leaks everywhere. That will be fixed by the professional who installed it, but he cannot come until we finish the floors because he cannot walk across them to get to the bathroom this week.

Now that I have written about all the hold-ups with the bathroom, I feel a lot less guilty about not having finished it yet. I hope to have it finished and post pictures by the end of May. The floors will be finished soon, but in the meantime, stay tuned for an introduction to our downstairs bedroom.