An organized bathroom

One of my goals for 2014 is to completely organize and declutter my house. I've never been much of a neat freak, but I always feel like life is so much easier when things are tidy and clean. This is one situation where my impatience pays off. Wait until 2014 to begin work? Psh. No. 

I got to work on my bathroom vanity today. I started off with my collection of nail polishes. Inside, I knew I had far too many, but I just couldn't let go of them because I totally might need them one day. Right? Wrong. I got rid of probably 1/3 of what I hadn't worn in forever.

After I  weeded out the loser nail polishes, I decided to organize my bathroom vanity. I can't even begin to post a before picture because it was horrifying. (But also because I forgot to take a picture. So...)

Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep our countertop this clean and clutter free, but I guarantee it'll be crapped up before too long.

Totally not paid to promote these products but this is what I use to clean our master bath. We have a septic system, so we have to be careful about what cleaning products go down the drain, and we also have travertine tile, so we can't use any products that are too harsh. These Method cleaning products are just perfect for us. The All Purpose spray (we bought lavender) works awesome in the shower and keeps that icky pink mold at bay. The Glass and Surface spray leaves no streaks and smells amazing.

Master bathroom: CLEAN AND ORGANIZED. 1 room down. 17 rooms to go.

Master Bathroom Reno

We saved all our pennies and finally were able to redo our master bathroom. Check out the nice green tile and gorgeous lumpy wallpaper. You're jealous, aren't you?

Before

In order to save a bit off the final cost, Shon and I decided to do the demo ourselves. And let me tell you, it was NOT as easy as we expected. We started the project thinking...we're just going to hit crap with a hammer and we should be done in a couple of days. Well, we did hit crap with a hammer, but it certainly didn't only take a couple of days.

We'd made a little progress at this point, but still had that pesky green floor to get rid of. Little did we know that underneath the green tile was concrete that was reinforced with some kind of wire mesh that made demo EXTREMELY difficult.

 In order to gain a little square footage in the bathroom, we took a little space from our master closet, so here you see Shon after he'd finally made it through into the closet.

 40 hours later, over 2 weeks, and a couple of jacked up fingers/hands later, we finished the demo and our contractor began on the renovation.

 Lesson 1: wear gloves.

 Lesson 2: don't hammer your finger

Though the demo was slow, we saw quick progress when the contractor started working.

 
We chose a 12x12 travertine tile for the bathroom floor and walls, and a mosaic travertine for the shower floor.

 

 We picked a vanity and sink from IKEA because it was simple and had drawers vs doors, a look Katherine preferred.

And check it out! Just like that, it's finished! We are so happy with the end result and feel like we live in a luxury hotel now.