Master Bathroom: A Look At That Checklist Progress

This master bathroom project has dragged on for a very long time, but I’m definitely on the downhill slide towards the finish line. Now that the water closet (toilet room) is almost finished, that just leaves me with about three big projects, and a few finishing details.

When I feel like I’m not making good progress on a project, it’s helpful to look back and see just how much I’ve gotten done. Back on April 22, I made a list of things that still needed to be done on the bathroom, and I came across that list last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much has been done on that list!

Here’s that April 22 list with all of the things I’ve done crossed off.

1. Finish the crown molding and trim around the mural wall — sand, caulk, prime, and paint (Done!)
2. Install the last row of tiles around the ceiling in the shower (Done!)
3. Install the door between the bathroom and home gym (Done!)
4. Trim out that door (Done!)
5. Build two vanities
6. Build the “dresser” between the vanities
7. Make the “chandelier” and install above the bathtub (Done!)
8. Build the cabinet for the toilet area (Done!)
9. Paint the walls and ceiling in the toilet area (Done!)
10. Install baseboards in the toilet area — caulk, prime and paint (Done!)
11. Have the bathtub, tub faucet, and toilet installed (Done!)
12. Hang shower curtain in the shower (yes, I decided to use one) (Done!)
13. Order countertops for vanities and have the sinks installed
14. Finish the plumbing on the sinks
15. Install the wainscoting on the lower walls
16. Finish all of the rest of the trim (doors, window, wainscoting) — wood fill, sand, caulk, prime, and paint
17. Hang the other vanity mirror
18. Decide on privacy (window treatments? glass film?) for the window and doors

When I made that list on April 22, the bathroom looked like this…

There was no tub, no faucet, no tile around the top of the shower, no progress in the water closet. Most of the trim was installed, but none of it was finished (wood filled, sanded, primed, painted).

So while the bathroom progress isn’t where I had hoped to be as of the end of July (I had hoped to be done with the bathroom and at least working on the home gym, if not the studio by this point), I’m actually okay with the progress since about four weeks of the last three months were focused on our new van and getting Matt out of the house and discovering a life outside of the walls of our home. It was totally worth putting the bathroom and all other home projects on hold for a while (or making progress at a snail’s pace during those four weeks).

So I’ve made quite a bit of progress, and I have just a few projects left. The finish line is actually starting to come into view, and that’s quite exciting.

At the same time, I’ve been going from one project to the next, and as is my standard M.O., I haven’t taken the time to clean up and put away between projects, so things have spun out of control a bit.

So in the spirit of full disclosure, here’s what the bathroom and the adjoining home gym look like as of this morning…

Every one of my big room remodels gets to this point eventually, and then I have to stop and regroup before I can move on and actually finish up those last projects. And every time, I generally have a couple of people freak out on me. “What about the floor!?” “What about the dust?!” 😀 Well, all I can say that that this is just how I operate, and somehow it all works out in the end every single time.

The bathroom mess has spilled over into the home gym, since that’s where I’ve had to store everything for the bathroom, including the toilet, all of the lumber and trim, sinks, faucets, paint, paint rollers, etc.

So I’m going to finish up the water closet today, and I’ll show y’all how that turned out tomorrow (with the cabinet lighting and the toilet installed), and then I’m going to have to take a couple of days to wrangle this mess and get everything organized again so that I can have plenty of floor space to build the vanities and the cabinet.

I’ve often dreamed of being one of those neat and tidy people who puts things away and cleans my work space at the end of each day, but I’m just not. This is the “real” me, and I won’t pretend to be anyone else. I know my tendency towards making huge messes drives some people absolutely crazy, but I’ve just come to accept that I’ll never be that perfectly organized person when I’m working on big projects. I make my messes, and eventually they get cleaned up, and everything works out in the end. 😀 At least I’m learning to be more organized in my everyday life outside of my DIY projects! So at least there’s improvement there. But my DIY project life will always be a mess. That’s just my M.O., as long as things keep working out in the end, I’m okay with the messes in the middle.

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.

I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and have each new post delivered to your email inbox. That way you’ll never miss a thing!