There were survivors on the Titanic..right?

aka The Great Bathroom Remodeling Project of 2009-2010.

Welcome to my nightmare. My bathroom hasn't seen a coat of paint since I bought the house way back in 1988. The linoleum was in poor shape when I moved in and has progressively gotten worse over the years.



Andy cut out a section that was already coming up near the door so we could see what's underneath...it's not pretty.

Last weekend we removed the old rope window from the bathroom and installed a new double-hung window. How I'll miss opening that old rope window and jamming that section of wood molding into the frame to hold it open so it wouldn't slam shut and cut someone's fingers off....NOT! Andy also removed the old wood chair rail that ran around the middle of the room and patched and sanded the area where it was taken off.




After much discussion, Andy has agreed to replace the lighting, medicine cabinet, sink, vanity and faucet. I argued that since we were keeping the Titanic..aka the clawfoot bathtub with hanging shower combo..we could afford to replace those other items since everything in there now is old and showing signs of wear. I am working on convincing him to let me purchase the white vanity I saw at Home Depot. He's a strong opponent of any white fixtures since being the father of three sons he's seen firsthand how they dirty anything light-colored. My argument is that they're grown-ups now and no longer eat their own boogers, so any white fixtures should be fine.

Now here's the tricky part, I'm a color dummy. I have a lot of difficulty matching colors and I swear it's probably a defective gene..the same gene that controls balancing my checkbook and making crafts that don't look like a 2-year-old made it. I was leaning toward a deep red wall with a gray woodwork/trim. My bathroom isn't small, so I thought those colors might work.



I picked up two of the Glidden paint testers at Home Depot and gave them a try and I'm not liking the look...not even a little bit. I'm hoping to avoid another paint disaster; my kitchen looks like eggs and ketchup because I *thought* that yellow walls with red trim would look great in the kitchen. Trust me, it doesn't. Now I have no idea what to do in there. The shower curtain can and will be replaced, so I'm open to any color combinations except I want to stay away from white, off-white, and tan. It's hard to tell now, but the original color of the bathroom was tan although it vaguely reminds me of old cigarette smoke now. Tan walls, tan woodwork...lots of tan. Another reason why I want to replace the vanity and mirror. I'm tired of brown. So now I'm back to scouring the internet in search of a decent color combination for the bathroom. Wallpaper is out since there's no ventilation in the bathroom and I'm worried about steam accumulation from the shower making it peel. There was a small part of me that briefly thought about doing some type of faux painting in there and then I woke up. While Andy is an excellent painter with a roller; I'm not sure we can trust him with a rag or a sponge. I am a lost cause with anything creative. I'm open to any color suggestions anyone might have since I'm flying blind here.

As far as the floor goes, Andy is championing for linoleum and I want to go with a laminate wood plank flooring in a whitewash color. I like the Trafficmaster Allure in Blond Maple from Home Depot. After reading some articles online, I'm not sure that it will work in the bathroom. We're planning on hiring someone to put the floor in rather than do it ourselves, so that call will be theirs. I've read that it tends to "shrink" after being installed and I'd hate to have it pull away from the baseboard.