For years now, I’ve been disappointed with the gloomy circa 1980’s bathroom in our basement. The “lower loo” may have been top of mind in terms of annoyances, but it has never been top of budget! An update featured as #99 on my 2021 To Do List A to Z. Saving for a change appeared on my 2022 Love to Do List. And compromising with a more minimal basement refresh became part of my 2022 Fall Planner:
Towards the end of last year, we did make a few strides, if only in “emergency response” mode. The basement toilet leaked so much that we had to replace it. The new bowl is serviceable and well-made, so we’ll probably be able to “port” this new “potty” right into a future renovation [minimum 10-15 years down the line]. And, since the plumber was in, we replaced the rotten faucet at the sink with a cheap, cheerful, and life-time warrantied model that is likewise “future portable.” I could have replaced this myself, but the plumber included the swap in the process of adding proper on/off valves below the sink. I believe this whole project including parts and labour ran us about $900. Luckily, I’d had this money set aside from the bathroom savings I began in 2021. That was about all of the savings, however.
Again, with one kid in university and another en route this fall, there is basically NO budget for the renovation this space will need. Nor do I want to sink anymore cashola into what we’re bound to have to uproot not too far down the line. So, over the past few weeks, I completed an extremely cosmetic…
BASEMENT BATHROOM ZHUZH!
My BEFORE pictures always suck (mostly because I almost always forget to TAKE them), but here goes:
BEFORE!
AFTER!
So, what did I do?
First, please note, I did NOT paint. I could NOT be bothered. I just washed the walls with a sponge and a rag. And I scrubbed the grout in the shower tiles with a brush and the end of a bottle of Vim bleach I will replace with something more asthma and environmentally friendly.
VANITY, AH VANITY
My first major change in the room was replacing the light fixture. Initially, I had purchased a very heavy designer light fixture from my local decor buy and sell for $40, but I ended up reselling it because the light was even dimmer than the light I was trying to replace and a proper brighter replacement bulb was special order, short-lived, and way too expensive to maintain. Of course, I was only able to test this cute but dark light after I had removed the o.g. blah ceiling light fixture (which our home’s previous really-shitty-diy owners had basically glued to the wall because they’d misplaced the junction box), fixed up their shoddy wiring, and attached the very heavy fixture all by myself. There was no way I was admitting defeat. So, I hopped on transit and grabbed a cheerful Bel-Air 3-Light Brushed Nickel Vanity Light with Clear Glass Shades from Home Depot Canada for $127. The fixture was lighter and therefore WAY easier to install than the designer look. (Oh, and I should note, I used this opportunity to finally turn the on/off wall-switch right-side up.) The bulbs were another $10. So, the lighting was definitely my biggest expense, at about $140 total before tax.
Next, I swapped the old Ikea disco mirror (worn off in several places) with an upgrade of a pre-loved circular mirror from my local invitaiton-only “decor edit” for a steal at $15.
On the sink, the soap and moisturizer dispensers and the bamboo and acyrlic box for cotton items were under $10 total from the dollar store.
BUBBLE BATHS AHEAD!
The worst part of the job was also the most dramatic. I spent over 3 hours removing 4 layers of moldy caulk from around the bathtub. Did I get saddle sores from sitting in various positions on the bathtub, even though I used a towel? Yes I did. Did I basically immobilize myself with delayed onset muscle soreness the next day? Yes, I did. Did I get that caulk out of the bathtub? Yes, I did. Did it cost me anything? Perhaps a small piece of my soul. But I had the knife and scraper I needed for the job. Caulk removal? $0. The next day, after several doses of Advil, I spent about 30 minutes taping and re-caulking the tub. I already had painter’s tape and the caulk gun. Silicone Caulk? $8. The bamboo bathtub tray was an Ikea bargain bin purchase from 2009.
Then, I swapped out the old, rusty, louvered metal ceiling hvac register which was hanging half-out of the ceiling with a new one from Canadian Tire for a whopping $11 . This might not seem like a big fix, but it makes a huge difference! At last, we’re not risking a gash in the head or tetanus each time we get in and out of the shower or reach for a towel!
After spending far too much time trying, unsuccessfully, to get all of the water and rust stains out of the 25+ year old waffle shower curtain I bought from Pottery Barn (it was a major splurge for our very first Toronto apartment), I grabbed a Canvas Waffle Shower Curtain from Canadian tire for $35, which is still way less than what I paid for the original back in the day. (The old curtain isn’t done yet! It’s now out on the front porch covering our foot-rest thingy.) I kept the nicer of the two existing shower curtain rods and sets of shower curtain hooks to go with. (We’d actually been using two rods because the previous light wasn’t powerful enough, and we liked to extend the clear liner only during showers.) And, with scissors, I trimmed the bottom edge of the existing shower curtain liner (HomeSense, circa 2017) so that it didn’t fold up at the hem and collect water.
Finally, I zhuzhed up the container situation on the window shelf!
The potted lucky bamboo is also from Canadian Tire, approximately $10. We’ll probably kill it, because there is only filtered light from the frosted basement window. But, we’ll see…
The soap dish in the shower window is $8 from Canadian Tire.
The clear acrylic box on that ledge is a repurposed refrigerator box from the kitchen upstairs. [But Canadian Tire has similar ones with lids from the “home edit” collection.] Notice there’s both a side for the human soaps and an empty side (hopefully not empty for long) for puppy spaw items. It’s a spa and and spaw now, too!
ARTWORK
After fourteen years (fourteen years!) I finally put artwork on the walls! Wonderful artwork! The three pieces were handmade gifts from the man I love. And the three frames, which we already had, are the iconic Ikea Ribba.
ALL IN
This Zhuzh hit $237 before taxes, about $268 total.
If you count the $900 we spent last year,
we’re at $1168
to make our basement bathroom guest-ready
for another 10-15 years.
Thank goodness that’s over!
I can finally put that checkmark on my #FallPlanner2022!
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