The Bathroom is finished

So finally, after 9 weeks, I can bring you the photos of the bathroom in all its finished glory. I fitted the mirror and shelf yesterday which means the only outstanding item we want is a small shelving unit so we have somewhere for all those bathing and showering knick-knacks, shaving supplies and other toiletries.

Now that we're at the end of the first major refurbishment in our new home, what went well and what would we do differently if we were starting over?

The Good
We love the colour. Colours I should say, because the blue walls, the crisp white suite and the calm cool grey of the floor and shower all give the room a really classy look. We toyed with blue towels but in the end Nikki decided she preferred more white. Our old grey towels go well too, so we have them as a backup or a set for guests.

We love the freestanding chrome pieces. I didn't even know these existed until recently but they really add something to the overall look. The lights too, nestling in the clean white ceiling, look fab. And the layout of the room is exactly how we planned it and works really well. Finally the suite itself is just what we'd hoped for. It looks good, it's practical and it's actually enjoyable to use if I can say that about a sink and a toilet!

The Bad
Not bad, exactly, but we both agree it would have been nicer to have the yellow patterned glass in both bottom *and* top panes of the sash windows instead of choosing the natural coloured glass in the top. We had the opportunity, but didn't take it. The glass we chose has an obfuscation (privacy) factor of something like 3, whereas the yellow glass is 7, but that's not the main reason. It's more that the yellow glass casts a lovely warm glow into the room and this would have been even more apparent with more of it.

We should have taken steps to protect the rest of the house from the "fallout" - the building dust that got absolutely everywhere that first week, and in some places still hasn't been cleaned up properly. Thank God we didn't have carpet down anywhere - I don't think we'd ever have got it clean and even trying would have cost us a fortune.

We didn't specify how we wanted the extractor fan wired, so by the time we realised it had been wired up to the main lights it was too late to change it. I would have preferred it on a separate switch. As it is, if we need the ventilation we now have to have the lights on, and if we need the lights on we have to have the fan going. And we could have got away with two fewer lights in the main area. We have eight in the main body of the room whereas six would have been plenty, especially since there are two more in the shower enclosure.

I should have saved the jellyfish light switch and mailed it to Don.

The Ugly
I should have checked the size of that shower enclosure. I berated the fitters for not doing that, and it *was* their job, but I read that warning notice too, and I could have measured it any evening after the enclosure was built (i.e. after the 3rd or 4th day). The whole shower door assembly could then have been sent back unopened, and exchanged for one the right size (and the right handing) before fitting started. It would have saved us three weeks hassle.

So there are a few minor things we would change with the finished article and a few things we would do differently to get to it, but really we are very happy. The door remains to be painted, but this is part of a separate project - I need to paint *all* the doors on the first floor - which won't happen until after the study and kitchen are done. At least one of our friends has said we now have her "dream bathroom" and I can easily relate to that, because it's our dream bathroom too. Yes, it cost us more than we expected - we're about 10% beyond our revised budget which itself was 50% larger than the budget we started with - but we were determined not to compromise. If it means the rest of the house has to go slower, so be it. The finished article is worth every penny and we'll have forgotten the cost long before we tire of using it. I've uploaded a full set of "after" shots to my Flickr bathroom project set.