DIY | Operation Home

Hey, y’all! I’m back from the totally unplanned siesta known as this week. Sorry about that. It’s just been a crazy week ’round these parts. Work was insane, we’ve had about 4 projects happening at home simultaneously, and I just couldn’t pull it together. Plus, the last thing that I wanted to do was post something that was half done with crappy pictures. So, now, thanks to yet another rainy day that put the kabash on several outdoor projects that we have going on right now, I actually have time to write a decent post. Hehe!

Anyways, last time I showed you the super cool eye chart print that we purchased from Urban Outfitters. And I mentioned that we’d purchased a second print as well. Well, now the other print has a home, too…

After trying it out in several different places in our home, I finally settled on the pool bath. I loved the contrast of the soft aqua walls with the bright red in the print. It’s just sassy. (And something that I seem to like in bathrooms, apparently). I also adore the scale of the art in our tiny bathroom. It just works for me. Something about a larger piece in a smaller room seems to make the space feel less dinky in my eyes.

Once I had the print up, I decided that it was high time that I got going on that pipe shelf that I’d talked about here. I’ve seen the shelf in question shelf ALL OVER Pinterest lately. I believe it’s a Restoration Hardware knock-off (for a fraction of the price). So, I decided to jump on the pipe-shelf-bandwagon, as well. I didn’t follow any tutorial since the shelf’s construction seems pretty self-explanatory just by looking at it.

Basically, I just purchased these parts:

2 – 3/4″ floor flanges

2 – 3/4″x8″ nipples

2 – 3/4″ caps.

Then, I did this….

(I also went over the pipes with vinegar to remove that unsightly sticky stuff left by the label) Next, I screwed them onto the wall with heavy-duty anchors…

Is that not the wonkiest shot ever?? It made me laugh, so I had to include it. In my head, I was picturing the wonky brackets sauntering down the street while drunkenly weaving across the sidewalk and slurringly telling bad jokes (which they happen to find hilarious, BTW). Haha! …See?? This is how you know it’s a good thing I didn’t post this week. Delirium is real. And it’s spectacular. (Namethatshow)

So anyways, despite their catawampus appearance in the above shot, I swear the pipes are actually straight and level. Here’s a more serious shot of one of them…

This guy has his grown-up pants on (or maybe I do now), so no laughter here.

In order to attach them to the wall, I detached the flange from the pipe, screwed the flange to the wall, then rescrewed the pipe back in afterwards. It made the drilling process much more streamlined.

Also, the simplest way that I found to ensure that the pipes are level to eachother was to mark the top hole of one flange on the wall, then use a laser level to determine placement of the top hole of the second flange. Then, I just held the flanges in place over my marks and traced the remaining three holes so I’d know where to insert my anchors. Worked like a charm.

Next, for the wood…

I simply purchased a 2″x 8″ piece of untreated wood from Home Depot and had it cut down to 26″ right there at the store (for freeeeeeee!!). To determine the appropriate length, I simply used a tape measure to eyeball the space above the toilet. 26″ was big enough to fill the space, but not too large as to crowd the wall.

Once I got the wood home, I sanded it with my orbital sander (and 220 grit sandpaper) to remove any splinters, ink, and dirty spots….

Then, I gave it one thin, even coat of this stain…

I was going for a grey-washed look and wanted lots of amber-toned wood grain to show through, so I simply ~~waxed on, waxed off.~~ Well, yeah. I totally waxed on, waxed off. Haha. Basically, I mopped up the excess stain with a dry cloth immediately after applying it, allowing zero time for my stain to soak in. Thus, I ended up with a lighter grey with lots of wood-toned grain showing through. I was a little worried at first as the grey seemed very blue in the sunlight…

…but once it was dry and I got it into the bathroom, it looked great…

I simply set the wood on top of the pipes. The weight of the wood and the raised pipe cap seem to be enough to keep the wood in place. I even shook it around to be sure and it didn’t move much. It’s kind of wedged between the flange and cap. I haven’t topcoated the stain with anything yet as I preferred the matte, weathered look as is. Though, I am considering a lower gloss tung oil to protect it from too much wear and tear (I doubt it’ll get abused much where it is, though).

Once the shelf was done, I accessorized…

This room is strange in that it’s SUPER tiny, and yet the toilet is off-center. So, even though it doesn’t appear as such in this shot (thanks to the camera angle), the shelf and mirror are centered on the wall. I thought that in such a small room, centered on the wall would look better than centered it on the toilet. Anyhoo, I hung this neat, star mirror that I found at Target for $14 on clearance and added some accessories to the shelf…

I just love the combo of the grapic print with the rustic shelf, and aqua walls…

Here’s the view looking into the space from the laundry room. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a window in this room. Maybe that’s something that we can look into further down the line to bring in some natural light. I’d also love to add some crown molding.

As for the styling, I’m still in the process of noodling around with the accessories. Although I really like it as is, I’d love to add some bright, playful elements being that I’m aiming for a fun and happy a pool bath. Right now the decor’s a bit more on the serious side. I used what I already had on hand and it turns out that anything bright and playful is already spoken for in other rooms (so ashoppin’ we will go!). 😉

And just to show you how the industrial pipe toilet paper dispenser plays in…

There ya go. I’m planning to change out the current striped rug for a round or oval jute rug. I also still need to find some art for the wall above the toilet paper dispenser. The room has come leaps and bounds from this, though…

I’m so excited to have finally made some progress in this space. It’s actually the only bathroom in the house that’s beginning to feel like us. And sadly, it’s probably the lesser used bathroom of them all at this point. I definitely suspect that it’s usage will go up when we start swimming in the summer, though.

So, that’s where I’ll end for today. I still have another little DIY project for this bathroom up my sleeve, so stay tuned… I thought it was too much for one post, so I’ll spread the love. 🙂

Y’all have a great weekend!

Alternate Titles for this post:

Need bad weather? No prob. We’ll just refinish our pool.
I thought I had a decor post, but my pictures decided otherwise. (Doh!)

So, anyways, since I have plenty to post about inside the house, but few viable photos at this time, I thought I’d give y’all a little update on what we’ve had going on outside. We knew from the start that our pool would need to be addressed shortly after buying our home. We think it was installed in the late 70s-early 80s and was somewhat neglected for a period of time before the owners whom we purchased the home from lived here. They replaced the filter, drained the pool, and had it cleaned, and while this was much needed (and pretty costly overall: pool filter = not cheap), unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to prevent us from having to put in some bucks as well. The previously white plaster had turned all shades of color as it wore out, which you can see through the water….

And there were cracks in the bottom….

Not only this, the coping was cracked in spots and the grout attaching it to the pool’s edge was chipping away…

and the coping had settled in towards the pool creating major tripping hazards… We were lucky that the cracks on the bottom of the pool hadn’t yet turned into major leaks. We were told that the process of refinishing the plaster would be much simpler because of this. We would only need a crew to come in and replaster the basin. We were told that if we waited much longer to complete the repairs and the cracks DID worsen into leaks, the process would be much more time consuming and costly. At that point, we would have to get an entirely different crew in there to properly seal the leaks, THEN have a refinishing crew come in to replaster the pool. So, we saved, got estimates, and planned to get it done as soon as we were able.

Once the time came, we chose our coping. Since flagstone was the cheapest option, we went with that. The flagstone that we chose was the lightest in color that the pool company offered…

We liked that it had both hints of orange and green. Orange to tie into the terracotta tile under the covered porch, and green to coordinate with the green tile border, which we’d planned on keeping. It seemed to be in good shape, and it would save us money to keep it so it was a no-brainer. That Monday, our pool was drained. They drilled holes in the bottom to allow any water that had settled beneath the pool to come up. We were told that a bunch of water was released in this process… Yet another sign that we’d done the right thing by not waiting any longer…

Then, demo of the coping ensued…

Notice anything missing?? I was at work while the pool was being demoed and that’s when I got the call from Joey. They’d been unable to remove the coping without removing the tile. Apparently, the tile wasn’t in as good a shape as we’d thought. It was barely hanging on for dear life. So, when they went to separate the coping from the tile, the tile came with it. Ugh. Thus, we would have to replace the tile. (= more cashola. Oy.) This is a lesson to remember when you go into projects like this. Always have a contingency fund. You never know when things like this will happen. So, that evening when I got home from work, we chose our tile. We ended up going with a pretty aquamarine tile with a hint of neutral undertones and a touch of glimmer.

{Insert picture here}

Yeah. There would’ve been a lovely photo there had I remembered to take one. Sorry guys. You’ll get a nice close-up shot once the pool is done. In the meantime, the pool looked like this after the tile and coping was installed…

The tile (and flagstone) are still really dirty in these pics from the mortar and dust so it isn’t a true representation of their colors, but you sort of get the idea. The little interesting divits and aquamarine shimmers in each tile are covered up by dirt which makes them appear more of a flat green than their actual color. These lovely attributes should be apparent once everything is finished and clean, though.

(Update: I found the sample tile in the garage and actually remembered to take a picture!! Here she is…)

(Sweet, right?) 😉

As for our choice, since the original plan had been to keep the green tile (which had white grout), we’d planned on resurfacing the basin with white plaster to match what was originally there. It was too late to change that at this point, so we had to factor in the white plaster when choosing tile. Once water was back in the pool, the bottom would appear blue-ish, so we wanted something fun and bright to compliment that, but still subtle enough to coordinate with the rest of our yard. And this tile accomplished that. Plus, something about that aquamarine tile just spoke to us. It was the first one I was drawn to.

Two days later another crew came to prep the basin for plaster. They chipped away any weak spots in the current plaster and applied a grey coating which we assume is some sort of primer/sealer (don’t quote me, though)…..

Then, Murphy’s Law happened. We went from sunny weather in the 50s-60s to weather in the 20s. In a day. In ONE day. #mothernaturesoncrackagain At this point, it was 7 days after they’d drained the pool. And we had an ice storm….

Two days later the 20ish-degree weather turned to 50ish-degrees…. and it rained. Then, the temperature dropped again into the 20s by that Friday and we had a bonafide Texas snow storm….

I know most northerners are probably laughing at this meager amount of snow, but here in Texas it qualifies as a big deal (sadly). The roads get slick and since we don’t have this weather often, nobody has snow tires… or knows how to drive for that matter. Seriously. The traffic map that Friday looked like this….

Most major highways… RED. (Insert pointer-finger-gesture) REDROAD! REDROAD! I was driving to work that Friday morning as the snowstorm was just starting to get bad and I witnessed two wrecks happen in front of me and three different cars spin out across the lanes and into the shoulder (as I was also slipping and sliding on the road although I was driving slowly and cautiously). It was stressful. I got to work, hurried so I could head home ASAP, and then got back on the roads. Ugh. My drive home (which normally takes 20 minutes) took an hour and a half. It was bumper to bumper traffic. But, at least I got home safely (and with a newly refreshed craving for wine in very a large glass).

So, anyways, That’s where we are right now on the pool front. It’s two weeks post pool-draining. It’s 39 degrees. It’s rainy. And snow is in the forecast for Wednesday. OH! But, WAIT. It’s supposed to be 66 degrees tomorrow. Riddle me that.

Anyways, so far the pool company that we’ve been working with has been great. They just can’t do anything until it’s dry and above freezing consistently. Things are just gonna remain at a stand-still until Mother Nature decides to remove head from sphincter. So, cross your fingers for nice weather!! And stay warm! 🙂