The Master Bath

I promise I was going to totally make this about the kitchen, but amazingly I couldn’t find any of the 1000 photos I took of the kitchen, so here it is- the Master Bath. When we came into the tiny space (5×4′, perhaps? Or is that an exaggeration?) we had never seen a shower like that before. Very cool in kind of a retro-y way- we’re actually hanging on to it for the distant future, if we decide to add another bathroom. But definitely not a master bathroom ala the ones I had seen in Traditional Home, Elle Decor, or even North Raleigh. Thus it has become a huge project. The laughable part is that I thought it would be easy. Not easy, exactly, but I fantasized walking into places picking out the perfect tile, wall coverings, tub, sinks, mirrors, hardware. Do you see what happened? Somewhere in that transition it occurred to me that picking out that stuff is time consuming and hard. Everytime I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, I changed my mind. Most of your time is spent going back and forth trying to figure out what your square footage is, what color sink you want, and if it will match the hardware you thought you wanted. Also, the places that sell these items (unless you’re shopping at a big box store) are only made for designers, contractors, and ladies who lunch- their hours are like 10-5, so if you have normal jobs it’s really hard to get anywhere to see it. Go on a Saturday, you say? Sure, we will be there when you are open between 10 and 12. So, Master Bath. Those are photos as it was when we purchased the house. I’ll be adding more photos of what it looks like now, completely gutted. I mean, the ceiling is literally gone. Did I mention we’re doing electrical rewiring? Every time a wall comes down, there are more discoveries to be made…sometimes it’s hard for me to understand why we took on this project when I was pregnant. I mean, I started a new job in January, we are having a baby in July, and out of…. boredom? fear? self-loathing? We decided that wasn’t going to keep us busy enough. And if you were worried that we were only gutting and redoing that tiny space, we are not. We have knocked out a wall, and the master closet to expand the master bath. The closet is going on the opposite wall (we’re technically stealing the baby’s original closet), and thus the bathroom was extended by something like 18″, but we’ll take it… not really, it added on enough room for a real vanity and tub, but it’s not going to be anything like a huge master bath. We were overjoyed to learn there would be space for double sinks. Today when speaking with a couple of co-workers, I spoke briefly about living in NYC after college. Mainly I was talking about how hard the dating scene was there, even though there are literally hundreds of thousands of single people in the city. Then, I returned to my desk and realized that instead of spending my Saturday getting a pedicure and visiting the 18th St. H&M (Have you been there? It’s my favorite of the H&Ms, we’re going to be going to look at tile. Again. And I’m probably going to spend some time watching my belly, which is my new favorite entertainment- I think I can identify elbows and knees. Elbows or Knees. It’s not really super specific. I feel like I’m really awful at identifying baby parts. Like I can’t always be sure if baby is kicking or punching. Or maybe the baby is bored, from looking at different subway tiles. Here’s to a generation that is obsessed with perfection in bathrooms!