Bathroom Renovaton | $100 Room Challenge | Week 1

Out of all the projects we have done in the past year, it’s funny to me that this is the one that gets posted first. This one is not recovering from flood damage, but it needs to be done. We only have huge projects left for rebuilding the house and we’ve been taking a breather from those.

We can totally do a smaller project though, and when I saw that Erin from Lemons, Lavender, and Laundry was hosting her bi-annual $100 Room Challenge this month I figured it would be perfect for this. We’re going to give the upstairs bathroom a facelift! This is actually my second time participating in this challenge. We made over our coat closet with a fun color back in 2017.

This is the kids’ jack and jill bathroom. It’s the main bathroom for all four of our kids. When we first moved back home after the Hurricane Florence flood, this was our only bathroom for all six of us for months. It was then, when I was using it myself so much, that I decided I really wanted to fix it up as soon as we got some time. It is completely original to the house as far as I know. It has some of the most interesting wallpaper ever.

So what can you do in a bathroom for $100? Here’s what I hope to do to make the biggest impact:

1. Remove the wallpaper

I actually don’t hate the wallpaper, but I know it’s definitely not for everyone. It has to come down though because apparently one of the kids was bored while they sat on the toilet and decided to peel wallpaper off. And not in a good way. So there will be some drywall repairs too.

I want to just paint the walls afterward. I am not looking forward to working at this height again though. When we renovated the bathroom in our attached apartment, it was this height also.

2. Replace the flooring

Not only is the linoleum over 30 years old, a girl who shall remain nameless has spilled nail polish on it many times over the past few years. Thankfully she has outgrown that. There is also very thick old caulk around the edges that needs to be replaced. And the gap beside the tub needs to go away.

This is where the bulk of the budget is going to go. I think I’ve found a solution in groutable vinyl tile. We used that product in our previous house and I loved it. It totally felt and looked like real tile. It’s easy and fast to install. That will be important because we can’t have this bathroom out of commission for very long before bathroom fights will start breaking out.

3. Remove the glass shower doors.

I absolutely hate these doors! They are rusty and get stuck. The handle fell off of one door and that made it even harder to open. My little one has smashed his fingers in them multiple times.

I can’t do anything about the rounded shower and tub combo in this bathroom with this budget even though it is dated. I really don’t think it’s necessary to remove the whole thing right now, even though we have removed two of these units in previous bathroom renovations.

4. Update or frame the mirror

It’s a really big mirror! It needs something. The edges aren’t in the greatest shape, so we will probably frame it.

5. Add decor

This part will be iffy because of sticking to the $100 budget. I will most likely shop the house to accomplish this. I’m keeping that cute towel rack.

6. Maybe paint the cabinet?

I'm torn about this so it will be a decision for later. You can't live in a log home and not love natural, unpainted wood. In other bathroom renovations we have done, it felt right to paint the cabinets because the walls were wood and the ceiling was wood.

This bathroom doesn't have log walls so there isn't the issue of breaking up all the wood. I do have paint left over from painting the downstairs main bathroom cabinets recently (that post is coming soon...) and it would work for my plans. But the kids are really hard on this bathroom. There is always toothpaste dripping down these cabinet doors. I am a little concerned that a painted surface will not stand up to the regular scrubbing that these cabinets require. Also, looking at this picture I just realized we're missing a cabinet door knob, lol! Hopefully I can find that...

Catch up with all of the updates for this project:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

(links added weekly)

So that’s it. The $100 Room Challenge only lasts for a month, and this month we have 5 weeks, so that’s my deadline. I’ll be updating each week. I really need a deadline to accomplish things quickly, so this is good!

Here are the links so you can check out all of the other projects being done for just $100. I’m always amazed at what can be done with creativity and ingenuity!