I have a weird bathroom in the basement of my home. The owners of the home before us had five daughters along with sons. They intended to have a guest room and a bathroom off the guest room and planned that and put up walls before thinking that the kids would need to use the bathroom daily where as a guest would only use it occasionally. They then, in mid construction thought that with all those girls, they should make a long counter with lights and add a few sinks and a big tub so they could get ready and have a sink if someone was using the bathroom or taking a shower so they put a bathroom, inside of a bigger bathroom. It is an odd design but has worked since we also have five girls. However, when we purchased the home, we only had three girls.
So, with that, I will share that yesterdays post talked about my larger bathroom and most of today's post will describe the smaller bathroom. I was blessed to find that cute netting shower curtain at a second hand store. I was thrilled when I found it as I had just started collecting things for the bathroom beach idea. I used a lei to hold the fishing net shower curtain to the side and stuck a little hook on the wall to hold it back as I didn't want it moving each time someone climbed into the shower. I found this great shower curtain rod that has two sets of hooks which allow you to have a decorative shower curtain that opens and closes on its own independent of the shower plastic liner. I think I got it at Walmart in the clearance section. I had thought about hanging two different rods but was grateful that someone creative had invented this great rod saving me having to put up two individual rods.
The cute items in the window in the shower are mostly from the dollar store. The window in the shower caused problems. When I bought the home, there was a plastic surround in the bathroom which they put over regular dry wall and used some type of non waterproof glue to hold it on. No, that didn't hold and caused them problems to which they used dry wall screws to try and attach the surround plastic to the drywall. This wasn't an issue as long as I only had one child showering in the basement.
When I had older girls and they started using the downstairs shower more, we started to have problems with the moisture going through the wall into the next room. I got frustrated and ripped it all out to find that the drywall was acting as a wick taking the water through the wall. I ripped out the drywall to the studs and started over.
If you are going to do a shower that has a window, there aren't many options. I looked at many and finally, figured Marble or tile were the only options other than special order because of the window in the shower. Most showers don't have a window. They didn't vent the bathroom so I guess the window was their solution. If you decide you want to tile a small area, may I suggest that you do what I suggested in yesterdays post. Call friends and family and see if anyone has any left over tile. Find out how much. Then do the math. I didn't pay anything for the tile in the shower. You can see it clearly in the top picture.
I had my dad come down to help and borrowed a tile cutter from a friend and after putting in special drywall that is for bathrooms, we set to work tiling the shower. My friend Sara and her husband brought down the larger tiles from a project they did and the smaller tiles are left over from my friends Michelle's kitchen. They didn't want to take the tile when they moved across the country not sure what the new owners would need. The new owners didn't want the tile so I inherited it. Tile cost nothing. Labor cost nothing. The curtain rod was the most expensive thing in the entire bathroom, both bathrooms actually.
My friend Sondra had a three CD player which has colored lights along with a radio and I put that in the larger bathroom on the wall at the end of the long counter and mirror and the girls listen to music while they get ready in the bathroom. My mother gave me many of the decorations and I purchased all other framed pictures, shells, etc at second hand stores or yard sales and the other decorations were from the dollar store or on clearance.
On the long counter in the large bathroom, I keep a large shell with little trial size containers of lotion, soap, shampoo, floss etc so when we have company, they can find anything they may need at their fingertips. I also found a cute fish candle holder at a second hand store which I thought was cute.
I wasn't sure what to do about bath mats and wanted to make it look beachy but without the thick bath mats that don't dry well and without a vent in the small bathroom, I didn't like the idea of a bath mat that holds and collects water. I set about looking for those reed type mats that you take to the beach that roll up thinking that those would be cute. I was thrilled when I went to Walmart and found these thin tan mats that look like a beach mat to me. They were actually in the kitchen section with dish towels and they are soft, light, don't maintain the water so they dry quickly and my favorite, they wash well. I find bath mats with rubber backing have a VERY limited life when it comes to washing. I like to just throw them in the wash with the towels.
I have a jar full of medium shells the the girls have collected over the years and stuck them in an antique mason jar and put a shell lei around it and put it on the medicine cabinet. There isn't much room in the smaller bathroom to decorate but I still like to add something. I also put a little glass fish that has a small gold fish swimming inside it up there as well. I found a paper towel holder with sea shells on it and a cute seashell shaped vase that we use to hold toothbrushes. I found two cute sand resin wall hangings that have a starfish on one and a seashell on the other like you were looking at the seashell in the sand hanging on the other wall and you can see in this bottom picture that I found a fun knot wall shadow box with many different ships knots and is in the colors of the other wall sayings I showed on yesterday's post.
I am so glad that I was able to pull the bathrooms together with a similar theme and find all the decorations so inexpensively. I live in a very limited budget but Heavenly Father has so blessed me to be able to find the things I wish for and need at very little cost or free through friends.
Just yesterday, I had company from out of state and used my last few cans of tuna. I thought I had purchased a case at the local stores case lot sale the week before. I went out and looked for it and I then remembered I had talked myself out of buying thinking we don't eat it often and thought I had a case. I planned on making a trip to the store to see if they had any cases left from their sale. Not 5 hours later, just as my guest was leaving, my friend Susan called asking me about expiration dates on tuna and said she had a full case they had never used because her husband didn't like it and wondered if I knew if anyone who would use it. I laughed and told her she had been an answer to my prayers. I could have easily gone to the store and bought a case. But, my Heavenly Father knows I would rather use that money on my girls and have many uses for it with a missionary out and another getting ready for college so he blessed me with a friend calling and offering me her case that was going unused. This friend has done this once before and I wrote about her in this blog about Moringa. Click here to see that post. So thanks to inspired friends and family, I am extremely blessed. But most of all, I have to give gratitude to my Heavenly Father and his angels that work overtime in my behalf for giving me everything I want or need. I am truly blessed.
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