Isn’t it funny how when you move out of a house (whether selling or renting it), you finish up house projects you’d been dilly dallying finishing the whole time you’ve lived there?!  Well, we had quite a few to wrap up before we moved to Mississippi:

  • Periwinkle explosion guest bathroom
  • Car-sized antenna on the room replacement
  • Never-ending basement re-do finishing touches

Let’s start with the guest bathroom.  If you’ve been reading for awhile, you might remember the guest bathroom wallpaper saga.

First I decided the periwinkle walls painted by the previous owners finally had to go (three years later), so I was on the hunt for a wallpaper…. I decided on an awesome floral-y print via Knack Studios that would totally “hide” the 1960s yellow shower tile and gray and yellow floor tile.

my first periwinkle cover-up option

That was last July…  Then I found out it was discontinued.  Ugh.  (But honestly in retrospect I’m very glad I didn’t pick it…it’s a little frumpy or something.) Then I found the PERFECT wallpaper replacement (way better than my original choice!) via Cole & Son, but debated whether the shipping charge (as much as the paper itself) was worth it.  Totally indecisive.

oh this would have been pretty!

I hemmed and hawed, and the walls remained periwinkle.  Ick.

Fast forward, oh, 6 months or so…

When we found out we were moving and we’d be getting renters, I knew I had to change it, the last vestige of bad paint color choices of the previous renters.  So, paint swatch in hand, I picked Benjamin Moore’s Sterling and it turned out PERFECTLY.

see ya, periwinkle!

That picture doesn’t do the hideousness of the periwinkle justice.  It was so bright.  And so periwinkle.  And so wrong!  Thank goodness for paint!  The gray I chose was a really really wonderful gray – definitely warm but not yellow.

isn't the gray beautiful?! (and i'm totally sure you wanted to see my toilet)

And it goes so well with the gray and yellow tile on the floor.  Why didn’t I do this before?!

doesn't it go great with the yellow tile?

But painting wasn’t all I had to do.

getting the broken grout out using a grout saw

Since the bathroom didn’t get used much (other than me doing hair and makeup), we never worried about the cracked grout and bad caulk job.

glad this shower is barely used! we had work to do!

But with renters moving in, we didn’t want to have to worry about leaks.

in addition to grouting we had a LOT of caulking to do in the whole bathroom

And then there were the major gaps around the faucet:

yikes, lots of gaps around the '60s faucet needing some major caulk!

But just a few hours of scraping and squeezing and wiping later, and it was alllll done.  And looked so fresh and so clean (clean).  🙂  We used a pre-sanded grout in a tube for the cracks and a paintable bathroom caulk in pure white for the caulk work.

all done!

I really wish I would have just painted the darn bathroom when we moved in…instead of hating the color every morning when I blow dried my hair!

But it sure felt good to be rid of the periwinkle!  Good choice?!