musaccs: the walls could collapse...

Dad and I have worked on several projects now and a general theme has emerged: he says, "really, that's what you/you guys want?" to which I reply, "trust me Dad, it will look amazing".

Whether his disbelief was because of feasibility...

wood floors on a budget (same price as carpet... only uninstalled/unfinished!?!)
swapping kitchen appliances in houses that are hours away
changing a light fixture 20 feet up without scaffolding

or design...

deep orange wall in the dining room
powder blue sectional sofa (of which I ordered the wrong orientation and he caught it before the order was sent off to Italy - oh my)
black and white composite tiles for the kitchen floor
4 coats of red paint for the above mentioned kitchen and Tiffany blue for the laundry

He always manages to make it happen and [at least because he's my Dad] appears to agree that the result is fabulous. We found ourselves in the same situation when I asked, "So, Dad, how difficult to you think it would be to remodel our bathroom?". Well, I am used to new construction or relatively basic cosmetic changes - I now know that what I asked him was wrong on multiple levels. I'm surprised he even justified my question with an answer. "How difficult" should never be followed by the words "remodel" and "bathroom".

He remained a bit skeptical when we explained our intent was to cover just about every surface in slate. Providing he wasn't the one to rip out the old tile, he was on board. Todd powered through the tile demo since I was useless in that endeavor and we ordered a ridiculous amount of slate... 12x12 tiles for the floor and 18x18 for the walls... later, 6x6 for the shower. To this day, my Dad has never said "no" to a design request; however, when he inspected the massive 18x18 tiles and evaluated my plan to take them up the entire 9' wall, he did let me know that the walls would likely collapse. At that point, after I realized he wasn't kidding, we opted for about 3' high.

We started this project in April and it consumed a great amount of time. Even though we're kind of paying customers these days, my Dad seriously donated some of his sanity to this project. He had to work with natural unlevel slate, a suspended vanity (with glass top) and cabinet, vessel sinks, ripping out an entire section of drywall to replace the plumbing and electrical and so many other things were weren't capable of doing. I impressed myself (and the boys) with my grouting ability and Todd continued to capitalize on my demonstrated painting skills.

The transformation is so significant that it is tough to remember the old bathroom after the last couple months of living with the new. Out with the old... and in with the new! It's a big room, but very difficult to photograph - I did my best to capture the changes.