0 The Downstairs Bathroom - Before

For 12 years now, I've been fantasizing about taking a sledge hammer to the floor of this bathroom!

Actually, from this viewpoint, this bathroom looks nice. But...

The 12 x 12 tile was supposed to mimic green marble back in the day. It actually looks like a photograph laminated over porcelain.

To make it worse, the tile is also on the countertop. Bad grout job. How many times have I taken a knife to this edge?

The wood countertop edge has seen better days.

The heavily textured walls make me even more crazy!

Then, there are the fixtures. All of the "hot" and "cold" buttons are long gone. The porcelain handles in the shower are cracked.

I could possibly recycle this faucet, but again, the porcelain buttons are gone.

So now that you have seen the bad and ugly, here is what's good about this bathroom.

It opens to the outside, so guests or swimmers can use it without going through the house.

It is positioned near the family room, just down the hall and across from the guest room, where my Mom stays when she visits me.

She loves this bathroom, and is sorry I'm changing the tile, but I am assuring her it will be better.

This is the plan:

Replace the counter with honed Carrara marble and undermount the sink.

Replace the glue-on mirror with an oval mirror over the sink and a sconce to the left.

Tile wainscot will be replaced with tongue and groove to cut costs.

Drywall will be floated out smooth.

The shower tile will be replaced with simple white subway.

And the fake green marble floor will be replaced with....

...black honed marble hexagon tile!

My Mom's bathroom is getting a facelift. And if that isn't enough, I'm doing the same thing to my daughter's bathroom. "Before" photos to follow....

That's new tile in two bathrooms and new countertops in the kitchen.

Hopefully, it can all be finished before Mr. A's 60th birthday party in November and my daughter Ashley's wedding in December.

That's my incentive to "getter done!"

I'm going for it!