As our girls are getting older and friends are making the mass exodus to the burbs, I’ve decided the only way to distract my husband from even considering a move from the city is to update our home. We’ve lived here for almost seven years (the longest we’ve resided anywhere together) and some of our finishes are looking a little worn.
After last spring’s flood in the basement and home office renovation, we decided updating the master bathroom was next. Over the past few years we’ve obtained multiple quotes to completely remodel the entire space – removing all the tile from the shower, floor, tub surround – would have cost around $10,000.
Based on the value of our home we’d never recoup that type of investment and honestly I liked our bathroom with the exception of the flooring. When we originally purchased the floors were in good shape, however over the years the tile has become worn and grout lines constantly look dirty.
As much as I love the look of white subway and white octagon tile, it’s extremely difficult to keep clean. Especially because we have outlawed chemical based cleaners. My husband would love nothing more than to change it all but I happen to love the look. The dirty grout lines are my only complaint.
Who wants to live in a dirty bathroom??
We finally found a contractor that would agree to replace just the flooring and re-grout the subway tiles. Selecting new flooring was simple. After searching Pinterest for ideas, I knew we would go with white marble to compliment the white carrera countertops.
Before:
Looking at these photos makes me cringe – disgusting. It looks like we never cleaned our floors. Now I see why it was driving us so crazy. Pretty bad uh?
One thing to notice in the photo above, the steam spout in the shower was installed entirely too low causing the floor to crack. Our contractor was able to move up higher during the renovation.
After:
What do you think? Definite improvement. I love the basket weave design and the grout lines are almost invisible. The project required replacing a few rows of the subway tiles along the bottom of the shower stall. You can see the slight discoloration but hopefully it’s not that noticeable.
Marble Floor: Calacatta Basket Weave Polished Marble Mosaic Tile Outlet $14 per square foot
