ReSET to ReSELL - Episode 2: The Metallic Primary Bathroom

Hey everyone! Welcome back! This is Episode 2 of ReSET to ReSELL! A couple of weeks ago we completed the half bath on the main floor and this weekend was the primary bathroom. If you want the full background on who I am and why all of this is important, check out the first installment of this blog on our Verity Group website HERE!

A couple of changes since the last time I posted: I flew to San Antonio the second week of January to scope out neighborhoods and narrow our search field for our next house and as my boss and good friend, Heather, predicted: We found a house we really loved and made an offer. For the record, I vehemently denied this was going to happen. YOU WERE RIGHT, HEATHER! We are currently in the inspection phase so I won't post anything else about it for now, but I want to shout out our real estate agent, Michelle Killian at Homefront United Realty, powered by PLACE and KW City View, for taking such good care of us and just generally being awesome. If you're looking for an agent in San Antonio, call Michelle. And YES!!! Real estate agents have real estate agents!! WHY? Because it's smart. Am I intelligent? Yes. Can I read contracts? Yes. Do I know the market in the area I'm moving to? NO. Do I want someone who does to guide me? YES!!  

We also decided to take advantage of the upcoming "PCS Season" and list in April. For those unfamiliar with military acronyms, PCS is Permanent Change of Station. Many folks transfer from their places of duty just before summer. That cinches up our timeline a bit, so we made some choices. If you remember from last episode, our schedule had us listing in May and doing final resetting and clean up that month. We've moved that to mid-April so we decided to leave the garage as is. The paint matches the custom epoxy flooring, and..... it's the garage. In this area, our townhouse will likely appeal to a lot of military personnel who would use the garage space as a gym and if not, it's still a garage.... so we're probably okay. Here is the new schedule:

January: 
Half bath on the main floor ✅
Primary bath ✅
February:
Both offices (this is STILL going to SUCK, in case you were wondering. I am literally dreading it)
March:
Kitchen
Living room/upper stairway
April:
Primary Bedroom

Anything else remaining

The primary bathroom was one of the first rooms I repainted when I moved in. It was also the second time I put peel and stick wallpaper up. Here's the before pics:

Y'all.... this is a #DIYprotip coming at you: If you start decorating your home and your spouse/ partner/ friend/ roommate says, "hey! I saw this super cool metallic peel and stick wallpaper on line. I'm going to get it!" The FIRST response you should have is "Abso-freaking-lutely not." A SECOND, and also appropriate, response would be to change your identity and run away to a non-extradition treaty country. I realize this sounds dramatic. It's not. Having just spent an entire day peeling this abomination off the wall, trust me here. The adhesive was not the problem. The plastic overlay was peeling off the metallic wallpaper and then it was like someone had glued wadded up aluminum foil to the wall whilst trying to flatten it back out. It. Was. Infuriating.

Once we got everything off the wall, we sanded it down and cleaned everything off. The wallpaper definitely took some pieces of the dry wall with it. In retrospect, I should have painted the walls with my favorite Sherwin Williams satin BEFORE I put the peel and stick on but I didn't, so my husband got to flex his drywall patch skills. It wasn't bad, but we could have skipped it, ya know?

Obviously, based on size and the pain in the a$$ of this particular wallpaper, it took most of the weekend to complete this bathroom. Cutting in took a bit, but the whole project was still done over two days. Prepping, removing decorations, filling, sanding, painting, replacing mats and decorations cost about $300. And no, we don't use painter's tape. If you can get skilled with cutting in, it will save you hours of irritation putting up tape that doesn't really seal anway.

I loved the black wall, though, and I was super sad to see it go. There's nothing better (for me) than a bit of drama on the wall. I don't like it anywhere else, though. 😂 We hit all the walls with two coats of our favorite Sherwin Williams Gray Screen in Satin, except for the wall behind the toilet. We just did one coat there. I also noticed as I was cleaning up the base boards that the original paint was coming off? I have opinions about that, but I'll leave it alone for now. So, we grabbed a gallon of trim paint and touched up all the baseboards in the bathroom with two coats. Background point here on the tile choices in this bathroom. I bought this townhouse in 2020 in the height of COVID restrictions. Labor and supply lines were struggling. This was not the original tile I chose. It turns out, my interpretation of "white tile" and a certain builder's interpretation are vastly different. If the house hadn't already been delayed by months and if I had not been quickly approaching a hard deployment deadline, I would have waited on the correct tile. 

Now, I'm going to say this knowing full well someone who might want to buy our townhouse could see it. I HATE THE GRAY PAINT IN HERE. Okay, maybe "hate" is a strong word, but it's just not me. Is it neutral? Yep. Will this allow a potential buyer to see their stuff in here? Yep. Is it going to annoy me until we move? Probably. One thing I realized when we painted it gray is how light-absorbant black paint is. We can now do surgery in the bathroom. I can see into the future in here.

And, for the big reveal (drumroll, please), here are the after photos:

You know I had to have my pop of color! I do have to live here until we sell it. I used a picture from another room to replace my golden-framed fae art and found some wall art from Hobby Lobby on sale. I recognize the rugs are not technically "bath rugs", so don't @ me....they are washable and stupid soft. Also, they were on sale at Marshall's. Okay! That's it for now! We'll see you next time as we knock out our two offices. Did I mention I'm not looking forward to this?