Whenever I think of my bathroom I cringe, literally.

This is what it looked like when we moved in. Notice the plastic tile (I didn't even know there was such a thing), mint and mauve color combo, and the CARPET, seriously, who puts carpet in the bathroom! Oh and the ugly mirror and tube lights.

Yeah, the shower all mauve... grandma mauve, mauve, mauve... We got ambitious and tore all that gross plastic tile down...

You would think my story gets better from there... not really... that was TWO YEARS ago. You wanna see what my bathroom looks like now?

Every time I have to use my bathroom a big ugly elephant is in the room... grout, grout, grout everywhere! Nothing is yuckier than unfinished walls.

Justin and I bit off more than we could chew. We really thought, we will pull it all down and put up something new soon... then two years went by. Two years of staring at grout, two years of people coming over to hang out and having to use this bathroom, two years of sitting in the bath tub and using a hand shower...

Now ladies, I'm not a southern belle, I'm not a diva, I'm not high maintenance... but I'm still a woman... It has been rough using this bathroom every day for two years, believe me... but you know what, I'm kinda glad for the experience... WHAT! yeah I know... It has showed me that I do have patience and that I can be content in any situation.

A few weeks ago, I went to Justin and basically said, "Babe, I don't think we'll ever get my bathroom done on our own. It's just too much work for us. We don't have the skills we need or friends who do. I think we should hire a contractor that way we can get it done in a week or so, instead of drawling it out hoping we can come up with ideas." And he couldn't agree more. He gave me the go ahead to call every contractor in Southern IL (ok, bit of and overstatement) to start collecting estimates. We've had two come through so far, and there will be more. There is finally a light at the end of this long, long tunnel.

I've been dreaming about how my bathroom would look for two years, and I have a really clear picture in my mind... now it's just finding the right contractor for the right price who can do the job right. I feel like I haven't been blogging much about house stuff lately because I just don't want to think about it, lol. Some of our projects are so big and overwhelming, I just push them out of my mind. But now I have an opportunity to plan, really plan, for something that is going to happen. I'm pumped!

A few days ago, I stumbled across some really cool stencils on Better After. (She just re-did her bathroom, and it's lovely!) I wanted to show you! My bathroom will have at least one stenciled wall :) I love the way they had so much pop and personality to a room.

All these stencils are from Cutting Edge Stencils, which has many, many more options if you are looking.