We bought our current home in December 2021. We immediately began making it our own, by giving it a fresh paint job in the colour Snowbound by Sherwin Williams.
Besides painting, the first thing on our to do list was create a basement bathroom! The basement is our family hangout area and also where our home office is. In our previous home we had a full bathroom in our basement which was very convenient, so we knew it was a must.
We set aside the money and were about to pull the trigger when we realized the driveway needed immediate attention. So we shelled out the money on that and put our basement bathroom on hold. Although on hold, I knew we were going to get to it, so I started dreaming up a plan.
Once this bathroom was complete, I knew it’s most frequent users would be my kids and my husband- practical and easy to maintain was the game plan. My husband’s one ask was something in the space in his favourite colour, green. With that in mind I made this mood board.
Life happened and in April 2023 our basement flooded. Not exactly what we had on our bingo cards, but the silver lining was it gave us the opportunity to start this project.
We built it completely from the ground up, framing walls, and opening concrete to install drains.
The demo was dusty, to say the least. The rest of the basement was under construction, so we weren’t too stressed about it.
We hired out the plumbing to a “licensed” plumber we found on Facebook, more on that later.
Once the plumbing was complete, we had all our electric ran. We closed back up the floors. Then we completed building the walls. We added drywall and waterproofing.
After much debating we decided to hire out the tile work to my uncle. He has been doing tiling for over 25 years and made quick work of the tile.
We chose a simple yet classic white subway tile for the shower. I stuck to my vision board and selected a beautiful black hexagon mosaic tile for the floor.
Once the bathroom tile was complete, we of coursed started using the bathroom. We quickly discovered an issue, as water was slow to drain in a our newly installed bathroom.
We checked the backwater valve which is located within our bathroom floor, to our surprise it was filled with water.
We called the “plumber” back and he “fixed” the issue.
When I asked him what the issue was he insisted the “backwater valve had ceased up”.
His answered just didn’t sit right with me. So in true Capricorn fashion I opened up the backwater valve to inspect his work.
My suspicions were confirmed. I found that the backwater door was completely gone.
The plumber insisted that it was just an oversight. He came up with “solutions” to avoid admitting he had installed it backwards. We unfortunately were left, needing to demolish our brand new bathroom.
This all took place back in the end of 2023, start of 2024. I was frozen in frustration for quite some time. I was (still am) annoyed that I now have to reinvest time and money in a project that was already done. I have many other projects I would love to tackle around the house.
Finally this month, we decided to demo the bathroom floor again. We hired a plumbing company to have the backwater valve installed in the correct direction.
Sigh, that was a lot. If you guys stuck along to the end, thank you and stay tuned for the reveal of our basement bathroom.
In the mean time, here’s a sneak peek of the tile we chose this time. Also, here’s our updated vision board.
Thanks for reading!
SA Design Studios 
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