Not so Quickie Powder Room Fix up

The day before Thanksgiving I moved into this house.  Why?  Because I love being insane…I really do.  Thankfully (get it….Thanksgiving….) I had the help of my wonderful parents to get most of it done.  It was quite the whirlwind to leave the home that started my life here in NJ and the home where I brought my babies home, and start an entirely new life.  Besides the emotional aspect, to move and get the boys settled and then host Thanksgiving?  Quite the feat if I do say so myself!
That being said, we didn’t get much done in the way of decorating or even putting away while my parents were here that time.  It was just getting in.  But they managed to make it back for a few weeks over the Christmas holiday and DON’T YOU KNOW that I put them to work!  One of the must do projects was the powder room.  We figured a little paint to give it a fresh little pick me up will be good.  That’s all it needs for now.  Let me give you the breakdown of the before:

Oooohhhh Yeah!  That’s what I call sexy!  Burnt orange in this teeny tiny bathroom with amazing laminate counter tops and vanity lights that were practically hanging off the wall.  Hot stuff I tell ya!  And that ceramic towel bar and tp holder….they’re the new big thing. (Yeah they had to go)
My dad tried to convince me that since we couldn’t find any set screws for the bar and holder that they were staying.  Um, no.  They were placed randomly in the middle of the wall so if you open the powder room door they are right there to greet you.  So after convincing him that they were probably just glued to the drywall and we’d just have to do a little spackeling, he agreed to take it down.  Then we were left with this

Yes that’s right…a giant hole in the wall.  This turned into a completely different kind of project now.  Thankfully I work at a home improvement store and was not worried that I could ask the right people for help.  The lovely previous homeowners had install a ceramic towel bar INTO drywall.  It was amazing.  So since we had one hole in the wall….we figured why not have three….just for kicks! The towel bar came off fairly easy and in one piece…

Which then led my dad to go all crazy on the tp holder when it didn’t come off right away, which in turn led to a mad hunt for band aids in moving boxes due to a nice slice of the finger.  Just a side note, my dad had about 4 band aids on his right hand at some point during their visit. 

We debated the best way to patch these holes and after consulting a few people at  my place of business, they directed us to these lil' babies

I unfortunately don’t have any process pics because I was doing the work and my dad was to be in charge of the camera…..so….you know….
But all in all its really simple.  You place the metal mesh centered over the hole, spackle, let dry, sand, repeat. It took about 12 hours for the first round of spackle to dry, about 3 for the second and I just did one more to smooth out.  It looked amazing afterwards if I do say so myself.  Next up was painting!  To be continured...