A Day In The Life Of – Renovating

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comPer your request, I’m continuing the “A Day in the Life Of” series! As I mentioned in the video Q&A last week, Emmett and I don’t renovate full time… we typically work on our house in the evenings and on weekends. This week has been an odd work week for me because we are behind– really behind on the guest bathroom renovation. In addition to my regular workload (blog content, interior design, styling, etc), I’m trying to make up for lost time and check some renovation tasks off the to-do list. My schedule is different every single day based on the nature of the projects I have happening, but this week I’ve been in full reno mode. Click through to see how a day in the life of renovating looks for me. There are also sneak peeks of the bathroom..

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comIf you’re wondering what being “behind on a renovation” means or looks like, it basically equates to being behind schedule. Some room renovations or projects are on our own time, while others include sponsors or brand partners. I don’t talk much about sponsored posts because that’s really only a small portion of my business, but it’s one way I make money and keep the blog running. For sponsored projects, posts, or renovations that involve brands, a contract is always involved. That’s probably a good thing because it gives Emmett and I a hard deadline and incentivizes us to tackle certain projects in a timely manner. Long story short, sometimes it’s difficult to schedule or estimate how long a room renovation will take- because with construction, you just never know how things will unfold. It’s only the two of us, working side-by-side… we don’t have a team, we don’t hire contractors, we do things as efficiently as possible, but sometimes tasks take us longer than we initially guesstimate.

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comAll of that to say- this month’s “A Day in the Life Of” is me playing catch up in the guest bath. I’ve spent the past few days at home, which is normal for my standard work week. The difference is, I’ve been staring at the tile saw more than my computer. It’s actually a nice change of pace and I enjoy tiling (and the bathroom will be gorg!), so I can’t complain. This bathroom actually has me VERY excited- the only stressful part is the looming deadline. As a small business owner, I always try to overdeliver and being punctual with projects is a big part of that. My type-A personality panics when the schedule veers off course. Immediately after the guest bathroom reveal, my family is coming into town (including my g-ma)… so the pressure is really on. I want to give them a beautiful bath to use and enjoy during their visit.

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comThis week the focus has been tile. I like to plan out the tile pattern and make all of the cuts at once. The tile saw is set up in our garage and I quickly learned running up and down the stairs for each piece of tile gets exhausting quickly. The bathroom is on the upper level and those stairs are a serious workout! My legs were screaming after an hour the first day we tiled. Then again, I’m out of shape. Ha! I selfishly got Emmett this tile saw and stand for Christmas (knowing that bathroom was about to happen) and this is our first project using it- so far, so good.

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comIn between buckets of mud, I give the tile a break, head downstairs to my office, respond to emails / social media, and prepare the blog post for the next day. Spoiler alert, tomorrow’s post is “5 Design Elements I’d Like to See More Of”, so I spent a good portion of the day drafting that. Sometimes I’ll schedule posts out a week or so in advance, but lately, between juggling the bathroom renovation and clients, I’ve pretty much been working in real time.

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comHonestly, it takes a lot of time and energy to share 5 GOOD (quality) blog posts per week, renovate a home, coordinate collaborations, keep my inbox in check, juggle a few design clients, and post on social media. I don’t have a lot of down time, but I absolutely love what I do and wouldn’t trade the hustle for anything. Some weeks are crazier than others… this happens to be a really crazy one.

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comI also had to make an impromptu afternoon visit to the vet because Cash chipped off a big hunk of his tooth (surprisingly NOT playing biteyface). Argh. That is the good thing about working from home, owning my own business, and setting my schedule- I can run to the vet on a whim if one of the fur babies needs immediate attention. Don’t worry- Cash is ok and his tooth is going to be fine. The roots or nerves weren’t exposed- I wanted to double check and make sure he wasn’t in pain… after some googling, I immediately thought the worst. We’re going to keep a close eye on it… maybe no biteyface with Crosby for awhile.

Once I returned home from the vet, I hiked upstairs and got busy in the bathroom again. I finished tiling everything below the ledger boards on three walls. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to finish tiling the entire shower and Thursday will be a grouting day. It’s looking good!

A Day In The Life Of - Renovating : roomfortuesday.comIF everything goes as planned (and I’m hoping it will), look for the guest bathroom reveal, aka- the very first FINISHED room in our new house to hit the blog next week. I’ve gotta run! I’m off to Lowe’s to get more supplies, regroup, then join Emmett upstairs for more tiling once he gets home from work. If you want more daily life… check out my first post of the series, where I took you all thrifting with me! Thanks for following along on the bathroom renovation journey. You guys are the best and your encouragement means so much.

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10 Comments

  1. You are a dynamo! When I first read that your design plans called for wall tile, I thought…isn’t that a really big bathroom?! It’s going to be soooooo gorgeous. I can’t imagine the stress of being a business owner and working with brands. You two present such careful craftsmanship, attention to detail, and beautiful design. (Not to mention general adorableness & cute pups!) I am certain you deliver above expectations for your partners…and your readers. Go, Sarah, go! 👏💪

    1. Thank you Peggi! It really is a big space… three of our previous bathroom. Yikes! I’m off to go tile some more :) Thanks so much for the encouragement and for the comments every day- I can’t tell you how much that means. Have a wonderful day friend! xo

  2. Your guest bathroom is already looking great – lucky visitors! I agree with you about the joy of a staircase between prep and work zones – I often wonder about the idea of setting up something like a tile saw in a pop-up spray tent or similar closer to the work area. The aerobics benefits of the stairs would be lost though!

    1. Thanks Sally! We thought about setting up the tile saw in the bedroom with plastic, but then figured the stairs would be good for us. Haha! Who needs the gym when you can workout and renovate? lol! xo

  3. Could you share the reasons behind putting the vanity in first and not tiling around it, rather than tiling all the wall first and then putting ‘furniture’ in? Also why the vanity is tiled around but the other counter will go in after tile is complete? I love knowing the ‘whys’ behind smaller decisions like that!

    1. Absolutely! Great questions Danielle. The vanity is permanently affixed to the wall and the marble countertop meets the wall (and is sealed to it), therefore it’s not a floating piece of furniture, so we didn’t need to tile behind it- which would’ve been a waste of material and money. There is no way water could get back there because the tile meets the marble. The burl vanity table is parsons style, so you’ll be able to see the tile underneath it- that’s why that entire section received tile. Hope that helped to clarify and answer your questions :)

  4. Erin Zubot says:

    Coming up with 5 good blog posts a week seems like a job in itself, add to that your renos, other social media, and design clients, I can’t even imagine! You are killing it and I always look forward to your daily posts, and I love that you do post daily and they are all so GOOD!

    1. Hearing that makes it all worth it! It’s so rewarding to read comments like this, and I really appreciate you taking the time to leave one, show up here to read, follow along, etc. Truly means so much, Erin!! xox

  5. Bridget Whitted says:

    Hi Sarah,
    I just recently started following your blog and it’s clear you work very hard maintaining a business and a blog. I have two questions: did you teach yourself to tile (you do beautiful work) and what kind of dogs do you have? Thanks, Bridget.

    1. Thanks so much Bridget! I’m so happy you’re here :) To answer your questions… yep- we are self taught when it comes to tiling! Other construction projects- we learned a lot from our families. We have two dogs- a wire fox terrier and an irish doodle. I’m basically a crazy dog lady. Ha! xox