And the shower surround is complete!

Tiling, caulking, and grouting is complete.  all that is left is to seal that grout.  What do you think?

Without the bright sunlight, you can see the subway tile lines a lot better.  Here are some close-ups of our pretty new fixtures.  We didn’t change out our valves so we decided to stick to the same fixture brands that the previous owner used, Symmons.

We chose the Symmons Carrington design in polished chrome.  It has a beautifully feminine and antique look.  The polished chrome really gives the snow white subway tiles a clean, crisp look.

Sadly, the 2 screws that came with the handle (notice on both sides of the handle) were too short.  We went to the hardware store and bought longer screws to get the job done.  This means they’re not the pretty polished chrome finish like the rest of the handle.  You can barely notice.  For the price we paid, I’m disappointed in this little flaw.

I’m very happy with the overall look of the shower head though.  Look at that pretty curved spout!  While this line is much more expensive than what you’ll find at our local hardware store, they are much higher quality.  These are not made of plastic and painted with a polished chrome paint.  They are full metal chrome.  They’re nice and heavy.  I’m pretty certain they’ll last.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the bottom down spout with this set.  The Carrington has the thread close to the wall.  Our spout thread is further down the neck of the spout.

Therefore, we went back to using the old down spout.  It’s made of plastic and painted with a chrome finish.

I think it matches pretty well, but it’s definitely not of the same quality as the other pieces.  We’ll take our time to find the right downspout and upgrade it when we do.  But for now, we’re finally able to take a shower again.  We are so incredibly thankful for that!

Our first shower was definitely the best shower I’ve ever taken in my life.  I’m also super careful about using the bathroom fan and leaving it on for a while to reduce the amount of moisture left in the shower area.

This project took us much much longer than we anticipated, but we’re really happy with how it turned out.  We’re also very happy about our new found confidence in home renovations.  The bathroom itself is far from complete, but it’s functional!  Yippy for that.

Have you redone a bathroom?  How did you shower while the project was in progress?