My Dream Bathroom

Bathroom

Fixer Upper

Take a look at the after pictures below!

Just when you think you’ve seen it all right?!

That my friends is the actual bathroom in the home I personally purchased. My humble abode, my first home, the home of my “dreams”!

Now I know what you’re thinking…..

But let me tell you why I saw this bathroom and thought “I just HAVE TO HAVE THIS!”

As a 26 year old just starting out her career and with not much (if any) of a savings the dream of home ownership was pretty grim. I helped people every day finance their dream homes but when it came to me I felt like owning a home on one income on Long Island, NY was nearly impossible.

After hustling every day, working hard, and knowing what I wanted I started to shift the way I thought and started to say “Why not”… Why not me? Why can’t I dream big dreams, why can’t I do something on my own. Now let’s not get crazy with ourselves. With the taxes on Long Island being roughly $10,000 a year for a starter home I knew I wasn’t going to start off by buying a mansion but I had decided I was going to buy a home. I was going to make it mine and that eventually I would build equity, move up, and get to exactly where I wanted to me. I was currently renting and paying $2,400 to pay my landlords mortgage and I was DONE.

After seeing what I qualified for I knew that I had to search for the worst houses in the best areas I could afford. Low and behold by doing this I stumbled upon this crazy house, disgusting bathroom and all. A real life hoarder house which quite frankly wasn’t what I was expecting to buy. The house needed A LOT of work but it was the cheapest house for sale in the town and I just knew I HAD TO HAVE IT. My dad, who is a home inspector, came with me to go through each room and help me figure out how much it would cost be to renovate this home to be exactly what I had always dreamed of.

I would always spend my time watching HGTV and I am obsessed with Chip and Joanna (I mean who isn’t, right?). I just knew that I was going to renovate this house and make it something special, I mean because let’s be real it was all I could really afford.

Now obviously I didn’t have the money to purchase the home AND renovate it so I used a creative program called a 203K mortgage. This mortgage product allowed me to finance the home AND the repair money all in one loan with one payment. So, in essence, I borrowed the money for EVERYTHING! (Does it get any better than that?) All I needed was the 3.5% of the total which meant 3.5% of the agreed sales price PLUS the repair money. Technically I needed closing costs too but I wound up getting a sellers concession approved by negotiating and lucked out!

So all in all I spent less than $10,000 to buy my first home and take out $50,000 to repair it!

Bye Bye Shity Bathroom (Literally) and HELLO new beautiful one!

Below you’ll see what this bathroom looks like now. We gutted it and extended it so it’s larger and added a beautiful white subway tile shower/bath. I choose ceramic tile that resembled the look of grey “wood” floors, painted and found such great accessories and waaaalaaa!

You would NEVER know that a few short weeks before these photos I had a room full of poop.

So the message here is, if you want something… GO AND GET IT. If you can’t stop dreaming about it, you CAN do it!

Don’t stop until you’re happy.

If you have any questions about decor, a 203k mortgage or any mortgage you know where to find me!

xo-la

Where to find:

Bathroom Vanity - Ikea

Bathroom Vanity Knobs - Hobby Lobby

Choose Kindness Sign - Hobby Lobby

Vintage Towel Hooks - Wayfair

Ornate Shelf Over Shower - Home Sense

Wash Your Worries Away - @LaLaZ_GraphicsandDesigns

Frame - Home Sense

White Shelf Ladder - Wayfair

Shower Curtain - Anthropologie