I told myself I was going to bed early tonight because I was up until 2am last night working on a fun little project. It’s nearly 11pm now, and I *should* be going to bed, but instead I just had to show you said project, because I’m so excited about it!
In our house here on base we have three bathrooms. One 3/4 bath upstairs in our master bedroom closet (go figure), a full bath upstairs, and then a powder room downstairs off the living room. All three bathrooms have this weird plastic sheeting on the walls (made to look like fake marble–so classy) and mauve non-skid floors. Now in theory, non-skid floors seem like a great idea in a bathroom (as long as they aren’t mauve). But I’m here to tell you–they are definitely NOT practical. Why? You ask. Well, let me tell you. Have you ever tried to clean velcro? Because that’s what cleaning a non-skid floor is like. It clings to every speck of dirt, every hair, everything. Ick. It looks so dingy and dirty all the time. Here’s a shot of our powder room looking it’s best (I know you’re jealous!):
I can deal with the ugly, impractical tile in our upstairs bathrooms, but it was really bothering me in the powder room downstairs. I hated how gross it looked all the time, even when I was constantly cleaning it! So…I started looking for some sort of floor covering. And I found my solution at Natori here in Japan (kind of like the Japanese Bed Bath and Beyond). You know those interlocking floor tiles that you can make into mats for kids rooms? Kind of like this…
Well these tiles are like this on the bottom, but then they have a laminate flooring square on top (that is square, not interlocking). Perfect! Well, I found these a month or so ago, but they’ve just been sitting in our bathroom, because only 8 or so of the interlocking tiles fit squarely in the bathroom. I had to make cuts in the other 8 to go around the toilet, the doorway, the vanity, the wall, etc.
I finally tracked down a jigsaw (thanks Sarah!) and after a few hours of meticulous cutting last night, I am now left with this!
Not bad if I do say so myself! I’m especially proud of the cuts around the toilet. Those were kind of a pain, but I think they turned out quite nicely!
I bought a contour rug to go around the toilet so I could be a bit sloppier with my cuts there and it wouldn’t matter, but now I don’t even know if I’ll use it because I’m so happy with how it turned out!
Now…I just have to address my powder blue “marble” walls. I have plans in the works…I just need a bit more time to finish before the big reveal.
On a side note, tonight I had to flush a mukade (go google it) which I found crawling in my living room down that toilet. Dis-gust-ting (oh, and apparently poisonous…awesome). Probably my least favorite Japanese experience thus far…
