Dear DiaryGet Creative

The word “renovation” tends to come with a degree of negativity to it. Personally disaster zones and shelves ripping out of walls come to my mind, and there’s no shortage of tales concerning projects that were scheduled to take a week stretching on for years. When I decided to renovate the bathroom in my rental unit – an idea that snowballed from a wish to upgrade to beautiful golden Delta faucets – I made the same mistake so many had before me: I thought my renovation would be different.

It all started out as a total dream. As previously mentioned I picked out the most delicious shiny gold faucets for my shower and sink from Delta, and of course I couldn’t resist a towel bar and toilet paper holder as well when I saw how perfectly they matched as a gleaming set. Seriously, this gold hardware was enough to make me want to redo the whole room – so elegant and royal!

Next Jo and I took a field trip to the Ciot showroom to pick out new tiles, a must considering our old tile and grout was cracking and crumbling with each shower we took. We had the most wonderful time exploring all of the finishes and learning about different types of marble, and in the end we were able to fit floor and wall tiles into our budget (thank goodness for marble-printed porcelain!)

Of course a room can’t feel fresh without a new coat of paint, so we turned to CIL for an elegant yet subtle update. We were immediately sold on the “bathroom and kitchen finish” (easy to clean and mould-resistant), and colour-wise we went with “Barely Blush” and “White on White”.

Last but not least we picked out a new sink to match our new Delta sink faucet and offer us more space to organize all of our beauty products. We went with this super cute vanity unit from Canadian Tire and it literally doubled our storage space. Win!

A new white shower curtain rod here and some candles there (Currently obsessed with TOCCA and Paddywax’s Library Collection) and we were ready to get things underway. Unfortunately that’s where we ran into speed bumps.

We decided to work with an app (which will remain unnamed) that helps match contractors to projects, and we immediately matched with a company who could come in the same day the tiles arrived! Score! The team of two arrived a few hours late, which didn’t bother us much, and told us they would likely finish the project in under ten hours. Score again!!!

Five days, two 3am stop times, and endless tears later, the construction duo informed us that they had accidentally destroyed all of our tiles. More tears, more panic, and a angry version of myself that I never wish to see again followed, and ultimately the team simply left. The app sent another contractor to survey the situation, and we were told we needed to start from scratch. All new tiles needed to be installed, plus demolition of all the botched work. The app would only pay for the demolition and the new tiles.

Before //

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I was a MESS. As someone who takes a lot of pride in their home and never leaves a project unfinished, this was a total disaster. How could my fun little reno have gone SO wrong?!

Enter R&B Group (que the superhero music!) This team came in, laughed for a bit in pity at the horrible original outcome, then tore it all out and started from scratch. They worked quickly, and the end result was nothing short of perfect. It was truly a pleasure to have them in our home, and I am pretty sure I’ll never even considering hiring someone else. THANK YOU RICARDO AND BRUNO! You can get in contact with them here if you have a project that you need help with: randbgroupinc@gmail.com.

So what did we learn? I mean other than gold faucets automatically make everything prettier and marble tiles beat all other tiles? We learned that if you want your renovation to be quick, easy, and painless, you need to hire the right people to help you! It was literally night and day between the first team and R&B Group, and when Ricardo and Bruno rolled up with photos of their past work and a reasonable quote for how long the job would actually take (about a week btw) we realized how unprofessional the first guys had really been.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for: meet the new #RAOPpowderroom!

After //

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Special thanks to:
Delta Faucet
Ciot Tile
CIL Paint
R&B Group
Canadian Tire

In love with my gold bath rack? Get it !

This post was sponsored, but all opinions are my own. To inquire about sponsored posts, please email jess@shineinfluencers.com

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