Meet our downstairs bathroom.

You'd think that as a project neared completion, the excitement would motivate you to work faster and faster. That's not really how it works. It's more like summiting a mountain, but instead of cresting the hill, the slope gets steeper with each step, until it's almost vertical.

It's not that the work gets harder. It's that those minor details become almost invisible, because you've lived with them for so long, and you have so many other, bigger, more pressing tasks.

Pretty much every room is at the 95% mark now. We've been waiting to showcase a room that's 100% done. But the downstairs bathroom is at 99%, which seems good enough for a blog post.

So let's start with the befores.

The original layout was a filthy slot of a room, updated on a budget in the early '80s.

...

To the studs!

Starting the new floor.

Fresh plumbing, electrical and insulation.

4-year-old Markie with "Time Bandit" Grandpa Andrew.

Subway tile.

To accommodate this shower, which is the minimum size allowed by modern building codes, we shifted the door over six inches and moved the hinges to the other side.

...

Done.

I think we lived about a year without a functional shower.

While the window sashes were removed for restoration, the vertical interior trim pieces went missing (probably ended up as kindling). It's not noticeable when you look at this photo, but is pretty obvious when cold air is pouring through the gaps on either side of the lower sash. I'll have to fab up replacements. That skeleton key hanging on the hook locks the door.

For a ridiculous number of months, that pedestal holding up the sink was just a 2x4. When we finally got the pedestal, we found that the sink was an inch too high. It spent a few more months shimmed with Jenga blocks before we finally moved it to the correct position. That hinged mirror seems like a clever design, except that it won't hold itself level. We have to track down some kind of warranty retrofit kit. Also, you can barely see in the photo where the right-side mirror bracket damaged the wall paint during installation. We used every last drop of green finishing the room, so we'll have to buy more before we can touch up.

Theo just recently said goodbye to diapers and made the permanent switch to underpants. Excellent timing, Theo. Enjoy your potty.