Home Improvements!! the Bathroom edition v.2.

I have renovated a bathroom once before in my life, and so this whole process was not that daunting.

We have a room in the basement that is ready for a bathroom. We use it for storage, and it's pretty full.
It is actually frustrating not having a bathroom in the basement, though. When you're working out it would be nice to get water and use a bathroom without having to go upstairs, and I would like a place to do handwashing. At first we were going to put in a whole bathroom, and then I said - why?! We need the storage space more, and what do two people need with 3 showers in one house? So we decided that we would not put in the shower and would install "standard and bracket" shelving for storage. I figure this is a good place for the seasonal decorations (read: Halloween!), and some personal archived things that you don't want in the garage.

Here is a photo of the room used for 100% storage - this would be the stuff of the previous owners.


And here it is as our "locker room style" basement powder room:


We will be installing shelving on the back wall in the next couple weeks.






We decided to go ahead and have our GC/handyman contractor, Ryan, do the main-floor powder room changes too.
We wanted this bathroom to look like it was in Africa.
Here's the powder room at the Rhino Post Lodge, which has the feel we were going for...




Here's a kinda before photo from the home inspection prior to purchase:





Our renovation:


We will be putting up photos of animals from our South Africa trip on the wall you see when you walk in.


Eric will be building a shelf to go above the toilet and hold a towel.
I want it to look like this (not white, natural wood... thank you Martha Stewart Living):





LOVE the tile! hard to capture the color in an artificially-lit bathroom.

And there you have it...
slowly, we plug away at making this house more of the home we want it to be.

Where is "home"?

I'm sure that most people who move countries consider the country of their birth to always be "home".
Since I didn't ever want to actually live there, I don't feel that I can call South Africa "home".

When I moved to America, I moved to Los Angeles. This is where I graduated from high school (South Pas High, thank you very much!), this is where I got my first job, learned to drive, experimented with different religions, and mostly grew up.
My mother lived here for nearly 10 years. When I was in college, and I went "home" it was to my mom's in Pasadena.
Does that make Los Angeles/Pasadena home?

My brother lived in San Fransisco for a long time, we have family friends who lived there, my dad lived there for two years at one point, I have spent most of my time in America going through San Fransisco at some point or another. Usually to visit family.
Does that make San Fransisco home?

I lived in Arizona for nearly 16 years (GOD!), I lived in all the major cities (Flagstaff, Tucson, Phoenix - yip, there are only 3), I owned/own property there.
Does that make Arizona home?

When I drove from Los Angeles to Annandale-on-Hudson for college, I spent my first night in Arizona stopping at the Grand Canyon on the way. I kept a journal on that trip, and in the entry for the second night (which was in Albuquerque) it says "I am glad to be out of Arizona, that state doesn't like me."
Four years later I MOVED there!
yikes!

I have a friend who is moving with her husband and 1 year old. She is moving "home". In talking to me about making choices about a house to build, she is considering her daughter's ENTIRE school career, the friends she will make, the neighborhood she will grow up in. My friend wants to give her daughter "Home".

Sometimes I am envious of friends who's parents still live in the house/town that they grew up in... "home" is clear to them.

Where is "home" for me?

I'm not sure that I can attach that concept to an actual place of my past. I think it has to be the place of my current.

Home is, literally, where my heart is.