A Much Bigger Bathroom

It was fun to recently pull together some room-by-room pictures of our house remodel. It's hard to remember how far we've come since the water damage and seeing pictures just makes me thankful we're almost done!!

One of the rooms where we see the biggest difference from 'before' to 'after' is in the upstairs bathroom.

Before:
What an UGLY bathroom! This is what it looked like when we first bought the house. Teal and peach with a weird wall above the shower that we had to duck under. As a temporary fix, we removed the glass shower door and that weird ceiling area and then used a tile paint to make everything white. On the floor we used peel and stick vinyl tiles to temporarily fix the ugly.

During:
This bathroom is where some of the worst water damage was. The whole ceiling and side wall were covered in mold and had just stayed wet for much too long. (thanks to an insurance adjuster who told us to wait a few months before taking action on the problem....grrrr)

So we had to gut the WHOLE thing! That tile was stuck on like you would not believe. The plaster walls were heavy and backed with metal lath. Not.a.fun.project! Below you can see the bathroom wall completely removed (along with all the walls and ceilings) and open to the boys' bedroom.

We decided to make the bathroom bigger than it had been by taking a section out of the boys' room (a great decision).

Foam insulation was put everywhere. (another great decision)

Then the 'pretty' parts of the bathroom could be put back in.

After:
What a night and day difference! We still have a few things to finish up in this room (it's the story of our lives, really) but we're thrilled with how it turned out!

 A few details can be found here about the vanity, and here about the shower curtain and rings.

Lights: Factory Sconce from Restoration Hardware
Shower Curtain: Grand Embroidered Shower Curtain in white Pottery Barn
Shower Curtain Rings: Restoration Hardware (no longer available)
Tile: from the Tile Shop I'm not sure they have the floor tile anymore but it's similar to this only the big hex tiles are matte and the small squares have a gloss finish. The shower tile is similar to this.
Mirror: Menards - it was $10 in the scratch and dent section. It used to be an off-white color and I just painted it white.
Window Shutter: Menards special order (it's pvc)
Baskets: Target
Wall Color: Benjamin Moore color called Black Pepper in a pearl finish

progress continues

Progress continues in the basement bathroom. Michael got the drywall done on the ceiling and some wall boards up in the sink 'nook.' It was a messy job, but looks great!

Then, he got the shower tiling started! It looks beautiful! Although...we're changing our grout colors after seeing it done this far. We were planning on a gray grout for both the walls and floor. We thought the gray would match the pinstripe in the white tile and keep down on the hassle of cleaning the white grout. BUT...it turns out that you can't see the pinstripe at all unless you're up really close to it. So, we're switching to white. It will look clean and bright which is perfect for this dark basement.

He laid out the stone tile on the floor but hasn't installed it yet. Instead of gray grout, we are switching to black and hoping it will blend in better on the floor. Once the floor is installed Michael will cut the last row of shower wall tile.

We had talked about accent tiles and lots of fun things, but in the end, we just went with a straight subway pattern. Boring? Maybe. But it looks really nice, is cheaper, and less fussy than trying to squeeze an accent tile in here. This is a bonus bathroom and we're trying really hard to stay on budget. $2,000 doesn't go very far in a bathroom...even though we're using existing lights, mirror, sink, and faucet. But so far, it's all shaping up nicely. (Please pardon the yellow toned pictures, there's no natural light in this room...and I was too lazy to white balance.)

inch by inch it's a cinch

The basement bathroom project continues...little by little.

We have a new 'deadline' in mind now because we have people coming to stay with us for a few weeks in May and it would be great to have the basement projects buttoned up by then. The basement could be a nice 'guest suite' to give friends and family space when they stay here. They can have the whole floor to themselves, it's off-limits to the kids, it should be warm and cozy once the carpet is in, they'll have a nice tv all to themselves, and a beautiful private bathroom.

Here is the most recent picture I have of the progress:

Admittedly...it's not looking beautiful yet. In this picture I'm standing in the still unfinished part looking into the finished room. You can see the studs for the new wall we had to build as a little 'nook' for the sink. (there was never a sink in this bathroom...weird) The concrete board is all up and ready for tile, and since I took this picture the studs have been closed in! We're getting closer!

Here's our mental checklist of what needs to be done still:
- drywall and paint ceiling
- install tile (I ordered it this week! Yippee!)
- install wall 'treatment' (you'll have to wait and see what our plans are for the walls)
- install new toilet and sink
- hang lights
- hang mirror

Then the B.I.G. next step is to get carpet in the rest of the basement (since we should be done with the dusty projects for a while), and hang the oh-so-special barn door track and doors. I CAN'T WAIT for that part! We made progress on it this week and I am super excited to see the details coming together.

choosing tile

The basement bathroom is coming along. Slowly but surely.

We have gone back and forth a little bit about the materials we wanted to use throughout the bathroom. We know there's a possibility of this room getting water in it from the basement walls, or through the floor if there's a high amount of rain...so we have to choose something that won't get ruined if it gets wet, and won't mold.

For a while, we were talking about putting a bunch of loose rocks at the bottom of the shower. Hey, rocks don't mind water, right? But then I came across a polished sheet of rocks at The Tile Shop and have started to build the room around them. The grout will be a concrete mixture...which also doesn't mind water on it. Rocks and concrete. It might sound weird but it's shaping up beautifully!

I have chosen three tiles so far.
The rocks for the shower floor:

We want the walls to be light and bright...and cheap! We don't want to spend much in this little bathroom. But we also want it to look great. After searching through cheap ceramic options, I fell in love with a white ceramic that has a very subtle gray stripe in it (almost impossible to photograph - but beautiful in person). It's bright, and still interesting. The price is also right. Retail it's only $3.99 per square foot.

 

Then I wanted an accent tile to put about eye-level in the shower. I thought of something sparkly, like glass but couldn't commit to a color. I didn't want clear glass. I love the look of blue or green glass in a shower, but wanted to stay as neutral as possible so I wasn't stuck with that color scheme forever. I stumbled across a mirrored mosaic and it seems perfect! Although, you should have seen the look on the salesman's face when I asked if it would stand up ok to being in a shower. Ummmm...you want mirrored tile all over your shower? Ha! Yes, but it's an accent - I'm not mirroring the whole thing! I think it will be interesting and reflective to put a couple rows of this tile around the whole shower.

It's very pricey - but since we're using such a small amount it should work just fine.

Here are the three together:

I still need to choose a main floor tile. It will probably be a dark ceramic or maybe even a slate like our kitchen floor. We will be using a gray grout everywhere, even with the white tile. We've learned how difficult it is to keep white grout clean in our other bathrooms. I'm still happy with the white grout with our marble tile, but I don't want to fight and fuss with keeping white grout pristine in a basement. So, gray it shall be.

I'm starting to think about light fixtures for this bathroom too. We are reusing a pedestal sink and mirror from a bathroom we gutted, but instead of reusing the ugly lights, I'm leaning toward a mercury glass fixture similar to the look of our bedroom pendants.

I love the design process. I just wish I was spending someone else's money. :)

the beginning of the end

We have finally begun the L.A.S.T. major house project we feel like we have to do before we can call the house 'done.'

'Done' doesn't actually mean that we won't have anything else to do on the house. Far from it! We have a gazillion projects we want to do, but we're getting down to the last of the things we have to do to get the house to appraise for a decent amount and prove that the water damage is fully corrected. This room will make it so we're able to say the whole house has been renovated and updated.

Right now, even if we had to move for some reason, we don't feel like we'd get top-dollar for our house...but once this last major project is done (and some touch-ups throughout the rest of the house are completed)...the house should be good for us or for someone else to move into (if they give us the moo-lah).

So here we go...the beginning of the work in our third bathroom. The basement bathroom.

There's a little hallway in the finished part of the basement that leads to this bathroom. The picture below shows a wall on the left that is actually the back of the staircase coming from the family room. On the right is the bathroom in question. And oh, what a beauty it is!

Every inch of this bathroom makes my skin crawl right now! ICK!
Nasty, leaky window and concrete block. A super old, nasty toilet. A little doorway that goes to the laundry room and had an old barn door looking monstrosity on it. Weird.

Quite a luxurious shower right? The holes you can see in the concrete block walls went to a sink that was directly behind here and drained into the shower. Strange! And the worst part of this is that when Michael was living in the house by himself during the major part of the whole house reno...he had to use this shower and bathroom every day because the others weren't working yet! Phew...so glad those days are behind us!

At one point in the life of our house, the entire basement was finished. But then sometime in the 80s we've been told that the sewer backed up into the house (and all the houses on our entire street)! So everything in the basement was ripped out. Whatever they had on the walls in this bathroom (maybe paneling??) had probably just been glued to the walls because the block now looks like this:

Then it's been painted various shades of icky. The paint has been the biggest problem for us in figuring out how to finish off the space. Paint molds if it gets wet. It's not a good idea to EVER paint concrete block in an old basement - especially on an exterior wall. It will make it so you can't waterproof it well without sandblasting the paint off. Such.a.pain.

We're working on some solutions and we'll share what we're doing along the way. Our goal is to spend as little as possible (under $2,000) to make this bathroom light, bright, and gorgeous! 

It's the last major project in the house and it will be fantastic to have this one crossed off the list! We have held off on basement carpet and touch-ups because we knew we'd have to deal with dust mess while finishing the bathroom. Once it's done, all the finishing touches and decorating can be done to pull the house together. I can't wait!!

Wrapping up the details

One last post about the hole in our bathroom wall with a few more details.

While Michael was working on the cutout for more storage, he also smoothed out the drywall that the contractors we hired had butchered. It was awful in this bathroom! Of course, one of the only projects in the whole house that we hired out (to save time) ended up costing more money and time to fix than it was worth!

Oh well - at least this mess made things look nicer in the end.

The Pottery Barn frame started out white and was in the 'scratch and dent' section because of a tiny little ding.

It was easily fixed and disappeared when we spray painted the whole frame oil rubbed bronze. Ahhh...that's better.

The picture in the frame was one I found on etsy and we asked my parents for it for Christmas. I didn't think they'd get it for us since it's a little odd...but they did! Here's the link to the shop where they got the print.

At Christmas I had a nice piece of calligraphy art from here in the frame. We'll change it up once in a while. Thankfully, the frame is fully functional even with the hinges and magnet contraption. It will be a fun new spot to try out new art!

The hole...part 2

Yesterday we showed you the disaster that was our bathroom. We punched a hole in the wall to put some storage into a tiny bathroom that was seriously lacking in that department.

But take a look now...

 It's storage AND art!

We painted the little nook after Michael made a shelf for it. Then we put a hinge on a 25x25" Pottery Barn frame that I found in the 'as is' section. It was off white so we painted it with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and voila! A hidden little storage area.

The picture sits perfectly flat against the wall so you really can't tell it opens up. Michael placed little screws on the back of the frame and has magnets inside the hole to hold the frame tight.

It's a GREAT addition to this bathroom so we can store toothbrushes, and all those other little annoying bottles that you need in a bathroom.

Put a hole in that wall

We just can't leave well enough alone!

We took our perfectly functional bathroom wall...and put a hole in it.

Here is what the bathroom wall in question looked like PRIOR to all the water damage... It used to be where the mirror and sink where. (and tiny baby Elliott circa Christmas 2006)

Then this bathroom was completely ruined by water and was gutted to look like this:

You'll notice in the picture above that half way up the wall was a space for a medicine cabinet. At the time we put the bathroom back together we did not use that area and just drywalled over it. For the past year it has looked something like this:

But we had a serious lack of storage in the bathroom and remembered the opening. So we cut a hole in the wall to find that spot once again. (why...oh why can't we do anything the first time and the easy way??)

The kids loved watching daddy punch a hole in the wall!

And here is the opening before half-finished. A very good place for storing tootbrushes! :)

Shower reveal

The master bathroom shower is DONE! And it's gorgeous! Michael really out-did himself this time.

At the end of this post he had finished the main accent tile wall and was starting on the side walls. That was a l.o.n.g. process.

Here's the before and after. Wow! We've come a long way, baby! (remember...the shower area used to be the closet for the main floor bedroom - and the door you can see on the right side of each picture never used to be there)

The bathroom itself isn't entirely finished...but it's definitely getting closer. There's still some touch-up painting and we need to install a glass shower door but we finally are able to use the shower and not worry about waking the kids up in the morning by running upstairs to get ready. Woohoo!

The one mistake I feel like we made in the kids' shower was to use little tiny accent tiles at the bottom of the 'soap nook.' (you know - the little cutout that holds the shampoo and soap) I hate how yucky the tile gets underneath the shampoo bottles. For our shower we remedied this little issue by using one slab of tile to line the bottom of the nook. Lesson learned.

Overall, there are six different profiles of marble tile in our tiny master bathroom. It all works together to make a sparkly, pretty, light and bright room. 

It's hard to believe that it's been a year and a half since we ordered the shower hardware (with jets). Now it's finally installed and I couldn't be happier with it. Here you can see the jets and how ridiculously high we mounted the shower head. It's pretty much at the ceiling - which is a feature my tall man loves! :)

Who needs a shower?

I do. In my Master Bathroom, please!

We are f.i.n.a.l.l.y. getting done with our master shower and it's looking gorgeous with a capital G! I can't WAIT to be able to take a shower in my own bathroom, and without having to run upstairs. And I'm really looking forward to not having to get up extremely early to shower! (If I wait until a decent time there's too much of a chance I'll wake the kids...and if I wait until they're awake I can't get 10 minutes of privacy to actually take a shower...O, the plights of parenthood!)

Here's the update on what my fabulous hubs has been up to the past few weekends...starting with a little before picture and some progress pics from last year.

Sadly, this is the only picture I can find of the old bathroom. It was TINY...as in...when you sat on the 'throne' your knees would touch the wall. Crazy! There was just a small pedestal sink below the mirror and a toilet and some textured walls above the chair rail that were funky. The tiles in this bathroom were huge - so there were only 4 or 5 tiles across to reach from one side of the room to the other. (And look at my itty bitty Elliott...Michael took this picture on the first day he ever watched the little guy by himself. I think Elliott was about 7 weeks old.)

Then the water damage happened and the walls came out. This was the bathroom a little over a year ago... This view is looking at the newly created shower area after we stole some square footage from a closet to make a master shower out of it.

Almost exactly a year ago Michael put in this beautiful carrera marble floor...

It wasn't until 2 or 3 months after we moved back into the house that we finally got the lights to the bathroom hung and I found a mirror I liked. The shower is to the right of the vanity and the door you can see in the picture was put in as part of the renovation. This is the only bathroom on our main level so in the past our friends and family had to walk through the extra bedroom to use the restroom...and it was weird. So now there are two doors...one from our new master bedroom...and one from the living room. It's still a tiny bathroom but functions SO much better than it did!

Onto the shower progress...

A couple weekends ago Michael got the floor put in. It's the same marble and shape as the rest of the bathroom only smaller. It took a long time to get all the tiles put in perfectly but my husband is a perfectionist and did an amazing job! See all the tiny slivers of tile around the drain? Perfection.

Then it was time to tackle the big 'feature wall.' He started by laying out the tiles in the garage to figure out where to put the joints and where cuts were needed.

 The cutting process was very tedious. Have I mentioned he's a perfectionist? :)

The back wall took a whole weekend to do because of all the cuts and the shear number of lines that had to be level.

Grout time! Grout makes a HUGE difference! When you have a ton of skinny tiles like these were...the grout lines account for 30 or 40 percent of what your eyes see. We chose an unsanded white grout and it made everything look clean and sparkly!

This past weekend was mostly taken up by figuring out exactly how we wanted to trim everything out. We chose threshold pieces, decided on where the shower door will be put and what the tile around it will look like, and did the 'soap nook' where we'll keep shampoo and stuff. It has a pretty little glass shelf and will have some nice accent tile around it soon.
Michael also started working on one other wall. The tiles we chose for the rest of the shower are bigger, but still the same marble. In total we have 5 different profiles of the same marble tile. It was all purchased from The Tile Shop.

 Hopefully after one more weekend we'll have a finished shower! YAY!