Bathroom Reno Complete!

We're done, we're done! Well...a few last touch-ups needed. But, we're 99.9% done. Took a bit longer than expected, 7 days plus 2 additional weekends. But still, if you consider that David did all of the work himself (except for the plumbing) and we had to do a complete demo, it's still pretty amazing. So, here's the before.....terrible p-lam vanity with doors that wouldn't shut. Weird soffit thing over the sink. Peeling painted wallpaper. Stuff everywhere. Selection of cleaners on the floor because I just couldn't get the hard water stains off of anything...

Awful ceramic tile, the color of concrete.

Completely covered in plastic, even on the ceiling. Dark icky shower...

No door! (We had ripped this off when installing the hardwood floors about a year ago).

And here is the after....

When you open the door (a door!!) you see the new shower wall instead of an ugly shower curtain.This is a print from Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, before they move and are sharing one bathroom. Besides for being a favorite movie, thought this was pretty perfect for David and I.



 

David hung prints from my garden over the toilet. A lot of these were posted on this blog at some point or another...The large photo is Abraham Darby. He looks great in photos.

I mean, if you have to find a holder for your cotton pads, why not something Tiffany?

We love our simple new sink and put all of the junk that was on the sink into the medicine cabinet. That's a blown glass soap holder with a plastic top. With our hard water situation, metal tops and soap dispensers get absolutely gross. We decided against the shelf above the faucet. Basket from my mom holds our towels now.

One of the very best things...David added a light in the shower. Heaven!

And, we got rid of that old 3 faucet shower system. How did we ever live with that? What a pain. Every time someone would flush, the shower would get cold. Not anymore!

It's bright and clean but very functional. The Silver Fox paint by Ben Moore mixed with the Deep In Thought cream is great and not as stark as grey and white would be. We added in the Pottery Barn storage unit and I like my little no-sew drape on the window. It lets in a little light at the top while still staying private.

So very worth it in the end. David made it look just the way I had it in my head!

Thanks for following along during our reno! Now we have to go clean up all of David's tools...and I have to check on my poor garden. So neglected...

Almost done?....

We got as much done as possible this weekend and are just about done with the bathroom renovation. We got it painted, thank goodness. No more staring at drywall. The color is Silver Fox from Benjamin Moore with all of the yellow taken out of it so it doesn't have any green. This is on top of 2 coats of Kilz2. It's a pretty light grey with a bluish tint. The molding and the ceiling is Deep In Thought by Benjamin Moore. Deep In Thought is my very favorite cream. We used this in the kitchen and will be painting the hall with it. The window trim isn't quite done and we kept the shutters on for now until the very end. The light fixture is from Restoration Hardware that I've had in storage since 2006 and is sorta in. Needs shades and to be straightened out a bit.

Those bath towel hooks are low because a picture will hang above them. I'm hoping it looks nice when you open the door to the bathroom.

We also got the Kohler pedastal sink installed. I love how small it is and it's easy now to reach in and turn on the shower. The cute faucet is a Danze called the "Prince" collection. We worked on the tile which will serve as the base molding. We weren't able to finish the grout. Will have to do this next weekend. We'll install a glass shelf under the medicine cabinet as well.

The shower doors are in and the tile around the surround is installed. We also put in a Culligan rain showerhead made for hard water. It has a filter inside of it. I can already tell a difference with my hair. Hurray!

So, so far so good. We're crossing our fingers that we are almost done. Just have to finish up the details next weekend and put in all of the storage and accessories.

My no-sew curtain panel

These panels are probably really easy to make with a sewing machine but alas, I have discovered that I cannot sew a straight line and a panel like the one I wanted for the bathroom would absolutely require straight lines, so instead turned to stitch wichery tape. I also needed to line this panel since the window faces the porch. It will be held on the window by 2 tension rods. One on the top and one on the bottom. Since we never open the current shutters on this window, I just wanted a pretty piece of fabric that wouldn't move.

Here's the window....

And here's the line-up of all the stuff required to make the panel. Starting with really cute fabric from Serena and Lily that is a taupe and grey pattern on ivory and some black-out lining I ordered from Amazon.

I cut the S&L fabric to fit the window and left 2 inches on either side. Pinned the sides and ironed this so I would have some stiff creases to guide me.

I then cut the lining to match this size. Unpinned the edges and placed the lining on the back of the pretty fabric. I started with the long sides first. Using the stitch wichery, twice for each side, I folded the edges once, ironed and then again, so the raw edge wouldn't be visible. The lining got nicely glued onto the fabric on the last fold over.

One side all done....and straight. Yippee!

Once the sides were done, started on the top and bottom which had to accommodate the tension rods.

The tension rods fit nicely within the pocket. Again, ordered these from Amazon (the ones at Home Depot are terrible).

Ta-da! Here's the back of the completed curtain panel....

And here's the front. Will install it on the tension rods once the bathroom is done. I think it turned out pretty well considering that it didn't require a stitch. If I had to do it over again I would have centered the pattern a bit better, but c'est la vie. I'll remember for next time.

This project took about 40 minutes and it's the perfect colors for the bathroom. Very happy!

Halfway there!

We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday was the longest day yet. We really needed to get the bathtub up and running so had to get the tiling done in the shower stall. It was a lot of cuts and took longer than we thought but at the end of the day, I think it turned out great. Just the way I wanted it to look. At midnight David got up to wipe the haze off of the tile while Winnie and I were out like a light. We woke up to this nice surprise! He also installed the frame of the shower doors that will go in later.

The mini tiles are little carrera marble subway tiles that you can buy on sheets at Home Depot. I think they look cute and break up the white and grey walls. 

The shower wall also got drywalled. I was worried that it might close in the already very small space but it doesn't. It's actually nice to have the separation from the toilet.

  

And speaking of toilets...yesterday was also a big day because the plumber came back and installed our new toilet! Probably isn't very exciting to most, but again...when you live in a one bathroom house, things like this are big excitement! Here's a closeup in all its' Kohler beauty.

We'll either finish the floors late tonight after fire works or tomorrow. Then will start again this weekend to install the sink and work on all of the walls. Should be all done by Sunday....seven days for the renovation was the goal.

Happy 4th of July!

(Update!) In case we forget why we love our house, especially while renovating...here's another reason...you can see the town fire work show from our yard.

Bathroom Reno Continues

We had a very good reno day today. The plumber was here! David finished all of the drywall last night except for the area around the shower and sink pipes. The plumbers came and gave us brand new lovely copper pipes and also converted our 3 handle shower to a single handle. We also had the new tub installed.

After the plumbers left, David finished up the drywall around the pipes and then put up the wonderboard around the tub to get ready for the tile installation. The tub is a 20" high soaker. Love it.

I'm very excited that after we ripped all of that old cement out, we were able to add about an inch and half around the entire perimeter of the bathroom. David filled it in with thin set so we could tile over it. When the house is this small, every inch counts.

The plumber is coming back tomorrow to install the toilet and the shower faucets so had to start the tiling tonight. We're using 10x13 ceramic tiles on the floor and in the shower stall in a brick pattern.

We decided to add a wall against the far end of the shower to add a glass enclosure. So, framed this out tonight too. Will probably green board this tomorrow. It's getting late and still have to tile around the shower faucet wall before tomorrow morning. All in all, very productive day.

Bathroom Renovation Part 1

So, I posted a blog yesterday about our bathroom reno and now it's gone. Have no idea why...so thought I would post the pictures from yesterday again and add a few from where we ended up last night. (Thank you for your comments on the post from yesterday! I'm sorry they have disappeared.)

This is what the bathroom looked like before...covered in plastic sheeting and the walls were beige painted wall paper. Grey ceramic tile on the floor and p-lam vanity.

We tore off the plastic covering to find the 1950s yellow tile under it. The plastic is adhered to the walls by black tar. So, we still have tar dripping from everywhere, including the ceiling which was covered in plastic too.

In order to get the tile off, we had to remove 3 inches worth of cement mortar, steel mesh and old crumby cement board. David had to cut it into pieces so I could take it out in a bucket. It was so heavy and I have to say, my back and neck are a bit sore this morning.

David had to pry all the cement off with this demo crowbar that weighs a ton.

After we pulled the tub up (which was huge and cast iron), the room was looking in pretty good shape.

Breaking up the floor tile was one of the final things we did last night. There was grey ceramic tile put right directly onto a 1950's mosaic yellow tile. The mosaic tile was put down one tile at a time, each tile being about an inch long. I mean, the time it must have taken to put down this tile is unbelievable.

This job is requiring 3 bagsters. Thank goodness we don't have the trees anymore, we would have never been able to fit 3 of them on the sidewalk.

David couldn't go to bed without getting some sheetrock up. So green board went up on one side of the room at about 8pm last night. It's starting to come together!