More demolition!

They're really moving on the master bathroom demolition! With all the walls down, you can really see how big the room is. We did run into a potential problem, though.

bathtub still in place, buckets covering where toilet used to be

steam shower will go where tub is now, door is to hallway

new built-in closet where toilet is now stored, pocket door will be installed where plastic sheeting hangs between bathroom and bedroom

where storage cabinet used to be

window in what used to be the WC

chimney that is the source of our problem (storage cabinet space on left, WC window on right)

This chimney has been hidden behind a wall. We wanted to expose it as we did in our kitchen. It is a nice decorative element and removing the built out wall gives us more space. However, we thought the chimney was situated closer to the window. The original plan was to build the new WC wall with the chimney visible from both the WC and the main bathroom. The double sink vanity would have extended from the side of the chimney along where the storage cabinet used to be (though leaving about 18-24" for a smaller storage closet next to the front window).

Now that the chimney is more centered in the room, it really shoves the double vanity right up to the window and makes the room look lopsided. Putting one single vanity on either side will not work because of the window shown above--there is not enough room. So our only option at this point is to make room by replacing the current window with a much smaller window (which will still be in the WC) and gain more wall space on that side of the chimney. Then we can put a sink on either side.

It will be more complicated since it involves work on the exterior of the house, but I think it will be worth it in the end. We are still thinking about other options, and may very well come up with something else that works. As usual, you never know what will happen with an old house!

You Can't Stop Progress!

So I haven't been very good at the blogging this time around--sorry! But rest assured some progress HAS been made. We currently have 3 usable toilets, 2 functioning bathtub/showers, and 4 working sinks! However, that is all about to change as demo on the master bath has begun, and that means we will soon be down 1 toilet, 1 tub, and 2 sinks.

By no means does this mean that we have completed bathrooms, either. The powder room door finally has a new lock, but needs a coat of paint; the floor in there needs a threshold; and the AC return in the floor (right in the doorway) still needs to be moved.

In the boys' bathroom, we still need shower doors (which have been ordered and should be here soon); a storage cabinet; and the sink and vanity--I know I said we had a sink, but it is on loan from the contractor just so we can wash our hands!

Both rooms still need the lighting fixtures installed--the bare bulb look, while reminiscent of my favorite Broadway show "Rent", doesn't fly here.

A small problem I didn't really consider: shades of white. There are about a gazillion and I think I have at least half of them in my house. Redoing these bathrooms in true black and white means that my trim whites elsewhere in the house won't match. While they look white enough on their own, in these new rooms they ranged anywhere from slightly creamy to downright yellow. In both the PR and the BB, this means that we had to get creative when it came to the doors and jambs. The inside of the door and inner half of the jamb is bathroom white, and the outside of the door and outer half of the jamb is hallway white. There was no other way to handle it besides repainting all of the trim on the house to match the bathrooms! No thanks.

Some photos:

this area used to be part of a closet

now my new bathtub will be here

door back on powder room with new (antique-style) lock

door open

i love the tile at the base

new mirror

new window

new shower head, love the tile work

waiting on glass sliding door

temporary sink, recessed medicine cabinet

So I think we only have a few more days in the master bathroom, then we will all be sharing the boys bathroom. I think we'll have to make a schedule because it could get crowded in there!

Tile, tile, and more tile

Sorry so long since the last update. I took these pictures about a week ago, so more has been accomplished since then, but this will give a pretty good representation of where we are in the process. Things are moving along, and should be at a faster clip now that most of our supplies are finally here, and also since 95% of the tile work on the PR and the BB is complete. There is still grouting to be done, but I think the hard part is past us.

Floor of powder room--the tile came in a black and white every other pattern, but it was too much for me so I came up with this with some help from the guys. I wanted to make it easy so they just had to pop out some black tiles and replace with white ones as opposed to moving black ones AND white ones all over the place.

This is the new sink, though not in its final position.

Boys bath, more tiling completed including the black tile base. The toilet works!

Inside of tub shower

Opposite wall of tub

I really like that we tiled the front of the tub! The top where it is now dark gray will have the same black tile used vertically on the wall.


Hopefully I will have more news this weekend. Please have a safe and happy Labor Day!

Boys Bathroom update

So we didn't hit our goal of having the boys' bathroom finished, or at least in working order, by the time they returned from camp. But progress has been made, and so far we are all surviving just fine using one toilet---we're just cleaning it more!

My apologies in advance for the photos. the bathroom is hard to photograph as it is not all that large and some of the corners have stuff in them so I can't get to a good distance for broad shots. It will give you a general idea, though.

The floor---the previous floor was kind of similar, though the pattern was larger and the black diamonds were light blue. Grout will be a medium to dark gray.

The walls--tiling not finished, there will be a row of black subways on top of that vertical row of white. Grout will be a very light grey.

New tub and new walls, bye bye plaid wallpaper!

This area where the bucket is will be storage--in the past it was a cupboard but very deep large and mostly unusable/impossible to keep organized. Now we are thinking open pullout shelving to take advantage of the depth and make the space more utilitarian.

The front of the tub will also have the white subways, as will the shower walls.

As for the powder room, it is even more difficult to take a good picture, due to size and the fact that the walls and ceiling have been primed and so the whole place is just white. No floor there as of yet due to a mistake in tile delivery, but the correct tile should be in by the end of the week.

Thanks for reading!

Back with Bathrooms

It's been a while since I've posted here; in that time, we've had to fix our front porch (leaking and rotting wood). Aside from painting the porch ceilings "haint blue", there really wasn't much interesting about that project, so I didn't document it on the blog.

We are now on to another huge project, remodeling all three bathrooms at once. Well, technically not all at the exact same time---we have to have at least one working toilet, sink, and shower in the house, so for now, that is the master bath. The powder room and boy's bathroom are completely gutted. While taking on all three at once is a major undertaking, we figured it is better to get it over with!

Our reasons for tackling the bathrooms are many. First, they were last renovated about 20-30+ years ago (aside from perhaps a new faucet or toilet, but the tile work, tubs, sinks, floors, and countertops are at least that old if not older). Second, both the master and the powder room have seriously defects in layout; you could fit three toilets in the WC portion of the master, and the powder room was just wrong in one very major way I will explain below. Third, we are making some changes in amenities that will increase the utility of the spaces; right now we have a lot of cavernous, impossible to organize cabinets in all three bathrooms; poor water flow and pressure; one tiny sink for three growing boys; poor lighting, etc.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take "before" pictures of the powder room and boy's bathroom (PR and  BB henceforth) pre-demo; I will see if I can dig some up for a later post. Here are some photos of the work done so far--a lot in one week!

from hallway into BB

where BB bathtub used to be (toilet moved there after removal)

some fun wallpaper that was uncovered

more groovy wallpaper where the sink used to be

In these next photos you will see our biggest issue with the powder room:

the entrance to the PR is in the dining room. this is awkward.

at least only the corner sink was visible from the doorway, and not the toilet

here is the front hallway where we want to move the entrance

new doorway is cut!

it's always so interesting to see the guts of this old house

door frame of new foyer entrance

old dining room door and trim removed, looking through to new doorway

new dining room wall! all old chair rail and baseboards from foyer were carefully removed and  saved for reuse on new  DR wall

The new section of wall is also being insulated to hopefully provide some kind of sound barrier. We are also reusing the original door, albeit with a new or repaired doorknob---that thing hasn't worked right since we moved in.

Thanks for reading!