Bathroom planning

I think its time to focus on the bathrooms in our house. I'll spare you the gory "before" details until we begin demo, but it involves blue-gray fiberglass tubs and surrounds. Starting with the Beechnuts' bathroom, we need a new toilet, tub, sink, tile, lighting... everything. I think we can keep the window, but since we're pulling up the floor, why not pull off the walls and insulate, right?

The room is small, like most bathrooms in old houses. Which means we can splurge a little on tile but need to maximize storage. Eventually there will be 2 teenage girls sharing this bathroom, so I think we'll need extra hair-dryer outlets and a large mirror. I'll have to figure out where we can put a large cabinet for beauty essentials.

Here's the basic plan/design.

1. New bathtub, plain white
2. Kohler Memoirs faucet, widespread
3. Kohler Memoirs toilet
4. Double shower curtain rod, perfect for when we have lots of guests
5. Chrome triple sconce
6. Stock Vanity painted BM Pink Ladies
7. White ceramic penny tiles for floor
8. Some type of sparkly tile accent stripe in the shower, with plain white subway tiles

I don't want to make the bathroom too girly, but I love that pink vanity since I saw it on House Beautiful. If we have to move, a few coats of paint will make the bathroom marketable.

I haven't really run the dollars on this project, so who knows if it would be affordable, but this is what I'm aiming for!

Its over. For now

The crack-house went for auction this morning and we were there bright-eyed and nervous. There were 3 other individuals there, mostly house-flippers. I kept expecting to see HGTV cameras following one of them.

The bank opened the bid at triple our maximum limit. Within 1 minute, the bank took ownership of the property. We felt better about our low bid since no one else bid on the property either.

We can finally stop looking at house plans and dreaming about building a new home for the Beechnuts. Its time to knock some more things off the To-do list here at SOABT.

Its getting a little out of control

We can't stop looking at house plans. Here's one that Jeff found that we really love, but I'm not sure the exterior farmhouse style fits in with our Victorian-filled street.

I love the wide front porch.

I love the open kitchen with the dining room and family room all visible. We have recently heard from friends who did not like the open floor plan in practice, but we might be able to separate the family room so the TV noise isn't overwhelming when someone is cooking.

The upper level seems fairly open and not crowded and although I dont' think we truly need 4 BRs, it would help with resale value. I like the built-ins in the hall, I envision a window seat with books underneath.

The idea takes root

What started out as a little seed of an idea has us obsessed with house plans. Its hard to nail down what you want in a house if you were to build it from scratch.

The previous plan I posted had a staircase in the side/middle of the house, and it wasn't visible from the foyer. It seems a little strange to me to not have the stairs near the front of the house. All the houses I've lived in have had the stairs near the front door.

This house has the front stairs, but no garage. So, we'd just need to figure out where to put the door to a garage.

 

We like the stairs to the 3rd floor, for a potential rec-room/guest suite.  The bathroom between the bedrooms is good for our Beechnuts. But, we'd need a garage and an easy way to have a mudroom installed to hold coats. Now that we have our giant mudroom, we can't go back to coats on the backs of the kitchen chairs!

Its been fun to imagine a new house, but I think its also time for some Spring cleaning in our current house. Just as soon as Spring arrives...