Front Hall Upgrade

The front hall is finally getting a new coat of paint. It was painted a blah yellow color by the Previous Owners.

After the floors were finished, I realized it was time to finish the area. Here are the before shots, notice the pretty floors!

I painted it Benjamin Moore Gray Mirage. Its a nice color with sage and a little blue in it.  I am going to paint the upstairs hall a lighter color. Eventually.

I painted the trim BM Decorator's White. I love crisp white trim. I also bought a new rug from Overstock.

Now all that's left is to pull up the carpet on the stairs, paint the treads, and replace the front door!

You can never have too much closet space

As part of the ever-creeping scope of the master bath project, we bought a closet system.
We talked to almost every company out there. The space is odd, with the low ceilings and the fact that this is really a hallway. We ended up going with California Closets. Since we walk through this hall several times a day, I realized these closets would be more like furniture and I wanted something nice that would stand the test of time. We chose the dark wood finish b/c 1) it matches the bathroom vanity and 2) it was on sale!

It was installed yesterday, and I wanted to post pictures before it was cluttered up by our clothes.

 

Above is my new set of shelving and drawers,

hanging space,

And Jeff's set of drawers and hanging space. I still need to order handles for the drawers, but now the master bathroom renovation is finally complete!

The paint color in the hall is Benjamin Moore November rain, #2142-60.

New hardwood floor

We now have hardwood flooring in the bedroom and master bath hall!

We pulled up the old blue carpet left by previous owners and added 2 1/4 inch maple to match the rest of the upstairs hall and bedrooms.

Of course, seeing the new floors makes me want to refinish the rest of the floors in the house. If we ever buy a new house, remind me to have the floors done before we move in.

Finally seeing some progress

The basketweave in the shower was installed yesterday.

The wall tile is going up, here you can see the thin black tile. Chair rail will also go in tomorrow.

The middle drawers have the wrong fronts, those will be changed. The drawers will all have flat fronts.

Master Bath: The Hideous Before

I found some of the "Before" photos to remind you of how badly we needed a new bathroom.

Looking into the bathroom from the hall. Notice the step-up.

Lineolum, old small vanity and lights, pink walls.

Shower with no fan and fiberglass surround

Looking back at the hall/closet area from the bathroom. Notice the low ceiling, gross carpet.

Framing to insulation

Things are moving slowly, but we are seeing progress.

The walls have been framed out, rough electrical, and rough plumbing are both completed. Insulation (Jeff's favorite part of any house project) is getting added. We are starting to get a feel for the space.

Stencil questions

We found this stencil under the bathroom walls.  It ran around the border of the bathroom and the hall area, including the old window in the bathroom space. This stencil, coupled with the linoleum floor makes me wonder if the space had once been a kitchen.

Demo progress

The elevated floor and most of the walls in the bathroom have been removed. We found that there was a continuous piece of linoleum under the entire space, and the bathroom was just added on top.  This is good news, since we can now build the bathroom level with the rest of the hall area. The bad news is that we have to do some additional demo to rip out more floor.

Floor/Ceiling fixes

Its never good when you arrive home and your contractor meets you in the driveway to prepare you for the fact they had to build a temporary retaining wall in the kitchen so the ceiling didn't fall in when fixing the joists in the bathroom above...

Some day this house will be finished, right?

Interior rainforest

We are moving forward with the bathroom renovation and decisions. The latest decision is about the shower.
We decided on this kind of showering extravaganza.

Source: faucetstop.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Its more luxurious than I originally wanted. Rainfall shower, 2 body sprays, a regular shower head and a hand-held. Its a lot of water, and I think if one were to shower with all the faucets turned on they would get a glorious shower for about 5 minutes until the hot-water ran out. I was iffy on it, but when the woman in the showroom told me that I could just shower with the body sprays on the day when I don't want to wash my hair, I was sold.

We chose the chrome finish to save money... ha! like a Diet Coke with your Big Mac...

I'm going to finalize that order today, we're right at the line of No Return, but we're getting ready to jump over it.

Dreaming about demo

The blog has been quiet because we really didn't know if we were going to do the bathroom or not. Then we found mold and decided there was no time like RIGHT NOW.

We started with a quick call to Shelly to turn our random thoughts into a cohesive look and she delivered! Now we have tile and an inspiration for the room.

The photo above shows the basket-weave tile for the shower, white subway tiles for the walls with a black pencil line next to the tile chair rail, and marble on the floor in the main area.

By moving some walls and shifting all the plumbing, we'll be able to have a 84" vanity with 2 sinks. We will be starting demo in the next few weeks. I can't wait!

Dreaming about tile

We're trying not to let this bathroom be the thread that unravels the sweater of improvement projects in the house, which is why we haven't started it yet.

But I've been busy pinning pictures of bathrooms on Pinterest. Which is nice, because when I look at all the pictures together I see the common themes.
I love a carerra marble bathroom:

Source: housebeautiful.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Source: houzz.com via Jessie on Pinterest

I like white tile to not appear fussy, but streamlined with a little accent like a pencil stripe in black or gray:

Source: diywithadd.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Jessie on Pinterest

A curbless shower makes the room feel bigger.

Source: paloma81.blogspot.com via Jessie on Pinterest

Source: veinteriordesign.com via Jessie on Pinterest

So, that's as far as I've gotten with the bathroom planning, just looking at pictures, but no real decisions.

Bathroom Plans

It may be quiet on the blog, but we've been talking plenty about house projects. Specifically, a new master bathroom.

The current layout is cramped, as seen here:

The big room to the right is the master bedroom. We're concerned about the room on the left, the closet and bathroom area. The top of that hall, leads toward the Beechnuts rooms.

The master bathroom has a single sink and a dark gray fiberglass shower. Its complete with crumbling linoleum flooring.

We both have closets, which look large from this angle. But when you look at it from the side:

The door in the middle (above) is the door to the bathroom. From this angle, you can see the low ceilings that are making the space feel cramped.

Here's the first layout we like for the bathroom:

We'd remove the closet to the left, which currently houses my shoes, and add a double vanity. Then we'd add some drawers and hanging space in the closet areas, while widening the closet hall.

Here's a different layout, which shifts the whole bathroom around:

This layout makes the toilet more private and we still have a double-vanity. I know anytime you move the plumbing, its more expensive, but we're keeping an open mind just to explore all the options.

What do you think?