Guest Bathroom Reveal

I can't believe how far this bathroom has come! There are still some small updates that need to be finished but I didn't want to delay the photos any longer. Here's what we started with:

• Initial house tour
• Demo begins 3/11/2014
• Update 3/27/2014
• Update 5/7/2014 

We'll let the pictures do the talking. Source list below.

Sources

Wall color - Benjamin Moore Classic Gray

Tile -  The Tile Shop

Rug - Target

Vanity - Lowes

Vanity Top - Lowes

Vanity Lights - Home Depot

Mirror - Home Goods

Faucets - Home Depot

Shower, Tub, Curved shower rod - Lowes (1, 2, 3)

Shower Curtain - Home Goods

Toilet - Lowes

Frames - Target

Window blinds - Home Depot

This bathroom has come so far. And we absolutely love it. I mean the cracked aqua tiles, laminate flooring, and stained tub were all well and good but I think this is a bit of an improvement. :) We have a few items to clean up like adding pictures to the frames, painting the window frame, door frame, and door as well as purchasing new door knobs (for all of the upstairs doors) but like I said, nothing worth delaying these photos any longer. We've had this room finished since June...

What do you think??

Guest Bathroom Update

This post is incredibly overdue. And please excuse the quality of some of these photos - taking pictures towards a sunny window is not my expertise, especially whilst using an iPhone. 

Before

Step 1: Gut It! 

Bye bye blue tiles, laminate floor, old stained vanity and tub

Sturdy tupperware bins have been a huge help in this demo - bringing loads of debris out without getting too heavy or breaking. Highly suggest this.

Step 2: Remove the Cast Iron Tub

We thought my dad was kidding when he said the best way to remove cast iron tubs was with a sledgehammer...he was not. One google search confirmed his advice. And all that dust/lint? Blown installation that made its way under/around the tub - absolute mess.

Step 3: Bring in the plumber and electrician for rough fittings

And install the tub and shower!

Step 4: Install Drywall

We decided to hire a family friend for this step. J helped with fitting the drywall but we left it up to the pro to tape and mud. Starting to look like a bathroom again!

Step 5: Remove old Subfloor

According to J, this was by far the worst part. Lots of nails and the wood just kept splitting into a million pieces...

Step 6: Sand the Drywall

I was so excited to get this primed and painted that I volunteered to help J with the sanding. Plus, I felt bad at how long removing the subfloor took. This is the worst job ever!! I ended up quitting once the walls I could reach were good and let J tackle above the shower and the ceiling. Covered in dust.

Safety first!

Step 7: Prime and Paint

J handled the priming and ceiling paint. I hated every minute of painting the ceiling in the master bathroom and decided I didn't want my body to feel that kind of stress right now. Thanks J! :) My mother-in-law helped us paint so we had this done in record time. Color of choice - Classic Gray. Due to convenience, I had this color matched to Behr No VOC paint at Home Depot - they were great! And because we weren't super picky about the color, I can't tell you if the color match is exact or not, but its the right shade and tone we were going for here. Light and neutral!

So what's left to do?

• Install new subfloor
• Install Ditra over sublfoor
• Tile!
• Bring plumber back in to install vanity, shower fixtures, and toilet
• Bring electrician in to install lighting, finish installing overhead vent
• Install baseboards
• Decorate!

I feel like we are getting so close! Once the tiling is done we'll be in the homestretch. Cross your fingers, pray for me, do a little lucky dance - if all goes well, the tiling will be done this weekend. Eek! I cannot wait to see this beauty installed. 

Guest Bathroom Update

In all honesty, I think I could write pregnancy/baby related posts daily for the next month and still not get all of the thoughts and ideas I have out. Is that normal? Because it is really hard to turn off the baby brain these days!

But with other projects currently going on at our house, I'll do my best to split my blogging time. I don't think you should expect a fashion related post anytime soon though...I'm in a what still fits phase right now and doing my best to buy only what is practical/necessary for the next few months I have left. Ok that's partially a lie - who doesn't get excited at the fact that the weather WILL warm up soon and want a few new spring/summer items? Plus, I'm only getting bigger, pre-pregnancy clothes will only last so long. But I am doing my best to be good about what's getting purchased. And sadly it's still freakin cold here so many recent purchases are more for my upcoming trips to Florida and Charlotte. Can't wait!

But I digress. This past weekend we picked up all of the big guest bathroom purchases we had ordered. Just call this free advertising for Lowes...other than the tile, yep it was a one-stop shop over here. And I'm totally fine with that this time. First of all, the prices were pretty amazing and the stuff met our quality tests. Second, we've seen some of these items installed and they look great! And third, the guys we worked with were so helpful - that really does deserve a mention in my book. So as I discussed in this post, practical won in this bathroom renovation. And as you can see, white, white and more white. Easy to clean, right? Let's hope.

*definitely not to scale

Besides the tile (our plan B splurge!), my next favorite piece is definitely the vanity. I knew I wanted a wood tone and loved the look of this one when I first saw it online. Well, lucky for me they carry the single vanity in stock at Lowes so I was able to inspect it. It's so warm, and a touch lighter in person. Just what I was looking for.

I'm pretty pumped about this toilet too. Why? Well see those flat sides? Yup, easier to clean my friends. 

Disregard the faucets in the picture above, those were just included in the online picture of the counter. Fixtures are next on the list. What we need to choose:

• 2 vanity light fixtures, maybe something like this? (going with recessed lighting overhead)
• 2 faucet fixtures - if we had ordered a custom vanity top like our master bath, I would go with an 8" widespread faucet fixtures. But the vanity top we went with is pre-drilled for a 4" centerset. These are my favorites so far. But I know good faucet fixtures are worth it so I'm a bit torn. Maybe give them a try and if we hate them in a year or two we'll switch them out? That's kind of the plan with the vanity top anyways...
• Shower head/bathtub/handle combo
• Vanity mirror - currently thinking a simple, big, builder-grade mirror to fill out the space above the vanity. Finding the perfect mirrors in our master bathroom was one of the most frustrating aspects of the project surprisingly. Time to keep it simple.

Then lastly it will be on to the small details that complete the look - possibly shelves, shower curtain (to go with this curved curtain rod), art, towels, etc. In the master bathroom we went with polished chrome fixtures to compliment the tiles we selected. But I think this time around a satin finish will work better with the pieces above.

via Bower Power Blog

Hopefully J can finish up the demo this weekend so we can get the plumber and electrician in here asap to get the rough work done before we put the walls back up. I can't wait to see this bathroom take shape!

Tile Options - Plan B

This past weekend we decided to get all major items for the kids bathroom renovation ordered. This is a bit of a different approach than we took with our master bathroom renovation (when we had no idea what we were doing really).

After a few headaches during the ordering process for our master bathroom renovation - everything takes longer than estimated it seems - we decided this time around, we'd make sure we had everything we needed ready to go.

Much to my delight, we found ourselves with a plan free Sunday this past weekend! Obviously that never lasts long so before I knew it we were out the door, off to make our purchases. Our first stop was really The Tile Shop but since they didn't open until 11 we killed sometime in a nearby Home Depot first. We strolled the aisles of tub options, vanities, toilets, etc. I already had my mind set on a few options at Lowes and Home Depot really did nothing to impress me in this department. Decor is definitely where Lowes takes the cake. Do you agree?

So on we went to TTS to order up our penny round tiles. I was so excited to get these ordered. My bathroom vision was taking shape! Welp, the store is completely sold out! Gah. Like, out in all locations and no ETA on when the backorder is until. WHAAAT?! Womp, womp. As much as I appreciated the fact that they didn't want to order anything since the backorder realistically could be 3 months, I was super bummed about this. I'm actually proud of myself for keeping it together - pregnancy hormones somedays can be killer.

Soo now it's time to figure out Plan B. We took a few minutes to browse the store before discussing the Penny Round tiles with the sales person and fell in love with this marble hex. Which of course is more than double the price per square foot. And that just does not fit into the budget we've set....But, how about the fact that they're running a sale and we could get as much as 20% off. Or that our vanity, tub, and shower purchases ended up coming more than $1,000 under the budget we set.... do we go for it?!

We spent Sunday afternoon scouring the internet for options. First off, damn is penny round in a moss coloring popular these days - it was sold out on every site we checked. And second, damn is everything else we like expensive! Champagne taste on a beer budget. As much as I keep reminding myself this is a kids bathroom, this is kids bathroom, I don't want to totally cheap out on it. It does have to last!

So what do we do? Here are a few options we've found between our internet searches and the best husband in the world making a few tile store stops Monday afternoon to check out samples:

1 - Our original plan that has fallen through the cracks.

2 - Do we switch it up for white penny tiles instead? Maybe go with a darker grout?

3 - A HomeDepot find I would have never expected! But at the same price as the other marble tiles and lack of color variation, it's not our first pick. To be honest, it won a serious second glance simply because I totally misread the pricing labels in our original trip down the tile aisle.

4 - A polished 1x1 Ming Green hex marble, pretty amazing right? 

5 - Or how about a 2x2 marble hex? Definitely a little easier to install and having seen it in person, it had us both drooling.

6 - Or how about a tumbled 1x1 Ming Green hex marble? We totally loved the more rustic, less polished look of this one!

Well, let's just say that something has been ordered!! And fingers crossed we're in love once it's in our possession (soon!). But I'm going to keep it a secret until then. :)

So stay tuned!

Another Bathroom Reno

Well folks, the time has come. We've officially started the guest/kid bathroom renovation!

It's something we've been planning for since moving last year but it's still crazy to actually get it started.

We sat down Saturday morning to finalize our budget on it and well, the itch was scratched. We've taken a fair amount of time off from house projects but lately my mind has seriously been swirling with house plans. Possibly it's some early nesting but I have a laundry list of things I'd like to get done before July. J's so excited! :)

But in all seriousness, he couldn't wait to get the old bathroom cleaned out. It's high time we got another big project going.

Goodbye original blue tiles (everywhere)!

So, what's the plan? First and foremost, the plan and budget for this bathroom is dramatically different than our master bathroom renovation. Let's be serious, this bathroom will be used by kids most often. So we'll be going with easy to clean/maintain products (read no marble, possibly no granite). And we don't need to change the layout of the bathroom at all, just upgrade everything. So we'll be taking a hands-on approach this time and diy-ing everything we possibly can.

I wrote about our original ideas for the guest bathroom back before we moved in (here). Some of these ideas we're still planning to incorporate but I've decided to change it up a little too.

via

1. Neutral Walls. The bathroom we inherited had crazy stucco-looking walls. Now we know why. During the demo we realized that the previous owners slapped some plaster up over the original wallpapered walls and called it a day. Seriously. Why wouldn't you remove the wallpaper and keep smooth walls? I still love the idea of shiplap walls but clean, smooth walls will be so nice too.

2. Double Sinks. Oh yes, this is still in the plans. I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect, reasonably priced, vanity. And that purchase will determine what we end up using as a top. So many vanities online today come with marble as the stone of choice. In a kids bathroom? No thank you. That is just way too much maintenance for this space. Even granite shows water marks. So this is still something being researched but the easier to maintain, the better. White corian is sounding better and better. 

via

3. Penny Tile Floors. Our original plan included slate floors. I am so happy with the floors in our master bathroom, which have a slate-like look to them. But I've decided to go in the complete opposite direction for our second renovation. I've fallen for the look and feel of penny tiles. Plus, I'm fairly sure these will be easier for us first-time tilers to install.

4. White Shower Surround. We've decided to opt out of tiling in the shower. Instead, we'll be installing a tub that comes with a shower surround. Something like this. After putting some serious thought into this renovation, we've decided this is just the smartest decision for us. Not only will it save us a few dollars that can be used in other home projects (or maybe a vacation?) but it will be so much easier to maintain. No grout lines to scrub? Sounds pretty wonderful to me! But getting a nice, new tub was an absolute necessity! We kinda know that another upgrade will happen in this bathroom well down the line once our kids have grown up. And then, we'll splurge on something nicer.

via

So here, we go. Round 2 in bathroom renovations over here. I'll share updates as we go for sure. Like, how J is getting the original cast iron tub out - think sledgehammer. Oh yes, he's pumped.

And don't worry, with a baby on board, I really won't be doing too much of the heavy lifting. Especially during the demo, the dust was insane so I steered clear. But count me in for the design (obv), painting, and tiling. The slow and steady tasks are more my speed.

Wish us luck!

Master Bathroom: Sources

Happy New Year friends!

Apologies for the unintentional blogging break. Wrapping things up at work, the holidays, and catching what appears to have been the flu sucked the life out of me. But I'm on the mend and found myself with a bit of free time to check in. So, hello!

First off, thank you so much for your kind words on our master bathroom reveal. Although it certainly was not without its headaches and frustration, it has definitely been our most rewarding project to date. I tried my best to find comps when we first started this project and we were trying to figure out a budget. But the only people who tend to fess up on costs seem to be bloggers and well, there are a lot more talented bloggers out there than J and I. So estimates like $2-$8k were what I found in my searches and unless you're planning on doing much of the work yourself, I warn you...this is not realistic!

If you're in the market for a bathroom overhaul and are looking to use a few higher end products, your budget should be around $20k. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground at this point. I thought for sure our first contractor bid was trying to take our money and run. Nope, it's the truth. Bathrooms are really, really expensive and we just had no idea.

So here we go, here's a rundown of the sources we used to design our new master bathroom:

Paint: Top - Baltic Gray by Benjamin Moore, Board and Batten - Pure White by Sherwin Williams

Toilet: Kohler Cimarron via Lowes. Best decision ever = soft close lid

Tile: via Bellew Tile - We used all porcelain tiles for both durability and cost. They were beyond helpful! Only complaint...restocking fee and won't always take excess tile back if more than 30 days passed the purchase date

Shower

Fixtures: via Republic Plumbing. (All polished chrome finish). Grohe Seabury line for the valve plates/trim, Grohe thermostatic valve, Grohe handheld shower. Per recommendation, we bought less known brands for the shower heads since the quality was just as good but by not paying for the Grohe name, we saved a few dollars. 

Glass: Oasis Shower Doors (polished chrome hardware finish)

Vanity

Vanity: James Martin (via Wayfair) This is extremely well made and we couldn't be happier. We ended up calling Wayfair because at one point there was an option to purchase the vanity without a top included for a much better price. 

Granite: A remnant piece we lucked out finding from a local granite dealer. I wish I knew the pattern name to share.

Lighting: Maritime Caged Sconces (via Restoration Hardware Outlet). The outlet price is 50% off, and we purchased them during a Labor Day Weekend sales....probably our best deal!

Faucets: Symmons Carrington via Republic Plumbing (polished chrome finish)

Mirrors: via Home Depot. Ugh this was a last ditch effort. I wanted built-in oval mirrors with storage, apparently I told everyone this too late in the game. If I had to do this again, I'd also make it known earlier that I'd like to use bigger mirrors....every guy involved in the project assumed 10 inches off the edges of the vanity was good for the plumbing of the sinks (so they didn't ask)....thus meaning the very widest mirrors we could get would be 20 inches wide, but would then basically hit the walls. Ah well, what can you do.

Did I miss anything??

Master Bathroom Reveal

I've been wanting to publish this post for a few weeks now. Just waiting for the right opportunity/light to snap some photos. 

In the interest of time, I've spent my "prep" time for this post re-sizing images, so warning, this post is basically wordless. I'm going to do a separate post on sources for this bathroom reno.

Enjoy!

Here are a few recaps of the process:

Before

Planning

An Update

Thanks for touring our new master bathroom! Like I said, I'll be following this up with a post dedicated to sources, colors, what we learned, etc. If you have any questions, please tell! I'll answer them in the follow-up post.

What do you think? Is there a bathroom renovation in your future?

We're thrilled to have this complete. Yes, we need a window covering still, and a TP holder, towel holder, etc but those will be hunted down after the holidays. We're still on a much needed no-house-projects break.

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