Ahhhh....done (ish)

Ok - I have another round of paint on the upper half of the walls and a towel rack to hang, but really, what I was waiting for was the shower glass to be installed.  And it has been.  And it's lovely.  The cats approve. And it was expensive...

 

I had no idea how much this would cost, but it was something we really wanted, so we didn't bother to get any kind of estimates until we were ready.  Talking in the car one afternoon, I told him I was going to get estimates the next week for glass, how much did he think it might be?  I was hoping it wouldn't be over 2K, and his guess was 800 dollars.  So I guess it was right in the middle of our two guesses.  We called several places and the dollar amount was similar.  It's something we WOULD have done if we had the skills, but this is not the time to experiment.  I went through reviews of various glass places through yelp! and I was very happy with the company we went with.  Well, I might have been even happier if it was cheaper, but what can you say?

Here's a picture that I photoshopped rather shabbily, so you can get a look at the whole shower.  We can't take better pics with my iphone camera due to the smallness of the room, but I wanted to get an idea of how it looks --

So it's basically a glass wall.  It goes up 80" from the threshold - due to the fact that Dale's tall and we didn't want to either bang his head on the top rail (which was necessary because the door could not be hinged on a wall, and we also didn't want water to bounce over the top.  So it's extra tall, and extra expensive as well.  We did ask that they add a short towel rack on the right - we have a real struggle where to hang towels in here, so that gives us one more small place for a guest towel.

I still have to hang up decorations (and the pale green needs one more coat of paint), but it's such a relief to be able to shower without a janky makeshift shower curtain, and to have a functioning sink, and, well....all of it. 

So - on to the bedroom closet.   We took a trip to IKEA this morning, and we've got the piles of boxes and instructions and little IKEA tools to wrestle with this afternoon.  And we picked out a paint color for the room.  But now I gotta go, because I'm the one who has to do a lot of the instruction deciphering!

Waiting for the glass guy to show up

Today the glass company is scheduled to install our shower glass.  They're running a little late, so while I wait, I am going to give some preview shots of the bathroom.



We used marble tiles on the bathroom floor to match the floor of the shower.  But I wanted to add a subtle pattern, so instead of laying them in a running bond, I put them in a herringbone pattern, but not at a diagonal.  We have running bond on the shower walls and floor, and the basketweave insets are nice.  Just this one little change keeps things lively.

The thing that I really think added a lot to the look of the room is the picture frame molding - it gives a feeling of texture and contrast to what is essentially a whole lotta white. 


It also gives some style to what is essentially a plain little house - our house is a mid-century California bungalow - not quite stylish enough to be mid-century modern, but certainly toned down.  Adding these little touches gives it some character that it lacks.








I added a magazine rack on the lower part of the wall below the light switch.  We have precious little wall space here, so the toilet paper is on a standup holder.  And we have to add our towel racks and accents where we can.










Considering that one of our walls contains a pocket door, we can't just hang things willy-nilly without thinking about the placement pretty carefully.






We got the metal accent pieces a variety of places - the shower shelf we got at IKEA, the towel hooks by the vanity at Target, the magazine rack we found on amazon.com.  We were looking for a soft nickel finish - not exactly brushed, but more of a soft luster.

So, the other day I sat down and did all the math, adding up the receipts that I have carefully saved, so that we'd know how much our bathroom remodel cost.  And darned if I can't find the piece of paper I put my totals on!  So although I don't have exact figures, I can give you some roundabout numbers.  I divided the receipts into 3 categories - building (lumber, drywall, plywood, cement, lights, etc), plumbing (pipe, shower liner, fixtures, etc) and tile (grout, thinset, tile, tool rental), and basically it comes to this.



Building materials - 1300.00
Plumbing - 1100.00
Tile - 900.00
Shower glass - 1723.00



For a total of around 5100.00.  For a complete remodel, we feel pretty good about it.  The shower glass was a lot more than we expected, however!  Just the same, it's the way we wanted it, so we're happy.

Ah, they're here and installing as I type this.  So after that's done, I can touch up the paint and add the last remaining details!

And - already, we've started on our next project.  We decided to do our guest bedroom, because we have some visitors coming in June.  We are going to paint, add crown molding and new baseboard, and most importantly, redo the closet.  So when I came home from work yesterday, I was glad to see that Dale's already started the demo (his favorite part!):

We got rid of the closet doors on craigslist, and he took out the rest of the interior yesterday.  This afternoon, we're off to IKEA to pick up the new workings, as well as nice blinds for the room.  We're looking forward to making a comfortable place for our guests to relax!

Vanity installed

I posted earlier about scouring Craigslist to find a dresser to convert to a sink/vanity, but we finally got it installed last week and it's SO NICE to have it working!  The picture of the completed vanity was before we adapted it for the sink, which took some interior workings.

 I'd already shortened the two top drawers to give me space for the sink plumbing, but when we got the sink set on top, we realized we'd need a little more space, so we had to open it back up and take a little more out.

 And then I had to watch as Dale cut a hole through my newly refinished top, for the sink and drain:

 

 In the meantime, I used a book of sheet music to line the interior of all the drawers - the wood was old and from my previous experience with old drawers, sometimes there are smells and stains that eke out over time.  Also, several layers of paper glued in gave stability to the drawers (I had added new nails and tightened them up already)

 

 I'd gotten a couple of old sheet music books at a garage sale for a buck or so, so I've got plenty of paper.  This will make the drawers feel clean for me.

 After I tiled the floor in the bathroom (pictures to come later this week!), Dale got to installing the sink, along with his two helpers:

The big drawers are going to be great for holding toilet paper, towels and the tons of "stuff" that end up in the bathroom.  And we each have a top drawer for our own personal things. 

You can see a peek of the floor there, covered up with an old bath mat, and some of the baseboard trim that needs to be installed.  We had the glass guys out this week to measure for our shower glass, and when that's installed next week, I'll have pictures of the (finally) finished bathroom!

Picture Frame molding

I'm on spring break this week - not that I got any break!  I spent all my time in the bathroom - taping and mudding and sanding the drywall, putting up crown molding, and priming.  The thing I really wanted to do was get all that done so I could add picture frame molding to the lower half of the walls --


 I really like the sconces I got at Home Depot.



The shower has a row of "chair rail" about 4 feet up - I carried that through to the rest of the room.  I added another rail about four inches below, and then marked off boxes down the wall.



Originally, I was just going to have one box on each wall, but the way the vanity fits, it wouldn't show up on that wall at all -- so I decided I'd put a short set of boxes and then a larger box below.

It continues around the room.  This room seems either really small (when I'm trying to use an air compressor or move a ladder) or really big (only compared to how it was when we closed on the house).  We haven't had the vanity in for about a month, so we'll have to mentally adjust when that goes back in and we have a big piece of furniture in the room!




You can see a hint of the seafoam green above the chair rail in both pictures. I just wanted to be sure I really liked it - I was afraid it would look 1950s mint, but it looks more beach-like.

I also added another rail about 2 inches below the crown molding - this will help my crown look like it's wider.  The space in between will be painted white like the crown and the trim, so it will 'read' as a wide piece of molding.




So now I am sick and tired of caulking  -- every piece of molding has caulk on both sides so when I paint it there won't be any cracks where the pieces meet the wall.  And I filled all the little nail holes.  I would love to get it painted tonight, but I'm pooped!  I'm hoping tomorrow we do the floor so that by the end of my spring break, we'll have the vanity moved back in and all we'll need is the shower glass.  I had a guy out this morning to take measurements for an estimate --  it's the most expensive part of our whole bathroom redo!

Oh - just a last little picture of what this bathroom looked like when we bought the house in October --

I love my garage

When we were looking for a house, a garage was something we just assumed we'd have - we didn't give it much consideration, but we knew we'd want one because we have a lot of tools.  This house has a really big garage - two car, and it sits back on the lot in the backyard.  We will likely never use this garage for our car, but I have to say, I LOVE my garage as a workspace!

When we bought the house - it was full of old crap - mattresses, some shabby furniture and a really cool old stove, which we were temped to keep, but realized it needed repair and in the long run, it wouldn't fit in with our plans.  We listed everything on Craigslist for free and folks came over and cleared it all out for us.  Then we moved in and just kind of stacked things all over the place.  It also had a broken spring so we couldn't use the garage door opener to get the door up.  We replaced that, and a couple of weeks ago I spent the afternoon cleaning it out and arranging things so we could use the space, and now we have the best work space!

It's the perfect place to refinish furniture or build things - yes, that's my bathroom vanity still sitting there, but I'm hoping to get the bathroom FINSHED this week - I'm going to install the flooring while I'm on spring break one day this week -- we finished drywall installation today - starting tomorrow I am doing the mudding and sanding and priming and painting.  It's gonna happen, folks!

The BEST part about getting all the drywall installed in the bathroom is that now I can take out the rest of it from the living room, where it's been since October.  I cleaned the floor and moved the cool cabinet we got ($35 bargain on Craigslist) to center it where the drywall has been leaning for months.  And I got to get out my collection of Chinese checkerboards!

 


This room has so much work to do - you can't see it well, but this wall has painted paneling on it, and acoustic tiles on the ceiling, and no baseboard.  This wall above, actually, is going to be removed - the kitchen is on the other side, and we are going to open it up.  We were debating on doing it as soon as the bathroom is done in the next few weeks - can't decide if we could get it done before we have company in June.  If we are reasonable and think about our progress on the bathroom, we are probably not going to do it - but we might actually just take this wall out and make do for a bit.  I think we are going to do some furniture rearranging this week - try out some new arrangements to work around our weird fireplace situation.



So - there should be some new pictures coming this week as I finish the floor and the walls of the bathroom.  I can't wait!

another furniture piece

While Dale worked on running electric (up the ladder, into the attic, hey, turn off the power, back down, repeat), I reworked a table that we had in the living room.  I actually got this table when I was living in apartments, almost 20 years ago, I pulled it out of a dumpster!  I went to throw my trash out and I saw it down in there - I had to climb in and drag it out.  It's been a handy little table, about 3 years ago I painted it black to cover the badly stained top - but it needed to be freshened up.

So while I was in between helping out with electrical, I sanded the top smooth, sanded edges to give it a weathered look, painted a compass rose on the top, sanded that a big to age it, then gave it a nice coat of stain and several coats of poly.

It looks so much nicer now!

I also refinished the bathroom door this week.  This door had plastic laminate contact cemented to the backside.  We wanted to keep the original doors because they're really nice, so I pried up all the laminate, removed some plywood that they used to level the insets, sanded it all down and added a strip along the back edge.  We are going to convert the bathroom door into a pocket door, and this one should be about an inch or so wider so it doesn't pop out of the pocket.  The additional strip won't really show, but I added a strip of wood and sanded it even, and added filler in where the old door knob was.  It looked pretty rough!

I sanded it all smooth, and then primed it and gave it two coats of nice white enamel.  For a finishing touch, I painted "Bath" on the top panel, which will only show when the door is closed.




Well, we didn't get the pocket door done this weekend, but it's the next project on the list.  And the door is ready to go!

Oh, and see all those baby shoes on the shelf? Those will go in my bathroom, too.

Finally....starting to tile

OK -this is getting kind of ridiculous - between Dale working overtime and me finishing up the semester with meetings and grading, we just weren't getting anything done at all.  But finally this week we have the shower pan poured and now it's tile for awhile!

Hard to take a picture this evening - the tile is bright white and I am hoping to get the walls done tomorrow morning.  I have a few tiles that I need a wet saw to cut, so I am just leaving those until I rent one this weekend (I need one for the floor), but I should have all the wall field tiles done.  I am hoping to post a picture this weekend of a semi-complete shower.  The room still needs drywall and a floor, but what I am really wanting is a finished shower!

patiently waiting....

Oh, bathroom, when will you ever be done?  I spent a little time this weekend - while waiting for various things to dry - fixing up a couple of display boxes for this great collection of vintage porcelain and ceramic baby shoes that I have. 

And then, of course, I could not find the box with all the little shoes in it.  I think I have about 35 of them.  I may need more shelves....

While dismantling the previous bathroom, I saved the drawer from the vanity.  I also had an older small drawer that I added a fun decorative knob to.  I found some scrap wood from the scrap wood pile (which is kinda enormous right now) and cut some extra shelves to fit.  The larger drawer had really horrid floor tile stuck to the bottom and I could not pry it out, so I glued some pages from a vintage music book to cover it up.  So these are going to go on the wall in my future bathroom. I have another drawer out in the garage to work on still.  Who knows, maybe I'll find the baby shoes by the time the bathroom gets finished, which appears to be in the not-to-near future.

more studio

After getting the room cleared of boxes and getting my tables set up, I was inspired to get the rest of the furniture in.  Still have lots of art supplies to move onto the shelves, but I finally have a place to put my red loveseat and Kandinsy-inspired rug.  It's looking like a nice cozy place to work!

The room serves a bit as a hallway - there's a straight shot through with doors on both ends.  The closet is in an awkward place in the corner, but since I am just using it to store large bins with fabric, I don't mind not being able to access the back corner right now.  We have some storage upgrades in mind down the road for all the closets, which are original to the house and have  two large drawers underneath, and doors with wooden slider doors that do NOT move very easily.  Last night, I installed steel rails and wheels on the ones in our master bedroom, which would not slide at all. 

Update on the bathroom progress:  slow!

Dale had to work another long weekend, so he hasn't made much progress.  He worked 12 hour days most days this week, with the additional Saturday being more like an 18 hour day, so needless to say, he's really tired and jumping into a bathroom rebuild was more than he was able to do.  However, on Sunday, he got the rest of the plumbing and venting done under the house, so we'll be able to get the floor all sealed up and leveled this week.  He's also got the shower framed and the bench built, so he's hoping to finish installing a new window and getting that mortar bed laid this week.  Maybe a few normal 8 hour days would come in handy!

Not his favorite job!

 

 

This morning, I changed out the hardware on the built in linen closet in the hall.  The view of the closet is framed in the doorway so you can see it from the living room - the old pulls were tarnished 1950s brass. 

Hmmm...the cabinets are bright white....the color's a bit off....

Progress -- still demolishing!

One of the things you find out when you do any kind of renovations is that no matter what you gear yourself up for, there's always something else that unfolds along the way, making everything more complicated.  For us, it was finding that there was a 2 1/2" mortar bed under the tile floor and an equally hard mortar bed behind the tiles around the tub.  Getting these broken up was a back-breaking job - enough for Dale to get his back strained so that Friday night, he was very stiff and in a lot of pain.  So we took one night off, then got back to work on Saturday. 



This morning, we picked up a jackhammer so he could make quick work of breaking up the floor.  Within 45 minutes, it was broken up into small pieces that I could carry out, and he was on his way bringing the jackhammer back to the tool rental place.  When he got back, I was just sweeping up, and now the bathroom is a nice, blank slate.





You can see the floor is two different levels -- higher by an inch on the right in the picture above, where the tub and the linen closet were.  We then took off the subfloor in this area - we need the floor to be all one level, so we are dropping the higher section down and bringing the lower section up, each by 3/4" - which will work just fine.  Taking up the subfloor also allowed us to get a good look at the existing plumbing, so we can see how we are going to run the new plumbing.  On the right here, the existing tub/shower will be split into two runs, one for the sink to the far right, and the second shower head near the back of the wall shown above.

On the picture on the left, the existing sink plumbing will be moved to the right and higher for the other shower.  At least we're leaving the toilet plumbing completely alone!  You can also see in the picture to the left, the old wall heater, which was totally rusted out, but the wiring was still live.  When we went to check out the breakers, we were lucky enough to see the bathroom ones labeled.  So we flipped that breaker and disconnected the wiring there and another box that had been closed up.  And since we were still working in the area, we just left the breaker off.

So - while we still had a rental truck, we went to the home improvement store and bought our long list of supplies; wallboard, cement board, plywood, lumber, plumbing and electrical supplies, insulation, vent fans and a window, among other things!  Our goal is to keep the remodel around $2000, and we spent about half that today.  We drove back up to the place to unload the truck and store everything in the garage - and none of our lights would work! We thought it was because we had put in a work order to change the electric and gas utilities over, and we ended up unloading everything in the dark.  It wasn't until I went through the house getting things locked up to leave that I noticed Dale's circular saw had it's powerlight on - glowing in the middle of the dark house.  Wait a minute....I flipped a few switches, and found one light that worked -- it turned out that one of the breakers we flipped had to have nearly 3/4 of the circuits on it -- whoa, we need to check into that.  But we felt pretty silly stumbling around in the dark, when all we had to do was flip the breaker to get light back on!