The Long-Awaited Bathroom Reveal!

Friends, family, countrymen we have a complete bathroom! It's been a long, exciting, sometimes tiring process and we are finally done. My husband is truly the most handy and clever man on the planet. He started this project having never remodeled a bathroom, never ripped a room down to the studs, never re-wired a room to this extent, never having replaced plumbing and never having tiled! My contributions were the overall vision for the space along with internet scouring and thrift store/ antique mall visits, so while this is kind of a team effort, he did the lion share of the work and I am ever so grateful!

Let's take a little journey down memory lane...  Please read on, there will be more photos of the completed space at the end.

At first glance, the bathroom wasn't awful. Upon closer inspection, the floors were stick on tile, the walls a stamped particle board of sorts that was meant to look like tile, and the plumbing was in bad shape (no sink and awful pipes). There was no ceiling fan, you couldn't open the window and the wall plaster was cracked. Definitely seemed like a good first room to remodel!

While classic, the mirror was rusty and the wiring was scary. There was a revolving panel of sorts that was above where the sink should have been. I think it was originally to hold a cup and toothbrushes, but it had since corroded and was kind of a waste of space.

Below are some shots of the process.

We encountered all kinds of fun treasures under the floorboards and in the attic floor when Nick was doing the electrical work.

My favorite day ever was when we had a crew of guys swap out the existing tub for the claw foot we found of Craigslist! In it's original state it was a dingy, dirty white. We painted the exterior a charcoal grey and re-glazed the inside of the tub.

So, back to the completed space. Feast your eyes on the finished project! 

Ah, it's so nice to have it all done.

Here I am, taking a selfie with my shelfie!

Thanks for listening to us talk about his for ever and ever! Woohoo!

Addendum-

Wow! Getting featured on Apartment Therapy was the stuff of dreams! Never did I anticipate so much traffic on this little old blog. I'm so flattered to have received such great feedback and compliments! Some people thought the bathroom wasn't matchy-matchy enough, was too eclectic or not sleek enough. I get it. Not everyone will like our style, but we designed the bathroom to suit our tastes, while honoring the house's past, and are thrilled with the outcome! To those who were lamenting the loss of some of the pre-existing elements I'll say this- We put a lot of thought into keeping things and working with what we had. We are huge proponents of historic preservation and decided, from the start, that if we had to make replacements, we'd make sure to stay contextual with the style of the house. That being said, the built-in tub was not original to the house (most likely installed in the 40's) and it was not in good shape, so we found a claw foot from the era the house was built in, the mirror, as mentioned above, was a rusty safety hazard and the shutters were from the 70's and also in bad shape. Hopefully that gives you some more insight into our choices. Thanks again for all the love!

More Bathroom Progress!

Hey friends,

We're getting closer and closer on the upstairs bathroom remodel. The tile is done, it has been grouted, sealed and caulked and Nick has hooked up the tub, toilet and sink, so it's almost all finished. I am so grateful to finally be able to use this hallway bathroom. There is no longer a claw foot tub or a toilet in our bedroom, we don't have to tiptoe through a sleeping baby's room in the middle of the night to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom, we don't have to brush our teeth downstairs off the kitchen anymore and we can finally bathe our little guys in a tub! Huzzah!

What's left to do-

*Finish last bit of mudding and paint the walls a serene white

*Install the metal shower halo where the shower spout will come out of and the shower curtains will be hung

*Reattach and repaint the window and door frames

*Construct a threshold for the floor between the tile and hardwoods

*Repaint and reinstall the vent cover

*Reglaze the inside of the tub in a nice clean white to match the rest of the fixtures

*Install medicine cabinet and light fixture above sink

*Install towel racks

*Install open shelving above toilet

*Decorate!

I'm so proud of Nick and all he's done without having to hire any work out. He's just plugged along in the midst of 50+ hour work weeks, being an awesome, available daddy, playing on worship team, volunteering at church and taking care of numerous other household tasks. He's just so amazing!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Bathroom Progress and New Design Directions

If you've been following for a while, you may remember me first blogging about our upstairs bathroom remodel last summer. Well, it's taken quite a while to get to the point where we are at. That's the reality when your hubby is doing all the work himself. He works 50+ hours a week so it all has to happen on weeknights and weekends and we've often had other things going on. It just takes a little longer when you aren't hiring out the work. 

I am so proud of Nick. He has completely redone all the electrical wiring, installed a ceiling vent fan, redone the plumbing, gutted it down to the studs, re-dry walled the walls and ceiling and put all the prep in place for tiling. I'm sure I'm leaving certain steps out. Did I mention stud? ;) 

I'll post a full montage of photos when we finish, but for now, check out our floor that our friend Lane helped him do last week. I'm loving the 2 inch black hex tile! Super happy about this choice for flooring. Oh and the red stuff is not blood, it's a flexible sealant of sorts called Red Guard.

Over the months, my design ideas for this space have changed a bit. Originally I wanted to use a lot of mint green in this room. Now, I've decided to make citron yellow and a warm, orangey red our primary colors. I've already ordered our shower curtains from West Elm (we'll need two to wrap around the claw foot tub). These are them and I was able to snatch them up while they were on sale:

The walls will be white subway tile up halfway with white paint up the second half. Super light and clean. I'm also planning on using my collection of amber, antique medicine bottles for knick knacks and perhaps a hanging plant in the corner. A black industrial gooseneck light will go over the medicine cabinet which is, by the by, a cool shade of dove gray!

I can't wait to put it all together and have a bathtub to bathe our kiddos in again. Currently Killian gets sink baths and Collin gets showers, which he hates! 

All in good time. Stay tuned for the results!