Progress Downstairs and Bathroom Inspiration

It's been a busy week around our house with drywall going in and plumbing getting connected.

The former hall closet now looks like this:

The closet entrance was around the corner to the right before, but we moved it to make the space work better for a half bath that could use our old toilet and pedestal sink from the original first-floor bathroom. Moving these walls around slightly meant patching the wood floors and moving a return air vent too.

The narrow space to the right used to be the entrance to the original bathroom. The entrance has been moved to our bedroom and now this little alcove is getting a built-in storage unit for coats, the Swiffer, etc. (we measured the drawer for it to exactly be the height the hold excess rolls of paper towels :) ).

Here's another shot of the narrow little space where the built-in will go. It's actually two feet wide but looks much narrower here.

The mosaic tile for the half bath has been laid (but not grouted). We're thinking we'll go with a dark grout so dirt blends right in! Turns out you can get mosaic tile at all price points...we went with the stock white tile from Lowes. They also have those cute little black-and-white alternating patterns, which are adorable - and twice as much as solid white!

 

For design ideas for the half bath, people always say to be bold in these small, confined areas because it's not necessary for them to coordinate with the rest of a home. In that spirit, we're considering painting the walls somewhere in the salmon / terra cotta /orangish-pink realm to coordinate with a picture I've had a long time without even realizing it was about a place in Indiana! The bathroom seems to be the perfect home for our sand collection as well.

And here's the inspiration/design board for the master bath. As we were looking at fixtures and finishes, I realized I had an old wooden boat - a Chris-Craft boat - in mind when I was putting things together. You really can't beat the mahogany and brass (which is totally coming back in!) combination for classic, sleek, and timeless. Also, other parts of the house are pretty feminine, so this is definitely a manly bathroom! That being said, I think it still needs an accent color... :).

Looking forward to seeing more of this come to life next week!

Practically done!

The countertop, sink, and faucet went in last Friday which meant we had a functioning bathroom back!

 

 

Over the weekend, we finished the touch-up painting and hung hardware and curtains. 

 

 

Here's a pretty good before and after comparison:

 

 

Master bath project begins

We are down to one toilet, one shower that's accessible, and two kitchen sinks. Sometimes we think living through the bathroom renovations is harder than the kitchen since we can always go out to eat, but we can't very easily go out to...well, you know.

While the upstairs bath waits on a countertop, our foreman moved on to the downstairs work of converting a hall closet into a half bath and connecting the full bath to our bedroom so we'll have a true master set-up.

This is the hall closet before we bought the house. We're moving the entrance to the half bath to the wall to the left.

And here's the first floor bathroom before we moved in also. It was charming in its own way but not functional enough for two people, and as the only bathroom on the first floor, company shared this bathroom with us too.

So, here's what the area looks like now. All the walls of the hall closet are gone and the wall between the bathroom and bedroom was opened up too to provide access for new plumbing and electrical...

...but that also revealed some duct work that's in our way as well as a large pipe that drains from the upstairs bath. Looks like the idea of a recessed medicine cabinet in this wall is a no-go. This picture also shows where the toilet and pedestal sink used to be. Don't worry - that cute pedestal sink (and the less cute but free toilet) will be reused in the half bath we are adding.

This alcove used to be a linen closet in the bathroom, and now it's becoming a toilet alcove.

Progress the last few days hasn't been very photo-worthy (some new plumbing, old subfloor coming out, etc.), but hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to "see" the progress more!

Just a few more pictures of the progress

We've made a lot of progress with the bathrooms in the last week or so. Here's a few photos of how things are coming.

 

Here's the tile upstairs before it was grouted.

 

 

 


And then the vanity got reset and measured for the countertop, the toilet got reset, walls, ceiling, and trim were painted, the tile got grouted, and the light fixture went in. Here's how it looks now, while it waits on the countertop.

Hopefully we'll have a countertop and sink soon!