Operation Master Bathroom....Update #2

Happy Monday to you!  Ready to start another fabulous week?  Things here have been buzzing with activity and non-activity.  Let me explain.  On my last post, we left off with the sounds of jackhammering and progress being made.  That is until we got to the tub. The plumbers wanted to wait to mark the drain until the faucet and supply lines came in. The space is very tight where the tub is going and there is no room for second guessing.   I totally get that and agreed so as I was tracking the order which of course was late, I was told by the plumber I ordered them from that the supply lines I ordered would not work with my tub.  He said that I would need to order another set of supply lines to make my faucet work.  This was not good news because that would be an additional  3-5 days since this is all special order.  So with several big holes in the floor, the plumbers left and told me to call them when the supply lines came in and they would come back and finish.  The faucet and wrong set of supply lines came in late on Tuesday and the plumbers came out Wednesday to pick up where they left off.  The idea was to move the tub in the bathroom and do a mock up of where everything was going.  Using the wrong supply lines as a guide, the plumbers determined that the distance was short about 1-1.5" or so.  Which is to say we would have to take the water closet wall down and move it over 1-1.5".  This was definitely not the news we wanted to hear. I called the plumber that I ordered the supply lines from and decided that I was going to return the wrong ones and order the correct set and have them sent overnight.  These were actually in stock so I received them the next day. The plumbers came back out on Friday to do our mock up with the new supply lines and everything fits fine where it's supposed to .  That brings us to today, where they are suppose to be finishing up the rough plumbing so we can get on with things.  Want to see pictures of the tub that's causing all of the drama?  Here she is as a before.  I've named her Eleanor. I'm going to wait another week or so before I have her all cleaned up. 

Actually, she doesn't look all that bad for her age but I'll make sure she looks beautiful again. 

Oh, and I took a picture to show you the mosaic tile that I bought for the shower floor.  The colors in this are muted but they pull a lot of the colors that are in the travertine really nicely. 

 

That's all for now.  Hope you have a wonderful day.



Operation Master Bathroom Update.....

Happy Monday friends!  Hope you had a fantastic weekend.  Things have been busy over here and HH has been busting his booty trying to get things framed and ready for the plumbers. The plumbers started today and as I am typing this, they are jack hammering away.  Estimated time for plumbing work is 3 days.  I've ordered all of the fixtures for the tub and the shower faucet and some other odds and ends for plumbing and ventilation and they should all be delivered in the next day or so. After the plumbing is complete, we will put the Sheetrock up on the walls and start the floor. With the water closet wall, the shower wall and the windows in, you can start to see the vision of how this bathroom was designed and I'm loving it. We did have a little snafu with the windows over the weekend and due to factors beyond our control, we were not able to put 3 picture windows in like we wanted.  So that changed the shower wall to being a full height wall rather than the 3/4 wall we were originally going to do. To be honest, I like the full height shower wall better and think it will look nicer when completed.  It also provided us the option to put the shower plumbing on the new shower wall side which we liked better.  Why?  The main reason is if we ever needed to repair the plumbing or add plumbing down the road, that wall will make it much easier to get to.  So, overall it all worked out for the best.  I took some pictures this morning to show you the latest.  Here's where we are in this project:

This is the shower.  It really is amazing how much light these little windows  (13" square) pull in. 

This is just to the right of the shower.  This is where the built in storage will be.


The water closet is where the light is.  The tub will be in between the water closet wall and the shower.  Basically over the hole in the floor.

Here's the table along the wall where the old vanity was. The table is going to stay here and was put here for reference for the plumbers. Can't wait to see this all done. 

One more thing, the mosaic tile that I showed you in my previous post that I wanted for the shower floor was $17 for a 12 x 12 sheet (or square foot) plus freight.  I would need about 20 pieces. I really didn't want to spend that much on the shower floor, so I went  back to Floor and Decor (that's also where I got the travertine) and found a comparable flat stone mosaic for $6.99 a sheet.  Actually, I like this one better because it has the same shades of taupe and cream and white that the travertine has but also has a transparency to it that makes it really neutral.  Not to mention, the price is more in line with what I wanted to spend.  I'll show you pictures of that in my next post. 

Operation Master Bathroom...The Plan

Happy Friday!  Hope you have wonderful plans for the weekend ahead.  We are going to be finishing up the demo in the Master Bathroom and then hopefully begin to re-construct with the new plan.  After much deliberation, we have come to a plan that incorporates everything we are wanting in this bathroom.  HH insists on having a water closet and I am not budging on the pedestal tub.  Of course, the pedestal tub is going to take up about 70" of valuable bathroom space but it will be worth it for me when it's completed.  For those of you who love to take baths, you know what I mean.  For those that love a good shower, this bathroom will not disappoint.  We have included a shower that is worthy of a Master Bathroom without being super sized.  Overall, this design makes good use of space and still gives a feeling of openness which makes us both happy.  Here's the floor plan.

This is the plan we decided on.  On the back wall where the shower is, we will install several small windows up high to let in some natural light.  These will provide privacy and let in the morning light which will make a big difference.  Just to the right of the shower will be built ins to store towels and bathroom stuff. This will be the only storage in this bathroom since we opted for the table and vessel sinks rather than the vanity.  I'm good with that and feel like the storage space will be more than enough. 

Now that the floor plan was decided, it was time to decide on the bigger things.  Like the floor itself.  I've always wanted a bathroom in carrera marble but wasn't sure that it would be this bathroom. As I said before, my mind was open to all options on tile.  While I was out looking last weekend, I came across some travertine that I thought might work.   Unlike most travertine, this one has the cool tones of taupe, white and creams and it was just the colors I was looking for. I bought a sample piece and brought it home to make sure HH liked it.  He loved it. It's called pewter crystal travertine and it's really beautiful.  We are going to do the floor and shower walls in this and thought the bigger size of 16 x 24 would look great in this bathroom. Here's a pic of the travertine..

This tile has a lot of interest and the marbling of colors is really pretty.  This is a porous tile that is not filled (see the holes in it) and also has the chiseled edges which gives it an old antique feel.  We have been looking for something for the shower floor that compliments this but I have not decided on anything yet.  I have a sample of a cream colored flat stone mosaic from Dal Tile that is a good contender but I'm going to keep looking just in case.  Here's what the mosaic tile looks like with the travertine....

 

 As for the bathroom itself, demo is almost complete with the exception of chiseling the mortar off the slab from the tiles that were removed.  That should be completed on Saturday.  After that, it will be putting in the windows and building the shower wall to get ready for the plumbers.  Hopefully they can start in the next week or two.  Here's what our bathroom looks like now....

So, that's the plan.  I am excited to see this turn into the beautiful bathroom that I know it can be.  I will keep you updated of the progress as we go along.  Hope you have a fabulous weekend.  Until later..................

 

Snaps of the week....

Hope everyone is having a great week.  Here are a few random snaps that I took this week of some of the things I've gotten recently. I picked up these paper butterflies at a local consignment shop last week. I love the colors and shapes of these. They brighten up this wall and compliment the vintage paintings next to them.
 

These vintage textiles are so colorful and pretty. The pictures are hand stitched on flour sacks. I am framing all of these in floating frames like the one in the last picture. I love framing textiles especially ones that are this colorful in floating frames.

 

 

I'll give you an update on Operation Master Bathroom tomorrow and show you "the plan".  Until then, have a great day!

Operation Master Bathroom......

Happy Friday!  Ever since the fourth on Wednesday, I don't know what day it is.  I'm all messed up.  What I do know is that our Master Bathroom is completely gutted.  After patiently waiting for seven years, we are finally tackling this bathroom.  HH has painstakingly removed the walls, tile, cabinets, lighting, toilet and everything else in this room and now we are at the final layout stage.  Laying this bathroom out is a little tricky because I have that pedestal tub that I am determined to put in this bathroom.  The location of the shower is what we are going to finalize.  Once the last of the debris is cleared from the floor (Saturday) we are going to lay everything out and finalize our design.  After that, I will share with you what the plan is.  I've decided no vanity in this bathroom.  Instead I am going to use a table that I bought at a local antique store and use round sinks instead of rectangle sinks like I used in the girl's bathroom. Since there is no vanity, we are deciding on storage options for this bathroom. The old vanity was huge and the new table is shorter so I will have more wall space to work with which is a good thing.  We are contemplating built-in's around the shower but this could change depending on the final layout. The tub will be refinished  on-site once the plumbing is roughed in and flooring installed. I decided to go with the floor mount option on the tub faucet because I like the way it looks and it will be the best option for the location of the tub.  I have several lighting options in here but I will make the final decision after we put in some small windows on the back wall.  This will make a huge difference in this bathroom and I'm excited to see that change.  This weekend I will be getting tile samples for the floor and the shower.  I want to keep this classic so perhaps a hexagon tile on the floor and marble tile for the shower.  I'm keeping an open mind on this so we'll see what happens.  So, here are some pics of the before bathroom and some pictures of items I've already selected for this bathroom. 

Looking into the bathroom from the hallway..

Shower on the left.  The toilet is out of range but just to the left of where I am standing.  The empty space in the front is where the small Master Bedroom closet was.

What's to see here?  Nothing excpet that we are moving the plumbing and toilet to the other wall to the right.  We will also build a water closet for the toilet.

Sorry about the blur..  This is the only picture that I have of looking from the back of the bathroom to the front. 

So that's the before of this story.  Here is what I've picked out so far for this bathroom. 

This is the table that I bought for the vessel sinks.  I love the hand carved horse legs.

I'm happy with the sink faucet combo that I bought for the girl's bathroom so I bought the same combo for the Master Bathroom with the round sink instead.  I like the shape of this sink and purchased two of these for the table. 

And of course, I can't forget the entry doors to this bathroom that I am still working on.....So excited to see these beauties put in.

And so it begins.......

Happy 4th of July!!

Wishing all of you a very Happy 4th of July.   I have some random red white and blue inspired photos that are perfect for sharing on the 4th. May your celebrations be festive, your food be tasty and your friends a plenty. Speaking of food, this trifle recipe is easy, no bake and beautiful to boot! I'm in.  Enjoy!

photo and recipe:  Martha Stewart

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Cheers! 



Getting things done......

I took a few days last week to focus on getting some projects done that I've been wanting to do for a while. The first project I wanted to do was strip the doors that I got last year for my Master Bathroom. This is a messy and yucky job but it brings me that much closer to putting these doors in and that makes me happy.  After getting most of the old paint (many layers) off, I decided to wait until these were hung to decide if I want to paint them.  I like the patina of the wood on these and the bits of color left behind.  We need to repair and replace some glass and of course sand them, but for now I'm going to keep an open mind. Want to see the before and after?  Ok, here's the doors before:

 

And here's what they look like now......

 I also had a pair of chairs that I purchased a while back that I wanted to paint and re-upholster.  These chairs were not pretty at first, but I liked their shape and scale so I bought the pair with the vision of painting them black and re-upholstering them in a graphic pattern. I really like the way these turned out.  I even left the gold 80's rollers on them. These are the kind of chairs you can put in any room and they work.  I decided to put them in Tatiana's room for now so she can try them out.  Here's what the chairs looked like before:

And here's what they look like now........

 

I also moved some things around and brought in some items to make it feel more like summer.  I loved this rope anchor wall art from the time I saw it so I thought now was the perfect time to enjoy it.  I paired it with this awesome lamp that I found that has a disco vibe to me.  Since it's round, it also reminds me of a porthole which is fun too.  Here's what it looks like together:

 

 

So, that's what I've been up to recently.  What kinds of things are you working on?