The First Before and After

October 26, 2015October 26, 2015 makedajohariLeave a comment

The bathroom is finally complete! It’s been checked off the glaring list on our living room wall. I know everyone says however long you expect a project to take double it; I think we more than quadrupled it! I suppose it’s not as though we’ve only been working on the bathroom, project hopping definitely added time. But the important thing is we are super happy with how it came out!

BEFORE

AFTER

I think the most exciting highlight was saving the built in. I put in new dry wall (all by myself J) and my sister helped me cut new shelves. Shelves really shouldn’t be a hard task, but when ones wonderful house was built in 1900 and nothing, can I stress NOTHING is level or square, its makes everything just a little more challenging. But with fresh white paint and new hardware it looks great! And it will hide all of the many trial and error hair conditioners I buy. I lined the shelves with grey herringbone contact paper to break up all the white. I can’t explain my excitement when started to fill it with things. I think I felt like we were finally really moving in!

The vanity that we bought at the floor model sale at Home Depot fits perfectly. What did not fit so perfectly was our thrift shop medicine cabinet find, but the good news is I sold it on Craigslist for $75…I bought it for $10. Profit! I’m debating starting a side business. We went with a classy beveled mirror instead, it looks beautiful. With the built in and vanity storage, we really don’t need a medicine cabinet anyway.

We ended up having to switch out our original vanity light. Once all the other hardware and bathroom accessories started to go in, I realized it was brushed nickel and everything else is chrome, it just looked off. I like the new one even better; it ties in with all the hardware in finish and design. Also the first one was mix and match shades, I learned I am far too indecisive for that. In fact all of the bathroom accessories probably took me longer than normal to pick out, but as I do not want to touch this bathroom at least for 5 years, I better love everything that goes into it.

A Much Needed Update

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015 makedajohari1 Comment

It’s been quite some time since the last post…three months in fact! Too long, between a few trips, and just life, it’s been a busy start to summer. So what have we done in the last couple of months?

The bathroom tub and surround is 100% done! The fixtures have been installed; the tile has been grouted and sealed. And it looks awesome! But seriously, grouting tile on HGTV, super easy, grouting in real life not so much. Of course I chalk this up to skill and the learning curve, but grout dries soooo fast, and when they just cleanly wipe it off the tile, I don’t know what magic happening. After we grouted the walls and floor, about 3 hours were dedicated on hands and knees with a scrub brush, it was a Cinderella moment. Also baking soda and vinegar works for everything.

Electrical has also been finished, and I picked out the best light fixture, it took a little convincing for Seth Bathroom Light to agree. I think every bathroom needs a little glam, and this one definitely meets the requirements.

Drywall has gone up, and I did all of the mudding myself. This is one of the things that my construction experiences sister and brother in-law suggested we hire someone, and I completely understand why. It was definitely a challenge, but after doing the wall patches and built in, my skills have increased.

And finally paint has gone on the walls. And thanks to family help (Thanks Debbie and Tom!), the bathroom is primed and ready for color!

Lots of multitasking has been going on. The upstairs floors have been sanded curtesy of Luke, and thanks to Gerry the edges have also been sanded down in our master bedroom. Guestroom walls have been mudded and partially primed.

We’ve had a couple work parties, John and Aina helped and put in drywall in the repaint our antique store medicine cabinet find. We had a pop in visit from Portland when Musa came to visit and he put in some insulation. Even my nephew Adam came and worked on the bathroom built in. It’s a family affair!

More posts to come, and sooner than three months from now 🙂

Tile for Days

April 2, 2015April 2, 2015 makedajohariLeave a comment

Tiling really did take days, but it turned out awesome! We wanted to pick something classic that would look great for years as we have no desire to remodel the bathroom any time soon after this. So subway tile it is! Tile To make the task a lot easier, Seth had the wonderful idea of using mosaic subway tile, still gives us the look we were going for while cutting no less than half the hours of work needed. To contrast we went with a really large dark grey tile for the floor, I really like how it looks together.

Once the tile started going in it actually started to look like we were making progress. Before tiling a lot of work had gone into the bathroom, but nothing we actually get to see! Sub floor, plumbing, wires, cement board, all necessary but all gets covered up.

Putting in the subway tile took a couple days. As renovations go, every time we’d get a good rhythm going something would happen. Like causing a water leak in the shower, or realizing our tile cutter is not in fact big enough to cut our over sized tile. But little by little it started to come together.

The important part about finishing the tile was the plumber could finally hook up the plumbing to the tub! One step closer.

Bathtub Flub…

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 makedajohariLeave a comment

As renovations go, the upstairs bathroom is taking longer and is more work than expected. Before putting the bathroom back together the floor had to come out completely and a new subfloor had to come in. We of course do not have the knowledge of installing a new subfloor so thank you Luke for all the help :). For a couple weeks our bathroom and entryway were very open concept.

In preparation for the completion of the new floor I began looking for a new tub. I looked for the tallest 60 inch tub I could find, and I found this one.

The subfloor was finally finished, the plumber came to install the tub!….and turns out, not the correct tub for our plumbing. I think in my excitement of finding a 60 x 32 inch tub, I did not read the description carefully enough to notice that this was a jacuzzi tub. So that was a bit of a setback to say the least.

We found another tub that isn’t as tall, but we’re so excited to finally have a tub in the bathroom the height importance dropped a bit down the priority list. Now its time for the final push, hopefully by this time next week, we will have functioning bathroom on our second floor. Fingers crossed!

Demo Days

February 15, 2015February 15, 2015 makedajohari3 Comments

If you’ve ever had a rough day, there is no better way to release some stress than taking a sledge hammer to a wall. Once we finally closed on the house, the first thing to do was to take down things we don’t need, things the previous owner did horribly, and completely tear down the upstairs bathroom. It’s amazing how many people will volunteer to break stuff in your house; we had a lot of help tearing things down. As they say many hands make light work.

Demolishing the bathroom took a lot more effort than expected. I learned that bathroom fitters are really well installed, a little too well. Underneath the fitter was painted tile (who does that?) and wallpaper. Removing the floor also turned out to be much more work than expected, underneath the floor tile was more tile, and underneath that tile, 2 inches of concrete. I let Seth and Luke handle that one.

Demo - Bathroom Tile, more tile Demo - Shower Tile

The other big task upstairs was demolishing the master closet. It was just not quite deep enough, not well built, and also lined with floral wallpaper; it all had to go. With Seth’s growing collection of plaid and my general love of clothing, a functional closet is a must.

Now that everything is taken down, we’re working on putting it all back together. I’m just waiting to get to the decorating part. But first things first: the upstairs bathroom must be finished!