When we were done with Phase One, we placed the order for the counter/double sinks and after weeks of waiting, it arrived. My hubby has been leisurely refinishing the cabinet. He stripped it all down, sanded it, varnished it and then put on the protective coat. It looks gorgeous. He does great work.

To do this project, we removed the old counter and sinks. We’ve been using the main bathroom down the hall for all our sink-required needs. (This is the bathroom we remodeled first. You can read all about that here.) It’s been a hassle, but not the end of the world. That said, I can’t wait to get everything moved back in here!

This weekend, the project was officially completed. Yesterday morning, I razor-bladed the mirror to clean up the random paint droplets here and there (my hubby repainted the white wall and did a great job of not getting it where he wasn’t supposed to, but mirrors this large attract tiny droplets of paint). And, I decided to take pictures of the finished project.

I didn’t want to wait until Claire’s naptime to do this, so how did I take pictures without her helping me too much?

She said, “Take a picture of Puppy, and then I’ll let you take your other pictures!”

Click on photos to enlarge.
Clicking a second time will show more detail.

So, I did, and she held up her end of the bargain! She let me take the following pictures in peace!

My hubby used a red oak stain with brushed stainless pulls and hinges. I love it!

The countertop/double-sink combo is a Swanstone. It’s a bone color, which is the same color and style we used in the Main Bathroom.

The master craftsman even painted the entire interior white.

We replaced the two hideous light fixtures with these, shown above. The brushed finish matches the towel bars, pulls and new faucets.

We ended up going with a lower wattage/energy efficient bulb, because with six of the original bulbs, we could do surgery on our countertop.

So, there it is…we’re officially done with all phases of the project! Now, I wonder how long it will take me to remember that all my things are in this bathroom. I can see it now…I’ll be standing in the Main Bathroom wondering who took all my toiletries.

It’s at a time like this when all the hard work is worth it.

As we installed the heating element under the new tile flooring for the Master Bathroom Remodel Project in the heat of summer, it was hard to focus on the future…the day when we’d actually slip our bare, cold feet onto the heated tiles.

When we first wake up:

Outside: A brutal 8-degrees (Fahrenheit)
Inside: A modest 62-degrees
The Tile Floor: A decadent 83-degrees

Pure bliss.

All of the construction equipment is OUT OF HERE. I’m almost not sure what to do with myself. It’s no challenge whatsoever walking from the hallway into our bedroom at night now. There is no chance of tripping over a power-drill or impaling myself on who-knows-what. Where is the thrill in that?

It’s been a long haul, but it’s been worth it. You can see the list of the things we did here, and you can check out other posts by clicking on the Home Improvement – Master Bathroom category on the sidebar.

Without further ado, here are the pictures! You can click on each picture to see things in more detail. Click a couple of times on each picture to see the most detail…

Here’s what you would see if you were the new heated floor in the bathroom. You can see part of what we’ll be replacing (counter and sinks) and refinishing (cabinet) in Phase Two of the project. And, yes, we’ll be replacing the very stylin’ 1977 light fixture above the sinks. You can see one of the pair in the reflection of the medicine cabinet.

This pictures shows the floor tile and some of the wall tile with the shower base. My hubby did a great job cutting the tiles for the furnace vent. I liked the different lines in this picture.

Here is the new shower base we installed. It was much easier than installing a tub. Because there is a brand new tub right next door in the main bathroom, we opted to keep the full shower in here. You can also see the shower curtain. It’s a little bit wrinkly in this picture, but it will smooth out in no time.

My hubby painstakingly cut each tile. The pieces for the window were particularly tricky. He even rigged a contraption to keep the tiles on the “ceiling” of that space from falling down while the mortar was drying. The man’s a genius when it comes to these projects we get ourselves into. The window sill and apron are new, as well.

Here is a picture of the tile design inside the shower. We put these diamond-shaped pieces in random places throughout the shower walls.

Here, you can see the new fan/light and our curved shower curtain bar. We took out the solid sliding door and opted for this instead. We have a curved shower curtain bar in the main bathroom, and we love it! You can also see that we painted the outside of the bathroom door to match the paint color we chose for the walls (so that the white door wouldn’t detract from the main color of the room). The winner? Churchill Hotel Wheat! (For some reason, the flash makes the door and the wall look like different colors, but trust me, they’re the same in real life.)

So, how do you find a shower curtain to fit a space created by a low profile shower base and a curtain rod that is curved and much higher than normal? You get an extra-long curtain and then add some decorative rings. Yes, this was the plan all along, and we like the effect! Because the shower curtain is completely clear (see-through) it feels like you’re taking a shower in the whole room! It’s bizarre the first time you do it, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it.

Here you can see the new towel bars we put out in the other section of the bathroom. You will notice that we opted to paint one wall in this area the same color as the walls inside the shower room. We kept the other three walls of that area white. That way, when you look toward that room, your eye focuses on that color, and it highlights the tile inside. Also, you can see the programmable sensor for the heated floor. (It’s under the medicine cabinet.) Warm floor tiles in the morning are incredible. It almost makes getting out of bed bearable.

Here is a little bonus area of the “Master Suite” that we remodeled as well. This is on the wall opposite of the door, floor sensor, and medicine cabinet. We put up a new mirror and two hampers (one for darks and the other for lights). We got these items at Target (and I just pronounced that as Tar-jay in my head, just so you know…). The hampers we had before were mismatched and didn’t really fit in this area very well. Before, this area was kind of an after-thought, but I’m very impressed with it now! And, you can see the reflection of our bedroom in the mirror.

So, that’s it! I can’t believe how far we’ve come, and Phase Two will be super-easy to complete. In fact, we’re not really in a rush to get that part done. There’s no time-constraint, and as long as I don’t have to step over extension cords, drill-bits, sanding blocks or tubs of spackle, I’m a pretty happy camper.

Like I said, it’s been a long project, and now that it’s done, we couldn’t be happier with the results!

And, this picture is only the tip of the iceberg.    

Out with the old: 

• Tore out old tile on shower walls
• Took out old drywall
• Removed old insulation
• Ripped out old vinyl flooring
• Removed toilet
• Removed old shower base
• Disconnected shower drain
• Removed old shower doors
• Removed old shower valve
• Removed all hardware – shower, towel bars
• Removed old light fixture
• Removed old window sill
• Ripped up carpeting in front of sinks
• Removed all moldings
• Removed all doors

In with the new: 

• Installed new cement backboard on floor in front of sink and in shower room
• Installed new cement backboard on walls
• Installed new insulation and moisture barrier
• Installed new shower valve
• Installed tile in shower
• Framed window with tile and installed new sill and apron
• Installed new shower base
• Installed a heated floor element and automatic temperature gauge/sensor
• Ran new wiring for heated floor element controls
• Tiled floor in shower room and in front of sinks
• Grouted all tile
• Installed new fan/light fixture
• Ran new wiring for fan/light fixture so that fan and light can be operated separately on dual-switch
• Vented new fan to the outside, through the attic
• Installed new exhaust vent on outside of house
• Sanded, repaired, primed and painted moldings
• Installed moldings
• Caulked all seams in shower, floor, moldings, around toilet, etc.
• Sanded, repaired, primed and painted doors
• Replaced hinges
• Re-hung and adjusted doors (via shim and chisel)
• Installed new door handles
• Skim-coated walls
• Sand out imperfections on walls
• Primed and painted walls
• Sanded, primed and repainted toilet lid/seat
• Re-installed toilet
• Mounted three new towel bars
• Installed curved shower curtain bar
• Installed new threshold between tile and carpet
• Installed new shower head
• Connected shower drain

And then the clean-up began.  (If I have the time and/or energy to relive such a painful experience, I’ll share my adventures in tape removal from shower bases.  Don’t ask.  I’m not ready yet.) 

And, there are probably ten more items on each list that my hubby did while I wasn’t looking.     

So, when I say that Phase Two will be simple with its meager list of: “remove old counter/sinks, refinish cabinets, install new pulls, install new counter/sinks,” this is what I’m comparing it to!  After Phase Two is completed (and believe me, I’ll document the progress on that as well), I’d like to take a break from remodeling projects until next summer.  My hubby says he does too…but I can see the way he keeps eyeing the kitchen. 

This last weekend, we rocked out and finished up Phase One.  All we have left to do is clean it up so that we can utilize all the facilities and take pictures of the final product!  (If you’ve ever done a remodeling project, you know how daunting the clean-up can be.)  This means we’re so close to being able to use our shower again!!  We were able to use the toilet this weekend, and I nearly fainted from excitement.  In fact, on Saturday night, I forgot it was even available and used the one in the main bathroom down the hall.  Silly me. 

Phase Two, a side-project we’d intended on waiting to accomplish, involves installing the new countertop/sinks and refinishing the cabinet.  After all we’ve done, that will be a piece of cake.  We’ll start Phase Two in a couple weeks.  Phase One was the big boy of the project, and I’m so glad the end is in sight.

So, stay tuned for pictures of the final reveal!

It’s not that we have a tiny or low-quality television now…it’s just not new. It’s not all the new technology the kids are raving about these days. Honestly, I don’t understand it all, but it makes him happy, so I try to understand. Really, I do.

So, we’re sitting at the kitchen table on Saturday eating lunch, and he’s looking at the laptop. He’s checking out all his deal-watcher sites. Suddenly, out of the blue, at one of the stores near us, he finds a random deal that includes one of the TVs he’s been eyeing and the Xbox 360 all for a really good price. Of course, the sale ends today! He was planning on buying them separately anyway, so if we can save money by buying them together, why not?

Santa admitted that my hubby had been such a good boy, that he didn’t have a problem coming a little early this year.

He had been doing some painting work in the bathroom and working on cutting and installing the moldings. So, he rushed around putting on “normal” clothes so that he could run to the store. He was entirely too excited to think straight. I was hoping they still had the TV he wanted in stock and that the deal was real…for his sake.

Sure enough, they did and it was! I don’t think his feet have touched the ground all weekend. Now, he’s so motivated to play with his new toys that he got a *lot* done on the bathroom on Sunday, and we may be close to putting on the final touches! (And it’s not like he was being a slacker before!)

Speaking of the bathroom project, he got all the moldings sanded, cut, installed and primed. He also got the exhaust vent cut in the side of the house and connected and all the electrical work done for the new fan/light. He also got the doors and door frames painted. It’s amazing how a little extra motivation will kick things into high gear…

We thought that moving the old television off the entertainment stand was going to be the most daunting of tasks, especially with my back…that and the fact that the TV weighs as much as my car. Luckily, we were able to rig one of the computer chairs to help us. We used it like a furniture dolly, and it worked like a charm.

Oddly enough, the new 50” television, which is technically bigger than the older television weighs a lot less. It was a challenge getting it from his car to the house, but I powered through the pain, and we made it!

We joke that it’s *his* Christmas present sitting downstairs right now, but it’s something we’ll all enjoy. The new TV is nice. It’s amazing, actually. We watched a movie on the new system, and I was blown away.

We watched the movie on the Xbox, which will actually replace our DVD player. Hear that, DVD player!? Your days are numbered! Your random seizing up and stuttering will no longer be tolerated! Granted, we’ve watched a lot of movies (hundreds and hundreds…thanks to Netflix…), and I think we’ve almost successfully driven our DVD player insane.

I’m really not into any of the Xbox 360 stuff, but I will admit that the graphics look incredible on the new television. I guess if I have to be a Gaming Widow, it’s nice that Claire and I won’t have to go far to see Daddy.

And, yes…we finally picked a paint color!  My hubby got the walls primed and one coat completed.  (Thus the need to cover the tiles…)  Can you tell which color we chose?  (See the original choices here.)

I’ll reveal the answer and post more pictures after he gets the second coat painted…the end is in sight!

We’ve always had good luck picking colors together. When we painted the kitchen, we knew we wanted a green for the walls. We decided to pick our top three colors, secretly, so that the other person wouldn’t be swayed by peer pressure. Of the 235 paint chips, I picked A, B, C. My hubby then picked C, B, A. So, we went with B, Montpelier Olive. Wow. Out of all of those choices, we both picked the same top three colors, just in different order…and our second choice was exactly the same. That was easy!

Picking the colors for Claire’s room (Icelandic) and the Main Bathroom (Spicy Cayenne) were just as simple.

A year or so ago, when we painted the Master Bedroom, our process was lagging along. We’d ordered new furniture, and we wanted the color to show that off and match the carpet and be soothing, etc. etc. etc. We just could not decide on a color. It wasn’t that we were disagreeing with each other; it was just that we honestly could not decide between the minute variances in the different shades of “light-taupish-beigish-creamish” that we wanted. All 42 of them. All of a sudden, the phone rang, and it was the furniture place. Our new furniture was in! Two weeks early! They would be able to deliver it tomorrow! In the blink of an eye, our time-frame for deciding was cut to 20-minutes, and we both decided on a color, and that decision was made. We went with “Natural,” naturally, and we’ve been very pleased with the color.

So, what’s taking so long with the Master Bathroom Color Decision? I really don’t know. When we started this process, we both said out loud we wanted a “yellowish” for the walls, or maybe a “creamish” or maybe a “greenish” or maybe a…and there it started. We picked out a ton of paint-chips and have been deliberating ever since. Thankfully, we’ve narrowed the playing field to four different choices.

We don’t want to paint the entire area the same color. We like the white of the area by the double-sinks. We don’t want to leave the room with the wall-tiles white, but we don’t want to detract from them either. We want to find a nice color that also doesn’t compete with the “Natural” of the bedroom. Maybe we could just paint the room with the shower and toilet one color and use that same color on an accent wall in the other area.

Yesterday morning, my hubby had a great idea. Why not just use the same color as the bedroom? That’s a great idea! It won’t contradict anything; it won’t detract from the color of the tiles, and it’s not white. Of course, when asked if that should be the final decision, we’re just not sure…so, now we have five colors that need to duke it out.

Time is ticking, and I’m sure we’ll make a decision soon. Where’s a furniture delivery place on a deadline when you need it?? In the meantime, here are the contenders, conveniently resting on the floor-tiles, wall-tiles, and carpet for reference:

(Click photo to enlarge. If you click on the photo a second time, you’ll see even more detail.)

The paint color choices are: Natural, Churchill Hotel Wheat, Filoli Gold Ecru, Filoli Antique Lace, and Warm Buff. (Not that it matters…it’s so hard to tell what a color is by the name; that’s for sure!)

Stay tuned for the answer!

The Master Bathroom project I’ve been talking about recently in the blog is actually the second bathroom we’ve remodeled over the last year. Prior to this project, we tackled and completed The Main Bathroom Remodel Project. That project was completed before the blog was up and running, so I thought I’d take the time to recap that project before we complete the next one!

It’s a long tale…you’ve been warned.

It all started when we bought the house six years ago. The bathrooms were outdated, but we loved the house. All the bathrooms were functional, so we didn’t let the 70s-style stand in the way of our buying our first home. We made a mental note to remodel the bathrooms “sometime in the future.” Well, fast-forward about six years, and we really wanted that “sometime” to be now.

The original plan was simple: 1. Fix some tiles in the Main Bathroom, so that we could use that bathroom while remodeling the Master Bathroom. 2. Gut and totally remodel the Master Bathroom. 3. Remodel the Main Bathroom at some point in the future.

In staying true to every single project that we’ve undertaken in this house, what we planned was not exactly what happened.

In trying to fix the tiles in the Main Bathroom, we discovered a huge mold problem that had been caulked over and hidden by the previous owners. In our defense, we never really used the bathtub/shower until Claire’s arrival. We’ve always personally used the Master Bath, and our guests use the Guest Bathroom downstairs. With Claire’s arrival came the need to use that bathtub. All of a sudden, we had a glowing spotlight on a problem we didn’t even know existed.

What we thought would be a $30 fix to one bathroom suddenly became the focus of the project. Our priorities shifted, and the Master Bathroom Project was put on hold.

Well, we knew we needed to remove the tile from the walls, and rather than install tile, we’d found these really cool “shower surrounds and bathtub” combinations. And, since it comes with a tub, and the cast-iron tub had a patched spot, we may as well remove that as well. And, if we’re going to remove the tub (how hard could that be, anyway?), we may as well replace the vinyl flooring with that tile we’d found. And, if we’re going to tile the floor, we may as well re-finish the cabinet and if we’re doing that, we may as well install the new sink and countertop we’d been eyeing.

Do you see where this was headed?

So, we knocked out the tile, drywall and insulation, all the way down to the studs. The mold had been such a horrible issue that we even had to replace some wall studs!

Both of the bathrooms have a fully functional window smack dab in the middle of the wall. This is great for ambiance and airflow, but quite a challenge when it comes to bathtub/shower surrounds. We would have to cut a hole for the window into the surround, and that was a daunting task. One miscalculation would be devastating to the surround and the budget. Great! Have fun! No pressure!

My hubby is a rock-star when it comes to projects, and together we measured that thing SEVEN times. We made the cuts, and they were perfect. It fit the window perfectly. Of course, the walls in our bathroom aren’t square. (Shhh, don’t tell anyone…you don’t notice unless you’re insane like my hubby.) So, there was a lot of shimming that had to happen, but you really can’t tell with the finished product.  We did discover that the product is extremely fragile until you get it installed, and it’s rather difficult to install.  Our frustrations with that product are what led to our decision to tile the walls in the Master Bathroom.

But, before you can install the surround and the new tub, you have to remove the old tub. Have you ever removed a built-in cast-iron tub? Well, it’s much worse than you can ever imagine. All the internet sites make it look so simple. Right. It’s simple if you have no walls to contend with, and have two or three burly men at your disposal. (Unfortunately, that wasn’t the reality we were dealing with.) After much finagling, we got it out of there. Needless to say, I never want to remove another bathtub. Ever.

So, we’re ready to tile the floor. We’ve never tiled a floor. How hard can it be? Actually…tiling a floor wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d imagined. Here are some handy tips we learned while tiling the floor that we made sure to use when we started the Master Bath Remodel Project:

1. Use this website. It’s a tile estimator website that will allow you to put the dimensions of your room into the program, choose the size of tiles, the pattern you want, the size of grout line, and with the click of a button, it will give you a printable map of your floor and tell you how many tiles and pounds of mortar and grout you’ll need! I’m still amazed that this is a free site, so use it while you can!

2. Once you print the map created from the above website, lay out your tiles. You’ll need to dry-fit and cut the entire floor. You’ll need to adjust for the reality of your room (i.e. rooms aren’t square in our house. Go figure.) It’s easier to shift a row of tiles down a smidge than it is to cut that smidge off of a row of tiles.

3. Number each tile on the map, and then transfer those numbers onto the tiles you have dry-fitted on the floor BEFORE MOVING THEM to put down the mortar. This may seem tedious, but believe me; this step is so much easier than hiring a divorce attorney, splitting up your belongings and selling a house with an unfinished bathroom. Trust me. I love maps and details, so this part made me happy. If you don’t, you’ll need to learn to embrace it. No one told us to do this step, and it took a few stress-filled moments full of screaming at each other to realize it. It seems so simple now. It won’t at the time.

4. Once you have a map of your floor, including numbered tiles, you’re ready to mortar and grout! We used a special grout that doesn’t require an extra sealant. This grout is expensive, but the result is awesome. If you’re using this kind of grout, there are detailed instructions on how to clean the tiles after you’ve grouted but before everything has hardened. (There are many cleaning stages, which is what you get in turn for not having to deal with applying a sealant.) As ridiculous as these directions seem, they are imperative. The better job you do cleaning the tiles in that Initial Cleaning, the better everything will be. It’s okay to be aggressive with the cleaning process even though you’ve spent what seems like hours putting in the grout. We learned this the hard way. There are two “shiny spots” on the bathroom floor that only the insanely perfectionist people like my hubby can see. Because I’m more of a casual perfectionist, I’d like things to be perfect, but it doesn’t ruin my day if they’re not. I don’t even see these spots, and I can’t show any examples to anyone, but I’m sure they blind my hubby every morning.

And, after we installed the floor tile, we finished the cabinet, installed the new sink and countertop combination. My hubby and his father framed the huge mirror, and my hubby replaced the horrid original light fixture with track lighting on the ceiling.

As you can see by the pictures below, we chose a really bold color for the walls. We’re not afraid of color, and he found the color on a paint-chip, and I found it in a magazine. Imagine our surprise when comparing our notes that Spicy Cayenne matched both! The really funny thing about all this was that it almost matched the color of the original countertop….the countertop we hated when we moved into the house. Apparently, after six years, that color had grown on us and infiltrated our psyches.

Because we went really bold with the walls, we used a bone color for the counter and a white for the cabinet. The floors are Rialto Beige with Antique White grout.

So, there ya have it. Yes, we just remodeled a bathroom. Yes, it seems like we’re still remodeling a bathroom…because we are! We took one month off between projects and jumped right in again. I can’t wait to write a re-cap of that project! The end is in sight, so stay tuned!

Here are some pictures of the finished Main Bathroom Remodel Project:

View from the sink

View looking in

View looking out

The curved shower-curtain bar

The track-lighting system

Here’s a good one of the window and tiled floor

Bathroom artwork, of bathrooms (how appropriate!)