Our Guest Bathroom Featured in Style1900 Magazine

The Nov/Dec issue of Style1900 Magazine is out featuring our guest bathroom.
You can check out the article and see a before and after pic online here!

Here's our bathroom on their 'Mission Acomplished' feature page:

You can check out the article and see a before and after pic online here!

Guest Bathroom: The Renovation is Complete!

The purple paint is gone. The pink paint is gone. The pink tiles are gone. The laminate is gone. The shower enclosure is gone. The vanity is gone. The shelf going through the middle of the space is gone. Gone is a glorious word.

As for what is not gone, it's a short list. The original medicine cabinet was spared and received a fresh coat of paint along with a new miorror. The toilet also stayed, but was spruced up with a new handle and seat.

All the 'before' photos can be seen at this post but here's a snapshot of what the bathroom looked like when we started:

The bathroom is small and there was no option to exand. We wanted to give it an airy and roomy feel, keep it functional and restore it with period charm. We wanted to add back in a bath option for kids while keeping the shower option for adults. Below is the mood board I created as our guideline during renovation. 

Here's a list of what we did:

- Demo included removing the old shower pan, enclosure and tile, removing the vanity, removing a decorative shelf than ran overhead and removing multiple layers of vinyl flooring

- Installed the used tub (you might remember it from this post as 'The Strangest Thing I Have Ever Purchased') and had it resurfaced 

- Had the tub professionally resurfaced and refinished

- Built a bench next to the tub (also covered in Subway tile)

- Installed 1" hex tiles on the floor

- Put in matte white Subway tiles in the tub/shower surround

- Added white wainscoting all around the room 

- Installed a Kohler Memoirs Pedestal sink with 8" centers

-  Restored the original medicine cabinet with new paint and mirror

- Added a cabinet above the toilet for storage

- New hardware and seat on the original toilet

- Swapped out the original light for a beautiful Schoolhouse Electric light (Northwestern 4 with a CL-2283-09-4 shade)

We couldn't be happier with how it turned out:

 

 Period details we brought in throughout the bathroom:

Our Kitchen is Famous!

Well, maybe semi-famous. Apartment Therapy is doing a series of posts that focus on 'abundant design for green homes'. Up today....our kitchen! Click here to go directly to our feature. Kind of exciting!

New Doors All Around

Beautiful new 5-panel doors now live in the five doorways of our second story. We replaced four existing doors that where too short (due to removing carpet and vinyl tile) not square and UGLY! We added a door that's been missing since we moved in between the master bedroom and bathroom, and added mirrored sliding doors to the closet in the master bathroom.

When we painted the upstairs last year we took extra care to get perfectly straight lines where the walls met the doorway  trim. It was only after we finished painting that we realized installing new doors would mean removing the trim and reinstalling it (which would completely destroy the paint job we slaved over). WHOOPS! Here's the state of the salvaged trim after the new doors were installed:

David tackled the touch-up work around the trim which included patching, sanding, texturing, priming and painting each blemished spot. Then he painted each door a ultra white to match the trim and added new oil-rubbed bronze hardware. Here's a look at the transformations:
(You might notice a sneak peak of the renovations that are almost done in both bathrooms--I'll be posting about those very soon!)

Guest Bathroom: Door now opens into the bathroom rather than out. (By far the worst door to begin with!)

Master Bathroom: This doorway was sans door, trim or even flooring when we moved in

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Guest Bedroom (now Aiden's room): We were sad to see this original five-panel door go,
but we donated it to a local rebuilding center through which we hope it finds a new home.

Office (now the Office/Guest Room)

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom Closet

Kitchen Completion!

After months of planning, demolition, rebuilding, installations, painting and more painting (the cabinets took six and sometimes more coats)...the kitchen is done!

Here's a brief list of what we did:
- Demolished and removed the old partition that housed the previous exhaust duct work
- Dismantled the existing island and swapped the two cabinets on either side of the stove allowing for larger counter area on fridge side of island
- Removed a cabinet from the southwest corner of the kitchen that we just didn't need and was making the kitchen feel smaller
- Rerouted the gas line to allow space for downdraft exhaust
- Added electrical outlets and plug-in for new downdraft exhaust
- Added new duct work going down from island, underneath the kitchen floor and along basement joist to outside (for downdraft exhaust)
- Installed this Jenn-Air Downdraft Exhaust, it was the only one on the market we could find with a reversible motor box which allowed it to be installed behind a range (rather than under a cooktop)
- Rebuilt island with an access panel for future maintenance to downdraft exhaust
- Removed the old, cracked tile flooring
- Patched and refinished original Douglas Fir floors that we found underneath (score!)
- Refinished cabinets, doors and drawers (TSP wash, sanding, 3+ coats of primer and 3+ coats of kitchen enamel semi-gloss paint)
- Added new hardware to the cabinets and drawers
- Added trim (kicker board) where the cabinets meet the floor and where the bottom cabinets meet the counter top
- Added baseboard and quarter round
- Extended the wall behind where the refrigerator a few inches (the existing cabinets above the fridge used to stick out past the end of the wall...ghetto!!)
- All new appliances: Whirlpool Gold Stainless Fridge, Whirlpool Gold Quiet Partner 4 Stainless dishwasher (with hidden controls!), 30" GE Cafe Range in Stainless (love this range because it includes 4 specialized burners with a fifth large fifth griddle burner in the middle, a large convection oven and a second smaller oven below the first! It has by far the most features we could find in a 30" range)
- Re-plumbed dishwasher
- Plumbed new supply line to fridge for ice maker and water dispenser
- Painted over the bright green walls with a nice, rich blue color
- Installed beautiful matte granite counter tops (we used Black Meteorite Antiqued granite -- not polished)
- Swapped out the busted, leaking sink for a new Ticor stainless steel 16-guage undermount sink
- Installed a Price Pfister Ashfield pull-down faucet in stainless steel
- And finished it off with a matte finish white subway tile back splash

This was a mostly DIY job. We did everything but sand and finish the floors, fabricate and install the granite, and rebuild the island. Phew!

To our delight, it turned out just as we hoped -- nice and new but with a clean, period correct look.

Here are some before and afters (you can click on the images to enlarge them):

 

Be Green. We support that. Just not on our kitchen walls...

The day finally came to paint over the green walls!

 

Here's an after photo of the final painted walls. We used the same dark blue color that we painted the pantry (check it out here).

And while we didn't cut corners on appliances and countertops, we just didn't have it in the budget for new cabinets. Luckily, the existing cabinets were in great shape and the plan was to paint them white. So while we were priming over the green walls we primed over the cabinets as well. What a difference already...

In every demolition an ax must swing

After we removed the top portion of the kitchen's partition wall earlier this year, the base of the wall was left. Here's what it looked like:

And (of course) the wall was built to withstand a tornado and was not coming out without a flight. Here's David preparing to wage war against it.

After the partition base came down, David dismantled the island and prepared it to be reconfigured and rebuilt.

A Ghost of Kitchen's Past

The kitchen has been remodeled. It's done. Finito! But I am getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning...

They say the kitchen is what sells a house. Whoever 'they' are, 'they' do not speak for us because we bought this home despite the kitchen. From day one we couldn't wait to tear it down and build it back up. Here is what we started with:

 

 

As you can see, everything MUST go! Earlier this year we'd had enough of the partition (complete with cabinetry) that cut the kitchen in half. So we got out the power tools and took it down! The kitchen instantly felt twice as big. It was a good start, but we had a looooong way to go. Here's a few play-by-play photos of the partition coming down  (you can click here for the full post).