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

Guest Bathroom: Major Progress!

The guest bathroom renovation is moving right along. We're getting so close to the end we can taste it! The latest task to be completed was the tile work. 1" white hex tile was used for the floor and classic white subway tile was used for the shower enclosure and bench. We are really happy with the way it turned out!

Click here to see what the bathroom looked like when we started.

 

Guest Bathrom: Tub is in place

We have been making solid progress on the guest bathroom renovation. The cute mini-tub was installed, the drain was moved and plumbing adjusted, and the bench that bridges the gap to the wall has been constructed. It doesn't look like much yet, but soon enough it will look like a real bathroom again. I can't wait!

Guest Bathroom: Less Floor is More

Removing the layers of flooring which have accumulated over the past 99 years was the latest guest bathroom demo project.

In the shower area, there were two layers of linoleum and three layers of plywood to rip up. In the rest of the bathroom, there were two layers of linoleum, two layers of plywood, a surprise layer of original tongue-and-groove Douglas Fir (a sweet surprise!) and a layer of metal.

David removed all the layers down to the original fir. Our goal is to salvage the fir to use as patches for the master bedroom floor (click here to see the wall we tore out) and the soon-to-be hole in the kitchen floor.

First the linoleum was removed:
Then off came the plywood:David's saw blade was the first to meet this layer of metal:We were pretty excited to discover original fir floors:Project 'Save The Fir Floors' begins this weekend. Click here to see what the bathroom looked like before demo began.

Guest Bathroom: Take THAT!!!

Smashy smashy make David happy.

Before:
After:
Before:
After:

Guest Bathroom: The Design Plan

Here's the design mood board for the guest bath remodel. The goal is clean lines, classic details and a light color scheme to help brighten the small space.
Breakdown
Light Fixture - Northwestern 4 by Schoolhouse Electric
Pedestal Sink - Kohler K-2267-0 Memoirs Pedestal Sink in white
Sink Faucet - Metropolatin Bath Facuet, widespread
Shower/Tub Hardware - Vintage Tub & Shower Chrome Faucet
Toilet - Kohler Devonshire Two-Piece Elongated Toilet
Storage - Classique Wall Cabinet
Paint Colors - (the same fantastic combo used by Jessica Helgerson in this bathroom) Benjamin Moore AF-685 Thunder at 25% (semi-gloss) and Benjamin Moore OC69 Regal Matte white
Floor Tile - 1" hex tiles in Ice White
Shower Tile - 3"x6" Subway tile in white
Shower Curtain - Essence Fabric Shower Curtain, White, Target
Medicine Cabinet - Original 1911 medicine cabinet, stripped and repainted
Bathtub - Used bathtub, resurfaced

For a reminder of what the bathroom looked like before demolition started, click here. We've got a long way to go!

The strangest thing I have EVER purchased

We hit the ground running with our next wave of renovations by doing some serious window shopping today. I previously posted about the guest bathroom spacial dilemma. Ideally there would be a bathtub AND shower, but the open space available wasn't boding well for the tub option. While browsing around The Rebuilding Center today (which was jam-packed with great used building and remodeling materials), we stumbled up the perfect second-hand solution to our problem.

And here it is--officially the strangest thing I have ever purchased:
There she is, spouting whales and all. At 42" x 35 1/2" it fits perfectly in our beyond small space and, being a used tub that was 25% off, it fit perfectly in our budget. The tub is big enough for a child to bath in and for an adult shower in. It's a small tub-sized miracle! What will you do with the 10 extra inches between the tub and the wall you ask? Why, we'll tile in a nifty seat/shelf for our sitting/storage pleasure.

After installation we'll have the tub refinished to like-spankin'-new condition (and I'll secretly miss those cute little whales).

Guest Bathroom: The Renovation Begins

Here's the current state of bathroom:

The guest bath is especially challenging because of its small size. Our general plan is:

- tile floors
- pedestal sink
- remove current shower enclosure and replace with something that gives the option for a bath or a shower
- replace toilet
- repaint walls
- strip and repaint original medicine cabinet, replace glass

The biggest challenge is the tub/shower issue. Right now there is only a shower in the room but we want to add a bathtub option for when we have kids. That is going to be a challenge given the tub/shower area is only 52" wide and about 36" deep.

Let the renovation begin!