Renovation of Bathroom #2 ... A Sneak Peek

For the past two weeks, I have been pushing hard to finish another bathroom.  This one was completely gutted ... so we have new walls, floor, ceiling ... EVERYTHING.  I think I have another week's worth of work till I can close the door and be completely finished.  I'm so excited about the way this project is coming out, I have to give everyone a sneak peek at some of my progress.

Pinwheel Mosaic Floor Tile.

Gray Floor Grout.

White Subway Tile in the Shower ...

and on the Walls.

A full post will be coming in a few days, once I grout the rest of the tile and set the countertop.  Stay tuned for before and after photos and details on everything that went into this project.  (Sorry to rush off like this ... I have to go upstairs now and set the last of the tile trim pieces.)

Basement Bathroom Renovation ... The Big Reveal!!!

It's time to reveal the new, and much improved, bathroom in our basement.  This project took SOOO much longer than it was supposed to, but the results are spectacular, I almost don't mind all the delays.  Without further ado, I give you .... the REVEAL!!!

Before I go any further, let me bring those of you who may be unfamiliar with this project up to date.  When we bought this house in 2002, it had 5 full bathrooms ... three upstairs with bedrooms, one on the main floor adjacent to the office, and one in the basement.  The plumbing in the basement bathroom leaked, so we disconnected the fixtures, closed the door, and vowed to renovate it after we did most of the rest of the house.  Early this year, we decided that it was a problem not having a bathroom we could access without going through the finished living space of the house.  We've been stomping through the upper floors whenever we had to use the 'facilities', removing dirty boots or tracking stuff through the house.  I also wanted to have a bathroom that was more easily accessible for guests when I have garden gatherings here.  The basement bathroom was our answer, and I wanted to make it pretty, while acknowledging its original construction in the 1940's.

In the beginning, this room had a clawfoot tub, a broken pedestal sink, and a toilet that leaked ... and lots of exposed plumbing.  We demolished everything to the studs, tossed the toilet and sink, gave away the tub, and started fresh.  What once looked like this:

Now looks like this:

The other side of the room was this:

And now, it's this:

We decided early on that we didn't NEED to keep 5 full bathrooms in this house.  The clawfoot tub was in good shape, but we wanted storage and display space instead.  The tub went to a friend's house in Maryland one day last spring, I found this cupboard at Luckett's Store, and it's perfect!  (For the story of my trip taking the tub to to its new home, click HERE.  To see the trip to Luckett's, click HERE.)

Here's what the bathroom looked like all stripped down, as you looked at it from the hall ...

The window had a lovely view into our garage, it didn't let in much light, and we removed it.

This is the same view now ...

 (The only thing I have left to do is to install the door casing and rehang the bathroom door.  Let's pretend I've done that already.)

The bathroom has all new plumbing and electric.  The water lines, drain pipes, and radiator lines, which used to be exposed, are now hidden in the walls where they belong ... and no more leaky supply fittings!  There's a new light where the old light was, and we added an electrical outlet (which the bathroom didn't have before).

(The new light, as seen in the store display)

 Isn't it perfect?

You can see the medicine chest, all restored and installed in its new spot.  It was a flea market find from a few years ago, probably dates from the same time period as our bathroom, and I love all its Art Deco rounded edges!  What once looked like this:

(The dirty, gross 'Before' photo)

is now a wonderful addition to this vintage-inspired bath.

I left its original beveled mirror ... streaks and flakes and all.

The vanity is brand new, and its mahogany finish and curvy porcelain top blend perfectly with the Vintage vibe I was going for in this room. 

The style of the chrome faucet adds a bit of a contemporary flair, with porcelain handles that keep the Vintage feel.

The sink wall, stripped to the original brick wall of the house, looked like this as we finished the framing and began to add insulation.  All of those bulkheads were necessary to conceal the new plumbing in the walls.

And now it looks like this.

The star of the room is the step-back cupboard.  The size is perfect (it sits in exactly the same space where the clawfoot tub once did) and I love everything about it!  All I did to it was give it a good cleaning (it needed it!), remove the contact paper and wallpaper from the inside, and paint the inside with one of my current favorite colors (BM 'Paladian Blue').  The shelves of the upper part of the cupboard provide great display space for part of my collection of random country-style stuff ... a perfectly fitting display for a country cupboard, don't you think.

The crate says, "VA DAIRY CO."  I love to collect local stuff!!

The sign says, "A friend is someone who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself."

This shelf is a tribute to my dear friend Kat.  I bought the duck pins while shopping with her one day at The Vintage Source.  When the Husband and I were at Luckett's picking up the cupboard, I spotted a basket of duck pin bowling balls, and I bought one for Kat and one for me.  The rose tray was a gift from Kat ... it had once been her mother's, and she sent it to me knowing it would have a good home here.  (I get teary just thinking about it.)

The flowers in the vase on the cupboard came from my garden yesterday afternoon.  I have never claimed to have much floral arranging ability, and I admire those of you who do, but it's hard for someone with even my limited talent to go wrong with so many beautiful roses to choose from.

1. Wagon Wheel Bright Pink,  2. New Dawn,  3. Comtesse de Segur,  4. Gartendirektor Otto Linne, and some Queen Anne's Lace.

1. Mme. Desire Giraud,  2. Sequoia Ballet,  3. Elina,  4.  Comtesse de Segur.

1. Puerto Rico,  2. Sequoia Ballet,  3. La Marne

1.  Not-September Morn,  2.  Alba Meideland,  3.  Snow White,  4. Souvenir de la Malmaisson.

Mr. Lincoln, and some pretty weeds, in a bud vase on the sink.

Except for the aforementioned bathroom door, this room is completely finished.  Yesterday, as I was channeling Gumby in all sorts of twisted, uncomfortable positions taking these photos in this small room, I marveled at the transformation.  I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I LOVE our new bathroom.

(If you are itching to see details on the construction, vanity, floor, etc., click the 'Basement Bathroom' label below to get a list of all the blog posts about this bathroom project.)

Feeling Fragmented

This has been a very fractured week so far.  I have worked on a lot of things ... none of which was the blog. (sorry about that). 

Project #1 ... Weeds.

The weeds in the Rose Field are threatening to take over, and I had to resort to fairly drastic measures on Monday.  Poor White Pet is being held hostage by some huge yellow-flowered weed, and this isn't even the worst of it. 

The paths are paved with spurge,

and whatever this weed is,

It's almost pretty when you look at it up close.

I haven't been out weeding like I should have, because it's been horribly hot, and now the weeds have the upper hand.  But, I have chemicals!  Monday morning, I carefully sprayed herbicide on the weeds in the paths and between the roses.  Some of them have already started to wilt.  (insert evil laugh here)

This pokeweed isn't feeling too well right now.

Project #2 ... the Basement Bathroom.

When it gets too hot to work outside, I have been ducking inside to work in the basement.  The bathroom floor is all scrubbed and it looks fabulous!  I had hoped to be able to just clean up the cupboard that I bought in Lucketts, but it was a bit rougher than I wanted ... so I sanded it lightly, and put on a coat of paint and glaze.  The inside is now my favorite shade of turquoise!

This is just a tease ... I'll show you the rest of this when it's all finished.

Project #3 ... the Rambler Fence.

The ground underneath the Ramblers is covered with ground ivy, Bermuda grass, and some kind of wild sorrel.  All of this stuff spreads like mad, and the only way for me to get rid of it now is to use my trusty herbicide.  Before I can do that, I have to give the ramblers a pretty drastic trim to keep them away from the chemical.  

Here's Paul Transon after his haircut.  I like how I can now see the canes underneath the rose.

I was making really great progress, until I got to 'Francois Juranville'. 

As I was assessing the situation trying to decide how to proceed with this rose, I caught the attention of a pair of mockingbirds.  I assume there's a nest in here, because one of the birds squawked repeatedly, dive-bombed, and flapped me in the head.  This rose can wait until I locate that nest.

Add to all of this a fair amount of laundry, some grocery shopping, and a vet appointment for the itchy allergy cat ... and we have a week where I've done a lot of stuff, and I haven't finished a thing.

Don't Try This at Home

Our extreme heat for the past few days has forced me to work on indoor projects.  Project #1 on my mind is still the basement bathroom.  (No, it's not finished yet ... but I'm getting closer.)  I painted the walls and ceiling yesterday.  Yesterday's item on the To Do list was cleaning the floor ... the only original feature in the room that was fit to save.

What it looked like before the demolition began.

A close-up of the filthy floor.

The floor is encaustic tile (a super hard, matte finish tile, where the color goes all the way through), and it had every assortment of dirt, crud, rust, and whatever else on it.  To make it worse, the drywall guy didn't use a drop cloth, so there was drywall dust ground into the grout.

In this photo, I've already scrubbed the upper right corner.

Here is my arsenal of floor cleaning supplies.

You're not seeing things ... that IS a palm sander.

I tried the usual floor cleaning products, and was dissatisfied with the results.  The crud was really stubborn.  In desperation, I tried 220-grit sandpaper with a spritz of 409 ... it worked!!

Scrubbing the floor with sandpaper by hand was going to take WAY too long ... so that's when I grabbed the sander.  This is definitely not a suggested use for this particular power tool.  It reminds me of a teeny little floor buffer.

This is miles better than it looked before cleaning ... pretty good for a 70-year-old floor, don't you think?

It's still taking a while to get the floor clean.  There are paint splotches and drips from prior paint jobs, and other crud that requires scraping.  After scrubbing with the sander, the final step is to use a scrub brush and work the last of the caked drywall dust out of the grout.

I should have the floor all finished by later today.  Next step:  baseboard and door molding!

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)

More Progress in the Basement Bathroom

This weekend was a a very productive one.  The basement bathroom is now completely framed, insulated, vacuumed, and ready for drywall. 

(If you're not familiar with our basement bathroom project, you can come up to speed with these links:  Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3.)

Framing finished, and insulation well under way.

We test-fitted the vanity and sink, and found that it was 37 inches tall!!  The thing looked like it was standing on its tippy-toes, and it completely overpowered the small space.  (forgot to take a picture of this ... here's the one I took in the store.)

(Why didn't we notice this before?)

The only answer, because we both love the style of the sink, was to take a saw to our brand new vanity and cut 5 inches off the legs.  To make sure the cuts on those fluted, round feet were straight and perfectly level, we built a jig out of scrap 2 x 4's.

Clamped it onto the vanity with LONG pipe clamps ...

... and did the deed (very carefully) with a hand saw.  I was unbelievably nervous about doing this ... no turning back now.

Ta Da!!

This looks much better now.  It has almost the same proportions as an antique wash stand, which fits perfectly with the mood I'm aiming for in here.

Big finial feet are now cute little fluted bun feet.

The drywall is being delivered this afternoon, and the guys will get started hanging and finishing it in a day or two.  It should be ready for primer by early next week.

My goal for this project is to have a pretty bathroom with a functioning toilet by the time of the first private garden party here on May 23.  It's looking like I may make it, with plenty of time to spare. 

(written by Hartwood Roses.  Hartwood Roses blog)