Remodling phase 2

So we're starting on the main level of the house now. Here are the "BEFORE" pics.

This lovely "sink room" has a door leading to the basement in it.

Some attractive pink and blue linoleum.

The other room next door has the toilet. Yes, sink in one room, toilet in the other. Gross!

The French wall paper is cute, but red with the pink and blue?? I added an ugly table to bring yet another unmatching color in here. Also, I had no where else to put it :)

All done!

We've had the shower glass for sometime, but I just haven't gotten around to adding it here. Pretty!

(Today, we start the kitchen! I have to get busy and take the "before" shots!)

Shower Glass - maybe early October

Shower glass takes 2-3 weeks :( . This is our temporary shower curtain. Works well enough. Ed is so clever.

Bathroom Cabinet

This is from Restoration Hardware. I finally got all the bathroom stuff back into the bathroom last week. Now I need to shop for some better looking baskets.

You can also see the tile on the floor really well in this picture. It's been scrubbed and sealed now and it's beautiful! I'm really happy about the choice of limestone here.

Finished Tub

The tub has been in since 9/16. We've been enjoyed the air bubbles!

New Laundry Closet

I stripped the wallpaper, primed, and painted the closet. Ed and I moved the washer/dryer set from the basement to here. We finished the weekend after Labor Day.

New sink and toilet

These went in about Sept 8.

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Wall Paper was structural

After pulling down the pink striped wallpaper, much of the ceiling plaster came down with it. Ed got an opportunity to learn how to patch large holes in plaster. He did a really good job. Good to practice on a closet first!

New laundry closet

A while we are at it project... Since the plumbing was going through this closet, we decided it would be really nice to move the washer/dryer from the basement to this closet in my study. Electrical was added as well.

Well, before we move in the washer and dryer, we decided paint and shelves were in order so I just spent the day unwallpapering (hint: fabric softener + water melts wallpaper glue). There were 2 layers on the bottom half and 1 on the type. Nothing but plaster underneath, which is good. The bad news, however, is that some of the ceiling plaster was being held up there with the pink striped paper. So Ed will repair that today and maybe we can prime it tomorrow and paint it Monday (that's what holiday weekends are for, right?

 

Hole

The shower fixtures needed to be pushed out some because the wall ended up thicker than planned (uneven walls required building them out a little to make things square). So we got a new hole in the wall right by the other one that was the former location of the light switch on this wall.

 

Window

Finally got a decent picture of the glass in the window.

 

Medicine cabinet and lights

The fancy medicine cabinet is in. Still needs a bit of paint touchup around it. The lights are installed and the window trim complete. I really like how it is a somewhat modern bathroom, but the Edwardian type trim on the windows and doors makes it seem very much like the rest of the house.

 

Tub

So where we chose to put the fixtures caused a problem getting the tub to fit in that hole. A little trim of the marble was necessary. The drain on that end is going to require likely a hole in the ceiling downstairs in order to connect it.

 

Shower floor

 

Shower and Tub Area

The shower fixtures are in. We can take a shower in it this weekend if we put up some plastic.

The tub is proving difficult so its not in there yet. More on that in the next post.

Getting close!

So the walls and trim are painted, wall tile grouted, the electrical outlets are in and plated. The new tub is about ready to be dropped in once we decide exactly where the holes need to be cut. We thought we'd put them on the marble deck, but the faucet is too low to make it over the rim of the tub so they will go on the tub itself.

Ceiling fan is in.

Glimpse of the floor... Once it gets grouted (and hopefully we bought enough) it is off limits for 24 hours and they can't work in there. So it is probably Friday for that and Monday to add the sink and toilet.

Fun with shower floors

So when the guy at the tile showroom says to just have your contractor cut it up in 3x3 pieces and you'll have a perfect match! And then you tell that to the contractor and he says "uh, it'll look horrible if I try to put little tiles down; they usually come with a web backing so everything is all spaced out evenly!".

Well, not wanting to go back to square one and pick another small tile for the shower floor, wait for that to come in... We had him cut it up into 3x3. Actually he did 4x4 by mistake and we had him change it to 2x2 (which I think is nicer anyway). Then we researched how to make our own mosaic tile work. We found the mesh and glue at a mosaic shop in Oakland and ran over there on Saturday and picked it up. Ed spent Sunday morning polishing the edges up on the 2x2's and I spent the afternoon glueing them to the mesh, using little spacers. Amazingly, it worked perfectly! This morning they were nearly dry at 5:30 when I got up. Ed flipped them and they were all dry by 8:30 when the workers arrived. I just checked and they have laid them down already. No complaints so I guess it worked!

Tile going in

Well, it took about 3 days for the drywall to dry out (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). Then we went on vacation and they started tiling while we were gone. The floor is fully tiled (not yet grouted) although covered with brown paper to protect it while they work on the rest. This is the shower area. Still deciding on paint colors as you can see by the little samples on the side. I'm thinking now lighter than any of these.

Trim is also up around the windows, doors, and ceiling (crown molding).

Walls continued...

Work on the drywall continued yesterday. That yellow wire is for the medicine cabinet which will have a plug inside for the electric razors and toothbrushes so they don't have to sit on the sink.

Fixtures

We have a nice collection of TOTO boxes. And a lot of dust!



These faucets come in a navy blue velvet bag. Odd packaging for a faucet!