Foyer Ceiling

While we were working with the drywall over the weekend, we also took care of the foyer ceiling.

Remember, when it looked like this?

(Which prompted the big bathroom renovation)

And then it was more like this....

It always has to get worse,
before it starts to look better!

This past weekend we had a birthday to celebrate, 

so we were under the gun to get this finished.

Thank goodness it was a Knight-theme, and we were able to hide the fact that we're not spackled or painted by making some castle walls!

It's hard to see the "stones" we drew...
Gotta love what you can do with rolls of plastic tablecloths & sharpies!

So now the party is done and here's where we really are...

Hurricane Sandy has now put that work on hold 

(we don't want to make a huge mess and then lose power & water!)  

Plus we had plenty to do with a little slate roof repair on Saturday... 

Nothing like a storm to get you motivated!  

Bathroom Door Saddle

With so much to share in the Bathroom Reveal post, 

I forgot to show the door saddle that Mike made!
It's these little things that aren't as exciting, are almost forgotten,
but really finish off the room.

It all started when the stock door saddles at both Home Depot & Lowes were too narrow for our doorway...

I suppose we could have made due... 

but it would have bothered us every time we stepped through the door!

So, Mike purchased a wider piece of wood & got out his tools to make it into a nice shape, with rounded edges.

After installing it, a little wood putty, and two coats of stain...

I think it looks FANTASTIC! 

See how the shape mimics the molding of the door frame?  

But the raised part of the saddle is smoother & feels nice underfoot.

I really love how the color of the stain goes with both the hallway flooring (bottom of picture) as well as the darker pieces of the bathroom flooring (top of picture).

Corner Cabinet Update

Thursday I left off with our new corner cabinet "faked" in.

On Friday night, Mike made a Home Depot run after work, and got started!

We needed to sheet-rock over the holes in the ceiling, that were still hanging around from the bathroom renovation.

I didn't get any good in-progress photos on Friday night,
but here's where we were by Saturday morning:

We also had a hole in the floor, from the removal of the plumbing stack, that needed to be patched.  Easy enough... so we moved on to figure out the placement of support posts in order to raise the cabinet up 9" to match the room's moldings.

Close-up

Wide-shot

Mike build the base to support the cabinet, and we lifted the cabinet up.

Once we had it level (note shim on right side in above photo), 

we secured it to the walls...  just to prevent any chance of tipping 

(these are the kinds of things I get nightmares over!)

Next up was installing a piece of drywall from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling, with the angle matching that of the cabinet.
This hides the little bit of plumbing that couldn't fit into the ceiling.

We also completed one coat of spackling- yay!

I'm thrilled with how it's coming together... 

Next we're going to make molding to match along the base.

And of course, there's going to be spackling & sanding each night... oh the DUST!

Sitting in the Corner...

Ever since we ripped out the second bathroom stack (and the closet that contained it) I've been looking to remedy the mess it made in the corner of the Family Room.  I liked that it opened up that corner- and was surprised that those couple of inches made such a difference!

My biggest issue is that the white PVC pipes (drains) come down lower than the ceiling level in the very corner.  I didn't want to box it all in again, and it would look really funky to have an asymmetrical piece of plaster coming down to cover it up.

After the stack & cabinet were removed

Before the stack & little "closet" were removed

I tried to ignore the mess for a while, since we had the bathroom renovation to focus on... but now the pressure is on to get it looking at least a little better before the holidays start rolling around!

I moved my secretary desk in front of it catty-corner  and it brought on the perfect solution...
A corner cabinet, that hopefully will compliment the existing built-ins that are on the other side of the room.

Existing built-in cabinets

We scoured Craigslist, ebay, and all sorts of furniture stores for about two months.
I was getting very discouraged with the lack of selection, and the really high prices.

Then last weekend, we quickly stopped by a yard sale (we only had about 30 min. between soccer games and getting to a birthday party).

There it was... right by the side of the road... with a price of only $55!

I was practically jumping up & down!  Mike didn't even haggle... just loaded it right up!

I love it!  The glass door is one sheet of glass that bows out for every pane... I didn't get a close up photo, but will have to do that.  I've never seen anything like it- so unusual!

<--- It's not pushed all the way into the corner here, but see how it hides a multitude of sins?!?

The idea is to have Mike put drywall up from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling, making a little triangle to hide the pipe behind (and give us fairly easy future access, if ever needed).

We're playing with the idea of building a base, to raise it the ~foot to the top of the base molding, which make make it feel more in scale with the high ceilings (the cabinet is over 6 ft tall, but is dwarfed by the height of the room).  But we're not 100% on that idea, so may wait & see.

I hope to make some progress on this over the weekend.
I'll be sure to post photos once everything gets settled into place!

Bathroom Reveal

It's finally done!  It took us nearly 4 months, but it was total DIY and we're SOOOO happy with the results!

If you remember, here's where we started with this bathroom:

It feels so much bigger now!  I guess because the wallpaper vines are no longer creeping in on us!

Some more "After" shots...

The subway tile:

We picked up two iron hooks from this shop while we were on vacation in the Outer Banks this summer.
(In addition having cool antique-y & gift items, the owner of the shop wrote the "Captain Stumpy" children's books.  We stopped in to get the newest one, which he signed for the boys.)

The seahorse is for the kids to hang their robes while taking their baths.

The big hook is mounted on a wood plaque because the back of the iron hook wasn't perfectly flat.  It wouldn't sit flush to the wall & was really wobbly.
A minor setback that didn't deter us... Mike carve out some of the wood on the plaque so that the hook could nestle in there. Then he secured the plaque to the wall.  It's sturdy now!

 I was going to hang these baskets as shelves on the right side of the vanity, but they stuck out too far from the wall.
So, they've been relocated to under the vanity for keeping the extra towels & washcloths.







To complete the beach-y theme, we re-hung our black & white vacation photos.
Bonnie took new ones for us this summer, so I might be swapping some out once I order prints.





Of course, there are still a few little things that I want to tweak... like changing the door hardware, once I find the reproduction or replacement parts that we're missing.

But, we're ready to call it FINISHED!

Here's the final timeline/To Do list (All crossed out- yay!!!)

By July 15th:
Purchase wainscoting, drywall & wall board Complete!
Purchase sink/vanity & toilet Complete!
Purchase new light/fan, white outlets & switches Complete!
Run electric from basement to attic (prep for finishing attic rooms) Complete!
Secure pex & wire to inside foyer wall (had run out of brackets) Complete!
Complete PVC caps on old pipes in basement Complete!
Finish stack in the foyer & insulate heating pipes  Complete!
Complete install of vent pipe in bathroom & attic  Complete! 

By July 22nd:
Purchase shower/tub fixtures, shower curtain rod Complete!
Tar paper & waterproof shower/tub Complete!
Install wall board to shower/tub Complete!
Install new outlets & light switches Complete!
Rip out old vinyl floor   Complete! 
Level joists  Complete!  
Install new sub-floor  Not Needed!
Take down mirror  Complete! 
Install drywall to walls -  Complete! 

By August 5th:
Purchase tile, grout & supplies  Complete!   
Purchase sink fixtures Complete!
Purchase molding pieces  Complete!
Tape joints    Complete!  
Spackle & sand  Complete!   

By August 12th:
Purchase wood flooring-  Complete!
Borrow tile cutter Complete!
Install tile around shower/tub Complete!   
Purchase paint/supplies  Complete!   
Install shower/tub fixtures Complete!  

By September 2nd:
Paint wainscoting pieces-  Complete!  
Install wood floor- Complete! 
Install door & window molding -  Complete!   
Install wainscoting -  Complete!   
Install toe moldings- Complete!  
Install crown molding- decided against, seemed like too many moldings

By September 16th:
Paint walls & moldings- Complete!   
Install shower curtain rod- Complete!
Install new fan/light - Complete! 

By September 29:
Purchase Mirror- Complete!    
Install vanity- Started!
Install sink fixtures- Complete!
Install toilet- Complete!
Install vanity light fixtures- Complete!   
Purchase & Install face plates- Complete!
Purchase & Install plantation shutters- Complete! 
Make & Install door saddle- Complete!    

By October 8th:
Finishing touches & decorating in bathroom- Complete!

Related posts:

Before pics

Project Timeline

Bathroom Demo

Bathroom Shopping

Tar paper & Wallboard installation

Photos of progress- 7/23

Picking the flooring

Bathroom tile

8/7 Update 

8/15 Update 

Flooring installed 

Wainscoting installed 

Primed

Painted

Door Hardware found

Door Saddle made

Featured on:

Door Hardware

We're getting down to the little details in the bathroom renovation.

The existing door knobs are the only "new" knobs in the entire house... and brass toned on the outside, chrome on the inside.  They look really out of place in the hallway, compared to the bedroom knobs.

Then I remembered that there are some old doors that were left up in one of the barns (you can see them hiding in a photo in this post).  So, this weekend I went out to see if they had any hardware on them.  

All cleaned up!

I couldn't believe my luck!  There was one door with a plate that matches all of the others in the house!  The inside had a lock box that matches the originals too!

We put them in stripper to get off layers & layers of old paint.  Then Mike cleaned & oiled the inside parts.  

I think I will repaint the lock box black, but the brass door plate is really pretty- so I think I'm going to leave it.  (It's making me think I should strip the plates on the rest of the doors!)

I'm just missing the door knob and the "lock keeper" (rectangular piece that goes on the molding), but I should be able to find replacements online.

We did a lot of other bathroom odds & ends: installing the toilet, finishing the vanity installation, hanging the vanity mirror, toilet paper holder, towel bars, & wall hooks.  Plus Mike made a door saddle- more on that soon... 

I can't wait to do a reveal post, but things like the back-ordered switch plates are holding me up!!!

Shouldn't be too long now though... 

It's hard to see,
but here's the existing knob set.
(excuse the older photo!)