Monday, December 14, 2009

Update : Bathroom remodel (Picture Heavy!)

I know it's been a while since I've updated. Heck, the last time I updated it hadn't been snowing lol (the snow right now has all been melted). But in my defense I've been a busy little crafty fae. The latest project, along with a few craft swaps mixed in, has been a labor of love as well as a complete pain. Have I mentioned how much I don't like drywall dust?

Anyway, the bathroom. The original dreaded place that just was not all that functional and was basically a catch all for the rest of the house. There used to be an extra piece of counter top from the old kitchen counter in there for crying out loud. The laundry area wasn't much better. It didn't function well at all. Hopefully now that both have been redone, it will function beautifully with 6 people using the space. It's not completely done yet, the flooring and baseboards need to be put in, but for the most part, it's the finishing touches that's left. And boy I can't wait to get cracking!!

On to the pictures!!

The dreaded before pictures: Because of the layout and where the bathroom was, I wasn't been able to get a decent shot of the whole thing all at once. So the before pictures will be a bit confusing, but I'll try and clear them up as best as I can. Our house is a raised ranch. When you walk into the front door you have stairs that lead to the upstairs living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. The stairs going down led to the basement, bathroom, bedrooms and living space.


When you came down the stairs, this is the wall that you saw before turning left to go into the living space (our bedroom is on the right).


This was the corner that formed part of the wall to the hot water tank (that was behind it) and part of the laundry area.

This gives you a better look at the corner. To the left of the tv was the doorway that led to the laundry area, bathroom and TJ's bedroom. On the right, behind the suit bag, was the doorway that led to the stairs and our bedroom. Behind that wall was the old hot water tank.


This is how the laundry area looked when you walked in the door. The washer and dryer were on your left, there was a wall on your right. You took a couple steps and the hot water tank was on your right. In order to continue down the hall, you had to turn yourself to navigate the narrow hall. The bathroom was on your left and then down the hall was TJ's bedroom. If it wasn't for the fact that our bedroom originally had a doorway that opened up to the bathroom, there would have been no way possible to fit any furniture into TJ's room.

To give you an idea of what the hallway looked like, this is a picture I took from TJ's bedroom. The door on your right was the bathroom. Behind the white bookshelf was the hot water tank and around the laundry area was on the other side of the bathroom.


My family moved into this house back in 1993. When we moved in, the toilet was on a set of stairs and the bathtub was elevated as well. A LOT! In fact, if you were going to get into the tub, you had to go to stand on the top step next to the toilet in order to get into the tub. It was not a safe thing at all. The bathtub was quickly removed. The following pictures were taken after we had pulled down the back wall to see if there was any insulation at all. Nope none!

This is a picture of the steps that the toilet sat on.

This is a picture of the corner where the tub used to be. If you look, the faucet for the tub is near the 7 in the timestamp on the photo. And just below, where the 2 is, was the drain for the tub.

This was the old, cracked, gross sink that had been there since we moved in.

So those are some of the pictures I had taken of how it all looked before we took walls down, moved walls, shifted things here and there and totally changed the layout. And it functions so much better now! We keep asking ourselves why we hadn't changed it before lol.

Mid Work Pictures:

This was quite the undertaking. We did a lot of the work ourselves, but when it came to the gas lines and plumbing, we got the help of some friends who knew what they were doing lol. We completely gutted the whole space, put up new insulation (like the rest of the downstairs, there was no sort of insulation), ran new pipes and water lines, a new gas line for the new gas dryer and water heater, and changed the layout of the space. The new laundry space was where the old bathroom was and the new bathroom was where the old laundry area was. But both shared the new space.

This is a picture of the area that is going to be the new bathroom. We tore down the wall that separated the laundry area and the bathroom.


This is the floor joists going in. We put the whole bathroom on a raised floor (about 8 inches) to allow for proper pipe drainage and to save money from having to cut into the concrete flooring.

There's the new sub flooring and part of the new wall.

The new hallway without the crazy walk way it used to have. This picture was taken after we took out the old hot water tank. You can see the new door we installed to TJ's bedroom. That's the first time that room has seen an actual door in a really long time.


This is a picture of how taking out the funny corner where the tv used to be and the hot water tank just opened up the stairs and space.

Here's another picture taken from the hallway.

The After Pictures!!

There is still some work to be done like installing the flooring and baseboards, as well as some of the final details like outlet covers and switch plates. But I'm happy that there is color on the walls!

First up, the color! The paint is a semi-gloss paint called Shortbread by Olympic. I love this paint because it doesn't have any odor at all and being a latex paint, it is very easy to clean up. Being that I was painting downstairs and would be doing most of it in the winter time, it was very important to not have an odor. I would recommend this paint brand to anyone! The color is so vibrant. The pictures do not do it any justice at all.

The new sink, mirror and vanity lights, new gas dryer, tankless hot water heater, and toilet. Everything is energy star rated.

The new washer and dryer. One thing I plan on doing with this space after everything is done, is making a cover for the dryer vent. At least try and make it blend in more instead of sticking out like a sore thumb lol.

The shower curtain that inspired! We picked up the shower curtain on clearance shortly after we were able to actually use the tub (before the bathroom was finished). The little yellow poppies are what inspired the wall color and the eventual theme of a wild meadow.

I love the new tub as well. It's an acrylic tub and cleans so easy, especially since we have a steam cleaner lol.






2 comments:

  1. Wow! So much better!
    What a relief it must be!

    Toilet on stairs? that's not good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. thank you! it was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

    lol no it wasn't, especially in the middle of the night when you're half asleep. i've kicked it a few times in the dark lol.

    ReplyDelete

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