Week 13: Bringing the Old into the New

Week 6: Bathroom Surprise!

Hi everyone! This week's blog starts off on a complete high note..... that beautiful pink tile in the hall bath, you remember? Well it has finally decided to retire. Yup! pink tile is no more and honestly it was a little bittersweet to see it go. I had a tile guy come out and give us some estimates on painting the pink but when we ran the numbers starting from scratch just made more sense. So we did some crunching in other parts of the budget and we are going full steam ahead..... even if we have to have Ramon noodles for dinner this next month ;)

I will probably kick myself down the road for saying this to the world wide web but shopping is exhausting. This week I selected all of the tile (kitchen floor & back splash, hall bath floors, walls and tub and the master bath floor & shower). I still need to find some accent pieces for the kitchen back splash because of course the tile I am obsessing over is $50 for a 6x6 square. Woof. That obviously isn't going to happen but thankfully I have some time because our kitchen cabinets don't arrive for a couple more weeks so I will be searching for a good look a-like. I also picked out both bath vanities, sink faucets, shower heads as well as the kitchen sink basin and faucet. Thank you mom for your design assistance! Karen was surprised at how much we accomplished in such a short amount of time. I say the key to this is making fast but good decisions. Some items can have hundreds of options always start with the most important factor then weed your way down. For example when we where at Ferguson's for the bath and kitchen fixtures I started with the number one priority of mine, that is was black. From there we went to the size based on the cabinet it is going in, then went to price. Once we weeded those out I looked at the style and shapes that were offered with my restrictions.

Kitchen: We have pipes for our kitchen sink and dishwasher! Matt and our plumber Jeff kicked butt again this weekend with the continued task of rerouting the plumbing. The washer & dryer got its finishing touches as well. This was important because we need to get the drywall phase started which is kicking off this week!

 During: Kitchen looking on from entry hall

 During: Kitchen, our new pipes

 During: Kitchen looking down the hall

 

Hall Bath: This room got the full gut out, well we are keeping our 50 year old cast iron tub because they just don't make them like they used to. Also it weights a few pounds and in order to remove it it would have to be cut up to pieces. So last week I had the same tile painting company give me a quote on refinishing it. On top of the tile and fixture selections this week I also found some marble corner shelves for the tub to give it a more custom look. I found these at Mees Tile on Poplar Level Rd which they had pre cut and in stock.

 Before: Demo

 Before: Demo

 During: New tiles!

I also wanted to share with you the layers of the walls from this bathroom. Since we discovered that drywall hadn't been invented when our house was built it has been causing a few bumps along the road for us. Here is a snap shot of the beautiful craftsmanship. A extremely tough steel mesh was stapled to the wood wall studs. This stuff can slice your finger just about in half. Then applied is the 1/4" thick plaster, on top of that was the tile grout and then those lovely pick tiles. This small pile weight about 100 lbs.

Master Bath: This room got a demo too! Although I didn't mind the gray tile and it was in good shape but it was dated and needed to go. We are keeping the great built in cabinet and we will replace the shower door. The shower is also getting some of the marble corner shelves as well as a inset cutout to house all of our bath products. I am letting our tile guy do the tile design for that so I am anxious to see what he comes up with.

 Before: Demo

 Before: Demo

Plumbing: The basement's plumbing is just about wrapped up. Matt and Jeff has worked their butts off for the past 2 weeks and it is still hard to believe all of the work they have accomplished. I am very proud of them both :) So we got all new pipes for the sink, disposal, dishwasher, refrigerator, washer & dryer and the updated bathroom downstairs. Since we just added the 2 upstairs bathrooms to the demo list we still need to get new pipes and valves for the showers. It is a great feeling knowing our pipes are clean as a whistle vs. 50+ years old and the fact that Matt helped put them there, well is just awesome.

 

 During: Washer/Dryer new pipes & vent

 During: New pipes for the downstairs bath, kitchen & washer/dryer

 

I also started on my list of DIY. The light chandelier that was in the front entry door got a face lift. I took off all of the crystals and cleaned them up and gave the fixture a fresh coat of paint. I went with a color that will go with our cabinetry hardware. I will have to wait and see what it will actually look like hung to be completely satisfied with the finished product but overall I think it turned out pretty well.

 Before: Brass & dirty

 After: Silver & shiny

 

This coming week is a very exciting one or Matt and I..... we are getting drywall! All of our plans and visions of what we want our house to look like will be in a 3D form! I keep telling Matt once we get walls, it will make the whole difference. This is a huge milestone of the construction phase. It is really starting to come together so please stay tuned.................