The Full Bath Renovation - Before Pics and Demo

**I was fixing some links to photos on the blog and this post was eaten by Blogger...apologies if you have already read this! (March 1, 2011)

Back in March 2008 we embarked on the complete renovation of our full bathroom. This project had been at the top of our list since we had moved into our house and became a priority when I was pregnant with our son. 3 weeks before I was due with him to be exact! It probably wasn’t the smartest timing, but it got done. Our bathroom was so sketchy that neither of us liked the idea of bringing a baby home to it – let alone giving him a bath in the tub!

Here are some before photos – not too many unfortunately. You’ll notice that the floor is low grade vinyl (the same that was in the ½ bathroom). This “theme” continued into the shower and walls around the bathroom with some plastic wall-covering. Not really sure why this was used here – kind of reminiscent of a public restroom. This bathroom also had DINKY little sink. You’ll also notice the accordion door here again, connecting the ½ baths and full bath.


Before:

 

Demolition:

Joe and Tim went to town ripping up the bathroom. This is always the easy/fun part!

Here’s a great shot of the cruddy tub surround – see the water marks around the faucet?

Demo'd Shower:



Half Bath - After!

I am back with a recap of the updates and the after pictures of our master bathroom/half bath.

Once the bead board was hung Joe finished the project by cutting and installing the chair rail and baseboards. We are so happy with how this look came together. I’d recommend the bead board to anyone trying to dress up a small bathroom. It really helped to make this small bathroom feel larger.

Wall color is the same that we used in the revamped kitchen – Behr’s Garden Wall.

Flooring:

Instead of installing ceramic tile in this bathroom we researched some of the newer options with laminate tile. We ended up purchasing this 14x14 tile from Tile and Stone Warehouse in Merriam, KS. It’s purchased by the box and runs about $3.00/square foot. The great thing about this product is that it just peels and sticks to your existing flooring or subfloor. It’s thicker than your basic vynil tile so it has a higher end look.

New faucet & hardware:

In this room I wanted to go with the oil-rubbed bronze finish that we have through out the rest of the house. We purchased the new towel ring and TP holder from Home Depot. The new faucet is a Pegasus brand one that I found on the clearance rack at Home Depot for $30! What a steal!

Light fixture & Medicine Cabinet:

Purchased this at a local freight close-out place for $45! Love the timeless look of it. Much better lighting than the crummy 1950s fixture we had before. Originally I had wanted to hang a more decorative mirror in here but we ended up going with a standard style mirrored cabinet with a beveled edge. It fits perfectly between the light and chair rail.

Overall we’re really pleased with the new bathroom. Here are some pictures!

 

The Half Bath Makeover - Part 1

Over the last 3 weeks we have been renovating our ½ bathroom. This bathroom is off of our master bedroom. This odd little space used to be shared with our full bathroom via  a small accordion style door. When we remodeled the full bathroom (future post) we filled in that door.

We envisioned an upscale, clean, and classic look for this bathroom since it is attached to our bedroom.

Here is a mood board I put together with the finishes and color palette I had in mind.

Here are some before pictures. Note the plastic walls, and dated fixtures. Unfortunately, I don’t have great before pictures but this bathroom also had a dated vanity and cheap-0 linoleum flooring.

Progress:

-First Joe demo’d the space by taking down the wall coverings and removing the flooring, sink, and toilet.

-Next Joe hung a new piece of sheetrock to fill in the opening left by the former door.

-My first project was to sand down the walls. I used a circular sander on the finished parts and another sander “paint eater” to get the old adhesive.

- Next up was The Bead board. This took us much longer than we thought it would. Grandma Megan offered to keep Collin overnight so that we could work on the house. We figured we’d stay up later and knock out the bead board and trim in the bathroom. Umm…that took a lot longer than we expected. We ended up working till almost 4 AM! It wasn’t that it was difficult to cut the pieces  - it just took a while to get the smaller pieces to fit and then to make sure we had the holes cut out in the right spots for the plumbing, air vents and electrical..Fun times. 

Here are a couple pics from after the bead board.

Funny Story – This room has a pocket door. To make the job  a bit easier Joe had been using the air nail gun to nail in the bead board and the nails that you use with it are kind of long. Well we finally got to the last bit of wall and glued and nailed that sucker up to the wall. As I was standing there “helping” I said – “ I just had a bad thought. What if we just nailed the pocket door in?” We did. J Luckily we thought of it before the Liquid Nails had dried at all and Joe was able to pull out the nails that were in. It was funny to pull out the door and see the nice little row of nail holes in it. Live and learn we say!

Next update will include pictures of the floor, trim work, painted walls and installed sink and toilet!

Our Kitchen - The After!

Well I am finally back with a kitchen update. Over the last month we’ve been SUPER busy pulling the house together to get it on the market. I’m happy to report that as of Sunday, the house is listed! Now we're just praying for showings and an interested buyer!

You may remember from my previous post that we were making some progress in the kitchen and now we are finished!

The biggest project was getting and installing new countertops. We decided to purchase new Formica countertops in a dark grey color - Mineral Jet. You might wonder why we didn’t get granite – and the reason is that for the price we wanted to get for our home it just didn’t make financial sense. We also realize that whomever buys our house down the road may want to gut the kitchen and start new and in that case the countertops would go to waste.

We purchased the counters from Lowes. I’d give them a B+. Since we wanted to save money on the installation we just measured and ordered from Lowes and then had them delivered. Because of the length of the longer countertop it required more than 1 miter and Joe and I were not told that up front. So there is an extra seam in the counter that we were not expecting. Now that it’s installed it’s not very noticeable – but we were frustrated in the process.

To save money Joe and his dad (Tim) installed the counters. We’re not sure if it was worth the savings, considering it took the better part of a weekend to get them in. Tim is always helping us with projects at our house and once again, I know we couldn’t have done it without him!

You can’t help but notice our shiny new stainless-look appliances. SO much better than the old white ones we had.

Here are the after pics!

Here is the new breakfast area. Before I used this space for a desk – but that’s not very buyer friendly. You’ll also notice the great trim job that Joe did on our back door.

 

 

I’ve also included before and after pictures of the adjoining dining room. Before this room was the same color off-white as the kitchen wall. It also sported a lovely 1970s box light. We replaced this with a brushed nickel chandelier. I think it looks much homier now!

Before:

 

From this view you can see how our spiral staircase is situated in this room. It leads to our finished portion of the basement.

And there you have it! Our kitchen makeover. We're both enjoying the kitchen a LOT more the last week. It's nice to have a space you don't mind standing in to cook and clean dishes. Although - it is really hard to keep it spotless all of the time for showings!

Jungle Goggles

Collin has been feeling very helpful these days...his new favorite accessory are his "Jungle Goggles". We don't know where the name came from - but he sure does think these are cool.

These goggles were part of a Black & Decker kid's tool set that he received for Christmas.

Safety First!!

Backyard Living

One of the best things about our home is our awesome neighborhood and yard. Our backyard is big and we back up to a large 3 acre lot owned by the water district. So we have our own little field to play in which is awesome! Unfortunately, the only way to access our great backyard was through the back door which was through the garage. Not exactly convenient. The house also had a quaint back patio with a nice rock wall in the shade. Before Collin was here Joe and I enjoyed sitting back there with the chiminea and having some cocktails, and we always dreamed of a nice big deck or patio off of the kitchen. Well – our dreams came true in the fall of 08.

Here is the view from the backyard before the door. Existing patio and back door on the right.

The work:

My dad gave us a sliding door when we moved in that was leftover from a house he had built and it has sat in the garage for ages. One day while I was toiling away working at a conference our dads , Joe, and Joe’s uncle tore out the big window and replaced it with the sliding door! A few months after this we had a large patio poured just in time for Collin’s first birthday party. This large 16x20 patio has become an outdoor living space for us. It’s awesome to have the patio right off of our kitchen where we can easily bring dinner outside or have our morning coffee while Collin plays outside. A great addition to our home!

This photo is mid-way through the process. Joe had yet to build the step or trim out the door. We also hadn’t arranged any furniture or landscaped:

Here we are with the patio as it is now. The Adirondack chairs have become my favorite place to sit. Joe and his dad, Tim, added two porch lights and an outdoor outlet so that we can plug in our ourdoor fridge or radio. A sound system is on the wish list!

We have a sidewalk that joins the old patio and new patio.

And here is Collin's favorite area!

Joe's aunt and uncle gave us their playground once their kids outgrew it. We put a fresh coat of stain on it and I made new fabric canopies for the little towers using some outdoor fabric from Joanns. Pretty cute!

 

Big Boy Bed

About a month ago we decided it was time to find a big boy bed for Mr. C. He had climbed out of his crib once - so we knew the time was approaching. It’s bittersweet when your “baby” is too big for his crib anymore. L Joe saved the day when he came across this great twin sized “Captain’s Bed” on our work classified ads for $75. We offered $60 and the bed was ours!

Here is the bed:

The bed was in excellent condition. We almost felt bad painting the wood since it was in such nice shape – but it was just not our style. We love looking at the Pottery Barn Kids Collection for ideas and we both saw that this bed could look something like this with some elbow grease and new hardware.


Inspiration Bed - Pottery Barn Kids Belden Twin Bed w/ drawers - $1,700!!: 

Materials needed for this project:

- Circular sander

- Sand paper

- White primer

- White semi-gloss paint

- Foam rollers (these things are the best!)

- Small paint brush for cutting in

 

Joe started out by sanding the entire bed with a fine grit sand paper to get the finish off. We then wiped the entire bed down and prepped to prime it. We then applied two coats of a white primer to the entire bed using foam rollers. We let this dry and then Joe applied two coats of Behr’s interior semi-gloss latex paint in Ultra Pure White. Once the entire thing was dry we were good-to-go! We purchased a twin mattress from Nebraska Furniture Mart and surprised C with new sports themed bedding. (This was easiest since his nursery décor was sports themed). I purchased the oil rubbed bronzed cup handles at Lowe’s for about $4.00 each.

The finished product:

We are so happy with how the bed turned out! The extra storage underneath is great too. For now, one drawer has blankies, one has shoes, and the other has some miscellaneous toys.

In all we spent less than $100 on the bed, painting supplies and new hardware! Not bad considering the $1,700 price tag on the similar PB bed!

You’ll also see in these photos the bookshelf and dresser that we had refinished in the same way for C’s nursery a couple of years ago. Every piece in this room was a hand-me down or purchased cheap!

Cooking in the Kitchen!

Here is the kitchen when we bought the house. White White White!

Here it is after moving in. Just for fun – and until we got around to redoing it I painted the kitchen area a red – never really liked it. J I also put a fresh coat of paint on the cabinets.

Our plan was always to completely redo the kitchen. New cabinets, counters, even a new layout. 4 Years later we still haven’t gotten to that … so we’ve decided to make some basic updates and give it a fresh look.

Over the last two weeks we have:

• Painted the kitchen and adjoining dining room a nice neutral gray/khaki.
• Hung new drywall around the sliding glass door that leads to the back patio. (The paneling was destroyed installing the door).
• Ordered new countertops for the kitchen! They should be in in another week or so.

Here is a little “mood board” I put together outlining the new finishes for the kitchen.

Coming up next – some progress pictures of the newly painted space!

Refinishing the Hardwood Floors

The biggest project we accomplished before moving into our new home was refinishing the hardwood floors throughout the house. Despite the condition of the floors, this feature was one that I loved the most about the house. I love the look and feel of wood floors!

These were in pretty bad shape though. Apparently the previous owner had let the dogs/cats have free reign of the house while he was away – for weeks at a time. GROSS. And SAD! So there were lots of stains on the floors.

Joe had helped his dad to refinish wood floors a couple of years before we did ours so he had some experience. While I was away on a work trip Joe and Tim rented a belt sander from the hardware store and went to town sanding the floors down.  

• With the belt sander you go in the direction of the wood grain, and it’s important to leave some room near the edges so you don’t rough up the baseboards too much.
• Around the perimeter of the room we used a circular sander to carefully sand the edges of the floors to match the rest.
• Once you have the flooring sanded down you’ll need to spend some time getting up all of the dust and wiping them down.
• We used the shop-vac to get up the dust and then followed up with a damp mop several times to get all of the dust up.
• You’ll also want to wipe down all of the walls and trim to clean up any dust from sanding.
• Next you’ll choose the stain. We opted for a darker color. An added bonus to the dark color is that it does a good job of hiding imperfections in the wood. We used MinWax.
• To apply the stain we used rags and wiped it in even coats in the direction of the wood grain.
• Our job took 2 coats of stain.
• Once the stain was dried we went back to areas that looked like they needed more and applied it there.
• We let the stain sit for 24-48 hours and then applied the polyurethane coating to the top. To apply the poly use a sponge mop and work yourself out of the room – also going in the direction of the wood grain.
• We let the floors sit up for 2 days prior to moving anything into the house, and even then we walked around in socks for a week.
• The smell of the poly lasted FOREVER. I felt like all of our clothing reeked of it for weeks! J So lesson learned, bag up your clothing and belongings prior to do this type of project!

Before Pictures:

Here is the flooring before we sanded it.

Here is the staircase before

Here is the staircase after stain and before painting the wood.

Here is the staircase complete with trim and transitions painted white!

Finished flooring in our sitting area. Furniture circa 2007. :)

Living room with finished floors - and our lovely hand me down furniture. 

Curb Appeal for Vernie

Take a good look at this front stoop. It’s falling off.

In order to make our front entrance safer and more appealing the entire front walk and stoop were replaced. Joe and I were so happy with how this turned out and I think our neighbors were even more excited! They’d been looking at this eyesore – along with overgrown grass for too long! We’re fortunate to have family in the concrete business. :)



The walk/stoop right after it was poured – you can also see the new fascia board for the gutters that would be installed soon after.

 
Here are some photos of the new walk from the summer of 2008 – after Joe pulled away all of the railroad ties and we replaced with some nice plantings!
 

Paint!!

The walls in this house STUNK. And they were ALL WHITE


To give the house a fresh look and make our paint job stick Joe recommended that we sand all of the walls and then prime and paint. My husband is a meticulous painter. When you paint with Joe there are no shortcuts allowed. Joe did most of the sanding and I helped with the parts I could reach. I underestimated the value of sanding the walls. Once we sanded we were able to fix the imperfections – hammering nails back in, patching holes, etc. It makes a world of difference to start with a clean and even slate!


Once the walls were sanded everything was wiped down to get rid of the dust. Make sure to get some big soft sponges and dampen them to wipe everything down. You'll want to do it more than once.


Ceilings and closets – my wonderful father in law, Tim, sprayed all of the ceilings and closets for us!


Next it was time for the primer. KILLZ was our best friend – despite how toxic it is, it sealed up the walls and helped to get rid of the stench in the house. We were lucky it was Fall - we could leave the windows open!


After primer we taped the trim and got the rollers ready for COLOR! I had lots of fun picking out paint for our house. We purchased all of the paint from Sherwin Williams in Mission and were very happy with the quality.


Things I learned from Joe about painting:
- Cut in the corners and edges with a wide brush first.
- Roll from the top down in even lines, getting as close as you can to the ceiling w/o touching it.
- Watch for drips! (He hates drips!)


Here’s where I’ll leave you with before and after shots of the color transformations in each room – except for the master bedroom – that’s a different post where we’ll learn all about painting with RED.


Living Room/Hallway with seller’s items – and a preview of the grungy hardwoods:

Living Room & Hallways with Sherwin Williams – Macadamia:

Bedroom #1 with the seller's stuff:

 

Bedroom 1 with Sherwin Williams - Friendly Yellow:

(That's my little brother, William, painting the storage nook for me!)

Bedroom #2 Before – with seller’s stuff.

Bedroom 2 with Sherwin Williams – Lily Pad (discontinued I think…)