Master Bathroom Re-Do Phase 1

It's been a while since I've updated our progress around here.  Between homeschooling, teaching at CSCC, writing my own book, and taking a class at LRU...I've been sort of busy.  In any time leftover, I have been working on the house.  The goal was to have all of the rooms painted before our first year was up...that actually happened!  Hard to believe we've been here a year...

If you don't remember what the master bathroom looked like when we bought the house...here it is.

Mauve and country blue....shoot me now.

Yes, that tub and all of the tile is PINK.  (They say "almond."  They are in denial.)

How can one comfortably "go" here?

Then the wallpaper starts to come down.  The good thing about this room was that it had probably been on there for 20 years and it peeled off in sheets in a lot of places.  Other places I used the fabric softener with hot water...and really didn't have any problem spots.  All walls washed and scraped for residual glue afterward.



Let the painting begin!!!  Well....wait a minute....
The worst part of this project: I did have a problem with the tan paint...After painting (literally) the entire room, this is what happened:

I couldn't figure it out.  I had painted another color over the tub...same exact paint (Valspar Ultra paint+primer)...same exact wallpaper, removal technique, etc., with no problems.  Lowe's was so kind to remix and replace it free of charge including a tinted Kilz primer.  I was totally willing to pay for the replacement, but they insisted!  And so the process of redoing the bathroom, turned into re-redoing...Greg powersanded the ENTIRE bathroom, I painted on the primer, and then painted a second time.  It looked great.  No problems.  It remains a mystery, but I haven't lost sleep over it.

 Anyway, here's the progress of the wall...love the burgandy...By the way, while trying to get to the corners with the red above the tub, I tried to get all inventive without Greg around and I totally fell off the ladder. (A step ladder that I rigged to stand on top of a sanding thingy that was on the side of the tub.)  Marli came running when she heard me yell and crash...I was actually stunned into silence for a few minutes while lying there all upside down in the tub..making sure I didn't have any broken bones.  Thankfully, I was only bruised and sore for a few days.  Lesson learned...

 Look!  No wallpaper!!

And here are the after pictures for this phase:

Burgandy paint $5.00 oops paint.  Curtains at Ollie's were $6.00 each....because they'll be replaced after phase 2.  

Greg built the frame for the mirror because the previous owners used some heavy duty glue.  I was really afraid of breaking the mirror while trying to remove it, and I kinda like having it...

This is still very plain b/c I need to decorate....but the hubs built the shelves out of repurposed wood from....(I can't remember.  Somewhere in this house!)  And we spent about $12 on the moulding. 

I love the vanity.  It took about a month to do...but it was worth the time and effort.  We will replace the carpet in the next phase and take care of the color of the toe-kick then.  I'll also replace the counter top and sinks (the faucets were just replaced b/c they were leaking...)  $75.00 for stain and supplies...don't skimp on buying stain.  Get the good stuff!  

Here's a close up of the colors.  The main wall paint (tan color) was $20.00 for 2 gallons.  You know me.  I typically only buy the oops paint and "make it work"....in the words of Tim Gunn.

PHASE 2 PLANS:

Remove the tub...

Remove the carpet!

Hang Wainscote around the alcove (where the tub is)...add baseboard and chair rail.

Thinking I'll do that around the wall behind the toilet too...

OH and of course....turn that closet into my shoe closet!! (I'm working on that now)

I'm looking at something like this for the flooring

What do you think???

PHASE 3 will be hiring someone to come and tile the shower/potty area and then Greg and I can replace the toilet ourselves...

Half Bath Redo

Today's entry is a complete redo (minus replacing the toilet) of the half bath.  I have never taken down wallpaper before and just a heads up....all of the bathrooms have wallpaper.  So by the time I'm finished with this house, I'll be a professional.  :)
Here is the before:

The vanity is solid oak.  It's beautiful, but it's HUGE for a 1/2 bath. 
The top is an outdated cultured marble.

Don't you LOVE this wallpaper????

 Because this room is tiny, I'll have to help with some details so you can envision it.  The light fixture is gold, the faucet is gold and the toilet paper holder is....you guessed it!
I tried the Piranha system sold at Lowe's to remove the wallpaper.  I may have more of an opinion after doing the other two bathrooms.  This wallpaper is foil, which may be why it came off in two layers rather than as a whole sheet.  It wasn't terrible, just time consuming and I kept hearing my high school English teacher say "patience is a virtue." :)

The paint I picked for this room is only on the back wall behind the potty.  The other walls are a lighter shade of the same color...just to keep it from being really dark in a small room.  Here's the reveal and then the story behind it.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm having a hard time inserting a close up above the potty....

• Greg painted the gold fixture in a satin nickel....he also painted the toilet paper holder too.  It's recessed and I'm almost positive they don't make those any more!  We didn't see them in any of the stores, but we didn't look super hard either.  I'm pretty pleased with how the fixture and TP holder both turned out.

• After peeling off the wallpaper, the walls had to be spackled and sanded.  This was crazy time consuming.  I thought the wallpaper would come off and I could just paint.  OH NO....that's not the case.  The walls were primed, which definitely helped, but several areas (especially around the sink) were extremely difficult to get smooth.  I hope you'll never notice, but it's not perfect around the sink alcove.  I spackled and sanded and painted, the spackled and sanded and painted again.  It was obvious that when the house was built, the intention was to keep that vanity in there until the end of the world.

New baseboard and 1/4 round.....Looks SO good....the picture just doesn't do it any justice at all!
(And I'm claiming about 80% of the installation.)

Here are a few pics from the past week. 

I'm pretty sure the side guards were superglued to the wall....They were really hard to remove....
and tore up the sheetrock :(

This was my workspace for a week!

We had to remove the door to get the vanity out....the house was built around this vanity!

Would I do anything different?  YES!  I really wanted a pedestal sink and due to the installation of the pedestal, it's not going to happen.  This is totally fine and the options are wide open.  What I would do different is to research sinks FIRST and then proceed.  For now, you can use the 1/2 bath, but you can't wash your hands!  Searching for a mirror too....

Will post more when it's 100% complete.

Enjoy your day....and give me your feedback?  What kind of sink and mirror would you use!?

Jana