Upstairs Bathroom Planning

It's officially official-ish that when we refinance this house in March we are going to be getting some cash out to do work! My I-am-not-really-a-designer-but-I-think-I-know-what-looks-decent brain is in OVER DRIVE PEOPLE. OVER DRIVE. We had Jeff the contractor over this weekend and even if he isn't the cheapest (we're interviewing two more this week), we are 90% sure we are going to go with him because we really liked him. So, Jeff and I have decided to gut the upstairs bathroom with the exception of the bathtub. I really love that tub and now take baths at least twice a week. It's my thing now. I haven't talked much about this bathroom, because I have done ZIPPO to it. It is the only space upstairs that we didn't paint when we moved in and you can tell because it still looks like this:

bath 5bathroom 2bath 4bathroom 1

There are some obvious problems with this space:

  • Blue linoleum floor (shudder).
  • The vanity is way too big for this small of a space
  • Blue patterned tile in shower
  • Now listen, Nicole Curtis, I also love the original blue tile in this bathroom along the wall. But it is SO blue. And we are going to take this bathroom more down the modern side of the mid-century modern scale.
  • Storage isn't really an issue since that medicine cabinet is recessed and stores all the things I use everyday. The interesting thing in this space is that behind where I have my hair stuff in that brown basket looking thing, is a rather deep closet. (More on this later).

I also have recognized that I love all of the things. Sinks. Tile. Paints. Beadboards. You name it, I love it. But this space is small and we want it to feel as light and bright and refreshed as possible. This is where y'all come in. I want to hear about your favorites in each category. Leave me a comment and I PROMISE it will be taken into consideration (note: I have tried to link back to the pictures original owners below so if you click on the pic, it will take you to where it came from. Most are from Houzz or Pinterest). Game faces people.

Floor Tile

Really I think I am sold on the marble floor. I just can't pick between Hexagon tiles like these (I also love the sink in this bathroom, but do not love the marble floor on marble wall tile):

Or a Herringbone pattern like this:

Wall/Shower Tile

Since whatever tile we do on the walls will probably be carried over from to the shower area, I am combining these two categories.  I get sort of stuck here because I can't yet tell if I think the marble floor will look good with a traditional subway tile on the wall (which I think is sort of over-done these days):

A more modern twist on the subway tile:

modern subway

Mix up the traditional carry the wall tile over from the shower thing... don't do it and instead try some sort of accent "strip" behind the mirror and sink:

...OR do beadboard? Even now thinking about this, I feel like I might save the beadboard for when we gut LB's bathroom downstairs.

Or just no wall tile at all and just tile the floor and the shower and leave the walls with textured drywall and paint. Always paint.

Sinks!

I am basically convinced that we are going to do a free standing sink instead of a vanity. I mean look at this thing... if got the base/underside in black with the black strip of tile along the top on the walls... hmmmmm.

sinks 1 Another one... might even be the same sink just wider:

More modern... love.

Another more modern sink look I like... but holy wallpaper batman:

One more:

That is already a whole lot of design choice-age happening- so weigh in folks. We've got pendant lights and flooring to pick out later this week!

 

The Massive "Before" Pictures/House Tour Post

I already am going to have to apologize for the length of this post, but I just got all of the pictures that Sam and Avery (the adorable blonde babe in these pics) took the day we bought our house. First up, the outside: IMG_0093 IMG_0098 IMG_0092 IMG_0091 IMG_0050 IMG_0042 IMG_0041 IMG_0039 Plans for the outdoors?

  • Paint the front door and the shutters to match eachother
  • Update the windows that have condensation/possibly do this with the re-side the house project
  • Re-side the house
  • Seal concrete cracks: DONE
  • Seal all the wood cracks that we reasonably can while we save up for a retile project: STILL IN PROGRESS
  • Do something with the flower beds below the master bedroom window and my office window
  • Fix the flashing on the roof

Next Up: the living room, dining and kitchen upstairs in that order. Can we just focus on how much brown was in this house two weeks ago!? And HOW AWFUL the tile and countertops were in the kitchen!?

Plans for the living, dining and kitchen?

  • Paint the entire upstairs: DONE! We finished painting the kitchen on Seahawks Day (aka the 2014 superbowl)
  • Refinish the countertops with Rustoleum product: DONE!
  • Remove the tile (that part DONE) and install new backsplash.
  • Paint the kitchen cabinets: DONE!
  • Swap out that awful kitchen box light: light ordered, awaiting it's arrival
  • Paint the ceiling in the kitchen
  • Install crown molding throughout the entire upstairs
  • Get an interim couch (DONE: from Cost Plus), a big rug (DONE: from Wayfair), refinish thrift store dresser as TV stand (DONE), 2 accent chairs, a coffee table and side tables (DONE: craigslist find!), and figure out rest of furniture placement in living and dining room. Living room progress pictures as of April 2014.
  • Get a dining table and chairs (DONE! MAJOR Craiglist steal!).

Next up: Upstairs bedrooms. There are three: my office, the master, the gym. My office has the wainscotting, the master has the super long glass closet mirrors with Avery inside the closet, and the gym was the darkest poo brown you've ever seen.

Plans for the bedrooms:

  • Paint them all: DONE!
  • Organize, organize, organize: organizing furniture placement, furniture colors, figuring out drapes for each room, getting ELFA updates to the already existing container store closet systems.
  • Get new dresser for master: DONE! Thrift store find... post coming soon.
  • Build headboard for master bed
  • New master bed bedding
  • Get T's office dressing bar up: DONE!

Upstairs bath... lots of blue happening here. Also a shot of the super sweet taped up "wallpaper" in the hall closet outside the bathroom:

Bath 2 bath 3 Bath1

bath 4 bath 5

Plans for bathroom?

  • UGH! I am at a loss here. A part of me wants to gut it but a part of me loves that blue tile
  • Definitely get rid of the tile in the shower surround (thinking white subway tile)
  • Paint the walls (the weird yellow is not working for me)
  • Fix the small leak: DONE! It cost $50 for the part from Amazon and $169 for the plumber.
  • WHO KNOWS!!!!

And now... the basement! We start with the door off the kitchen that leads to the basement stairs. To your right would be the guest bedroom (with the curtains up already and me making wierd faces with Avery) and then LB's office. Then the bathroom. And out to the living room and the second kitchen. This is also where the laundry is!

 

Plans for the basement:

  • Furnish it for now: Pretty much DONE (I am over the coffee table and rug that are in there)
  • Hang pictures
  • Organize kitchen
  • Update the laundry room to make better us of the space including new washer and dryer eventually.
  • Hang better curtains: DONE
  • Gut the bathroom down here: it is clearly build with drywall and not cement board... gut it and actually tile or use a fully enclosed, pre-fab'd shower stall.
  • Vent the bathroom vents (down and upstairs) to the outside