Bathroom Design
Through the process of getting the kitchen up and running, I’ve updated you as to the design choices I’ve been making. I figure I should do the same as we work out the bathroom design while we are starting a remodel based on similar ones I found at https://karinrossdesigns.com/bathrooms/
I’m going with white and chrome and I’ll probably do green walls. We don’t have a huge bathroom so I’ve had to work hard to get the layout right. This image is to-scale
The sinks are 20.5 inches deep and 24 inches wide. The shower will be 5 feet by 32 inches, this is the most exciting part as the shower in ocean county nj contractors will be the ones in charge of the project. The toilet is 18″ wide and 21″ deep. We have a door on either side of the bathroom connecting the master bedroom and the closet. There is also a window in the room, behind the toilet. I wanted a double sink and this was the only configuration that left enough room for a double sink and a large shower. There is no tub but we aren’t tub people and if one really wanted it, changing the configuration to allow for a 5′ tub wouldn’t be a big change at all, what we would really love is hot tub, that’s something we are planning for the future, the hot tub in portland or specialists will be the ones in charge of the project. The rectangle to the right of the shower in the picture above is a half-wall next to the shower. I wanted to give the toilet a bit of privacy without blocking the sunlight from the window.
You can see the wall with the toilet and the shower in this image:
Under the window is the toilet and the shower is to the right of the window.
The toilet is going to be the Kohler San Raphael Flushmate. Toilets are quite a thing these days. The flushmates are pressure assisted toilets. With new toilets using so little water, the flushmate pressurizes the water to really get a superior flush that we installed with the help of some plumbers services we found online. My parent’s old house had a flushmate 2000 (the older model) and we called it the In-sink-erator. All my little cousins were scared of its violent flush.
We chose this toilet for one reason, height. We needed a short toilet to fit under the window and this one comes in just under the window-sill.
Because of it’s diminutive height, the flushability reviews were quite poor so we opted for the flushmate version.
To get the height under the 22 inch sill, we ordered the “comfort height” model which is even more ugly.
To offset the ugly toilet, we picked out nice sinks. These are the Kohler Memoirs Classic
and I love them! It took 2 tries to get non-broken ones but we’re pros at returns at this point.
For the shower doors, I’m planning on going with chrome framed doors. I know the frameless are all the rage but they are pricey and really heavy. My parents put them in a bathroom and their thought was that they are great for re-sale value but not super practical.
Something simple like this (though it will have to be custom to fit the shape with the half wall) but this style door and the chrome frame around the door.
For the medicine cabinets I fell in love with this look from Better Homes and Gardens
I do want some sort of storage between the sinks as well but I want it to be enclosed with a door. I’m not neat enough for that, I’ll do my bets to find Great Painted Units with Stylish Basins!
Unfortunately, I want my medicine cabinets recessed and all the ones I could find in my price range were surface mount. The ones in this pictures are from Home Depot I believe. To find my recessed cabinets like these, I had to go custom..custom from E-bay that is.
This guy makes custom medicine cabinets in this style for very reasonable prices. Not too shabby for custom, solid wood, and exactly what I want.
For the floor of the room and the floor of the shower, we’re going with my favorite-Penny tile!
For the shower walls and half way up the walls around the room, we’re planning on subway tile.
I don’t know yet if we are for-sure doing the tile half way up the walls. It does look super nice but it’s also a lot of work. Hm. Decisions.
For grout, we are going to do something a little odd…dark gray grout. I’m not neat and I don’t want to keep white grout clean. Also, the dark gray is really traditional. At Stefan’s parent’s house which was built in 1914, the tile is set in a bed of 3″ thick concrete and the grout is just dark gray concrete.
There are several grays to choose from but I think this is the one I’m leaning towards. It doesn’t look nearly as blue in the store sample.
For the vanity lights, I’m planning on something simple like this:
I want two 2-light fixtures. In the center of the room, I’m planning on some kind of cute chandelier, and in the shower, a recessed shower light. I haven’t picked out my lighting choices though. Another thing that we recommend is renovating your bathroom with some wood furniture. This blog discusses some of the latest woodworking tricks and techniques.
For the shower-heads, I’m planning on 2 different heads each with their own controls. The dual controls isn’t generally recommended since it’s hard to get them the same temperature and one will feel really cold or hot compared to the other. It’s good for us though since Stefan has to shower fairly cold and I like a really hot shower.
For the mixing valve, I’m thinking the Kohler Revival style.
and for the heads I want one rain style and one normal style. I usually prefer cheap showerheads…call me strange. So we’ll probably just go with something simple.
We also need to pick out our ventilation system. I like the timer-switches for those but other than that, I haven’t done enough research.
What do you think? It’s shaping up to be a pretty good lookin’ bathroom.
Sarah
Video Update
This week I’ve done something a little different. I decided it was time for some video tours. My filmography skills aren’t great so the camera is shaky. The description is unscripted but thorough. They really did come out better than expected. Let me know what you think!
Sarah
Master Suite Video
Den Video
Stairs Video
Backyard Video
The Schedule
People often ask when we are going to be “done” working on the house. At first I didn’t really understand the question…”well, never.” I’d answer. And it’s true. It’s in our blood. We will always have another project in queue, specially now that we are trying to find the best home insurance in Texas. I suppose what most people are asking is when are you going to slow down and stop working on the house ALL time, because the list of expenses that go into it isn’t something to be trifled with. Well, that’s a more complicated answer. Let me give you the rundown of the plan as it stands now.
The month of October is operation get the bathroom floor down. That involves getting the electric done in the Master Suite (bedroom, office, bathroom, closet) as well as the urge to call a plumber. After the floor is down, we need to build the wall dividing the full bath from the half bath and finish up the plumbing that goes in that wall.
November is finishing up loose items to prep for drywall including the final bits of plumbing and electric, bathroom venting, installing shower pieces behind the walls, etc, thankfully we were able to hire a plumber for this, there’s several things that we wouldn’t be able to do. There is also Thanksgiving in there making November a short work-month.
December is also a short work-month but I’m hoping we’ll have time to get things painted and get moved into the 2nd floor. I want to get my laundry/closet room painted and done so I can start getting a bit more organized.
January we will get the tile-work started in the 2nd floor bathroom. I figure it will take us 2 full months to get everything situated in the bathroom.
More Bathroom
My parents are coming back to help in March. I’m hoping that will force us to get things cleaned up and ready to show off. We’ll have plenty more painting and electric to do. Should be mostly finishing-up projects. We will also need to spend some time painting and installing moldings and other trims around the house. I’m looking forward to this trip. I’m hoping we’ll be far enough along that we can go down to New Bedford and visit some of those huge antique malls to go furniture shopping. After that, I don’t know what the priority will be. Perhaps some vacation time. Lots of dinner parties. perhaps some movie nights. Oh, and we’ll start on that 3rd floor bathroom sometime.
How does that plan sound? Loose but realistic? optimistic but doable?
Sarah
This and that and some library drawers – Sept 29 & 30
My in-laws came in last weekend for some house work. It’s always great when they visit, so much gets done. I’ve talked about how much energy these two have in earlier posts. This weekend was no exception. I wasn’t nearly as organized as I sometimes am. Things have been stressful at work and I’ve been going and going for so many weekends in a row here that I’m a bit overwhelmed. They enjoyed the free reign though, getting to work on whatever they want. We did have one task for them, the deck needed to be stained and we also wanted to add some balustrading work.
They got about half way done before it started to rain. They are coming back in 2 weeks for a wedding in the area and they are going to swing by and finish the deck before hand… I think they should get capes and go around as Super Retiree and his sidekick, Ann-of-all-Trades. They make quite the duo of house-work progress.
Since I didnt’ have a good list for them and most everything on my list required nicer weather than we had, Fred and Ann got to work on whatever they were itching to get done. ror instance, Fred put up the last big piece of countertop from granite countertops in ladue mo, I’m so in love with hoe everything is turning out!
I love this picture of my husband and his father. Stefan with dark hair in the dark shirt and Fred with white hair and the yellow shirt but otherwise, they look the same: thin build, distinctly german angular features, with the characteristic Wolpert nose.
First they installed the big drawer cabinet which I LOOOOVE!
Then they cut the countertop. It’s currently just setting on the cabinets but it is pretty minor to fix it down. I can’t believe I waited so long! The kitchen looks great and with the long expanse of counter, you can really get a feel for the butcherblock and how it’s going to look.
Ann and I chatted a bunch and pulled some wire. That work is so important and takes sooooo long but doesn’t yield good pictures 🙁 It’s less satisfying than the more cosmetic updates though it is much more important. We keep pulling wire out of walls and wondering how the house managed to not burn down.
While we pulled some wire and got some loose ends tied up, Fred and Stefan put in some windows. They look fabulous!
They look great from the outside as well but I didn’t get any pictures this weekend and it’s been dark and rainy ever time I got home from work this week. I’ll post some this weekend, pinky promise.
While Stefan and I were at work on Friday, they managed to get lots of other miscellaneous stuff done. The dining room is nearly cleaned out, the den is organized and swept clean. Ann is a cleaner so she went right to work straitening and organizing. Like me, she much prefers jobs where she can step back and see the improvement when she is done. So, while Fred insulated the kitchen ceiling, she was at it getting things looking MUCH better. It always seems like cleaning is low on the priority list when we have so much to do but it helps maintain a positive state of mental health that is so important to maintain motivation on a big project like this. I’m glad Ann had the foresight to see the need and take it upon herself to get things down to a milder state of chaos.
And, without further ado, I will show you those library drawers I hinted at:
The biggest task of the weekend was moving this beautiful piece of furniture up to the 2nd floor. We bought it just before leaving last weekend. It has been in the back of the truck all wrapped in tarps for a week. The drawers were already out and the base comes in 2 pieces. The smaller of the two weighs maybe 100 lbs. Heavy, but manageable. The larger piece weights…250? 300 lbs? WITHOUT drawers. This is a seriously massive piece of furniture. It took all 4 of us and lots of thinking to get it up the stairs. It is 3’x5′ with drawers on both of the long sides. It is right at 3′ tall but I’m planning on adding little feet and wheels which will make it just a bit taller. The top is scratched and worn any you can see years of struggling to move the piece in all the scuffs and scratches on the sides. The drawers though, are in great condition. All dovetailed joints with brass drawer pulls and label holders. There are 140 drawers. I love love love this piece of furniture. I’m so excited to see it in the library/den all finished and decorated.
Next weekend is Oktoberfest in Harvard Square and plumbing drain weekend.
Things are coming along quite well. I’m pleased with the progress we are making. Hopefully this week at work will be slightly less hectic and I will be able to focus on house stuff this weekend.
Sarah
