Our Long, Lost Bathroom Reno

We're Back!!!!  I know, I know where have we been?!  Oh you know, just doing things around the house and having a baby.  No big deal.  :)  Here she is, our sweet, little girl who is now 1 year old!  

It's been a great couple years and not only have we have made quite a lot of changes to our lives, but to the house as well.  I thought that I would start this post with our latest renovation, our upstairs bathroom.  It might just be my favorite renovation thus far. 

Here's a little background and some before pictures to get the ball rolling.  Our house has 2 full baths, one upstairs and one downstairs (no master bath, oh so sad for Kevin and I :( ).  The downstairs bath is in pretty decent shape (it is far down the list!).  But, the upstairs bath moved WAY up the list when we found out that I was pregnant.  About 3 years ago, I was sitting in our living room watching TV and all of a sudden I heard a rush of water behind me.  I turned to look and saw dripping water.  AH!  Kevin had been showering upstairs and I guess it was just the time when the tub decided to retire.  Unfortunately for us, the tub had a crack in it that sent the water to find the path of least resistance.  Lucky for us, we had the downstairs shower that we could use in the meantime.  At that point in our lives, we were stripping and staining the outside of the house (don't worry, that post is coming soon I promise).  Therefore, the upstairs bath was not a priority and fell to the bottom of the list.  But, with a little one on the way we knew that we were going to need a working bathtub eventually.  Ready, set, go!

Here's a look at what our bathroom looked like before.  Extremely outdated and needing a serious overhaul.  One thing I wanted was to add double sinks, if possible and to make the most out of our cabinet.  As you'll see, the bathroom is not small, but an odd shape and there is not much area to be had in the way of storage for linens and such.  

What a beautiful shower, ugly and old!

Quite a bit of counter space, seems like enough for another sink?

Notice the exposed stuff to the right :(

UGLY barn style door which never really closed!

If you remember from previous posts, our house is all wood paneling.  Obviously, we like the look of wood since we bought a log home, but there is such a thing as TOO MUCH.  We decided to completely gut this bathroom down to the studs and put up drywall.  All of our upstairs rooms have exposed beams which are beautiful, but look even more beautiful against the drywall.  You'll see this in the final pictures.  Here are some pictures from along the way...

Hooray!  A working bathtub!

Added recessed lighting over the counter top area...we only had ONE little
light in that area before :(

I actually chose the color for our bathroom before I  chose anything else...whoops!  But, I'm really happy with the color that I chose.  We are huge Sherwin Williams fans and I chose the sea salt color for this reno.  I couldn't be happier with it.  We opted to not go with a tiled tub/shower because of our needs with a child.  It seemed like a better option to have a shower/tub combo that would be easy to clean, not be as slippery and then we could put our money into the custom cabinet and counter top.  We opted to do a custom cabinet and counter top to maximize our space.  It seemed like the best idea for the project.  Unfortunately, I have no links to the tradesmen that we used for these two areas because we used local Amish.  When deciding on the cabinet, Kevin had the idea of a make up area in the middle.  I loved this idea (what girl wouldn't?!).  It really makes for a clean, sophisticated space.  I insisted on having as many drawers as possible and we agreed to not do a "false top" on the cabinet so that we would have more space within the cabinet.  It couldn't have turned out better.  

The counter top was one of the hardest things for us to decide.  We decided to go with Corian.  Both of our parents have used Corian in their houses and we liked the look and color options and the lasting effects.  We decided to go with hazelnut.  I was very nervous (even though I looked at images on Google) because the sample was only a 2x2 square, no kidding.  I decided to go with a lighter counter top to accentuate the darkness in the floor.  Props to our counter top guy.  He did an amazing job fitting the counter top to our unique and difficult space.  You'll see what we are talking about in the final pictures.  

Lastly, the flooring.  We opted not to do tile here as well.  We wanted something that would be warm on our feet, but still look great.  Our local carpet and tile shop, Homestead Interiors, had a groutable vinyl that was perfect for our needs.  I think you'll be surprised at how much it LOOKS like tile, but is not!  Bonus for us!

Are you ready?!  Here it is!  Below are the final pictures and a video at the end.  We hope that you've enjoyed reading this post.  I promise, more to come.  Until next time :)

First floor bath

Happy fall!  It's my favorite season of the year.  Isn't it wonderful to walk outside in the evenings and smell the crisp, fall scent of leaves? :)  Mmmmmm....I just love it.  Here's a little look at how fall is showing its colors in our backyard.

Now, I know.  It's been awhile.  And for that, I sincerely apologize.  But, I have to say that it has made me feel pretty excited that some of you have asked me when my next post is coming!  That means people are actually reading! Woo hoo!  Although this is my favorite time of year, it is always a busy time of year too.  As most of you know, I am a Speech-Language Pathologist that works at a school for children with autism.  Since the school year just began, my days have been chalk full of IEPs, making new materials, meetings and all of that fun stuff.  I am currently in the midst of writing 5 IEPS (3 down as of today and 2 to go!), so life has felt crazy.  On top of my regular work, Kevin and I have been busy visiting friends and celebrating birthdays (Happy 30th Birthday to Dan Buckley!).  Oh!  And I forgot the most exciting thing that has happened in the past month.  My mom and I took a trip to California to visit my dear sister Angela, my brother-in-law Chris and our niece and nephews (the always spunky Des, Wes and Penny).

Wes, Penny and Des

Kevin, me, Ang and Chris at a wedding

We saw the Hollywood sign!

And even had a celebrity sighting!  Mario Lopez
and Maria Menunos shooting Extra!

But, back to the house!  Are you ready to see what we did with the first floor bath?  Although this bathroom is small, it took quite a bit of intricate work (all by Kevin, of course).  Personally, I was not involved with this project other than a few decorating details at the end.  This was a full on Kevin episode and he deserves ALL the credit.

Lets start by explaining what needed to be fixed.  The walls in our house are tongue and groove, there is no drywall.  So, when the previous owners built our home it was apparent that they decided to finish a lot of the inside structure themselves.  Also, we have beautiful log beams that run across the ceiling of our first floor.  With that being said, tongue and groove walls and the log ceiling beams can create a tricky puzzle.  When we moved in, the walls of the bathroom did not completely run up to the ceiling.  In fact, there was another piece of tongue and groove tacked on that went to the bottom of the log ceiling beams.  Basically, the bathroom was not very private.  Which in the case of a bathroom is a problem.

Kevin set out to make the bathroom usable.  He put his carpentry skills to the test and it turned out great.  Take a look below and see the beautiful work that Kevin did.

Before from the inside of the bathroom.  Look
up!

Before from the inside again.

After!  Isn't it great?  Ok, this may be one of those
things that only Kevin and I appreciate :) But, Kevin did an
amazing job.  Check out the beautiful rope detail!
All Kevin's idea!

Before

After

Before:  Notice, no light, paneling missing
on the right and a whole lot of nothing
at the top!

Before:  Now, this is where I come in!!!! I had been
searching high and low for something to store linens.
This space is small, so it was a difficult task.  But, thanks
to my wonderful Aunt Nancy I found it!  Amazingly, she
gave us this piece of furniture.  And to make it even better,
it actually belonged to my grandmother before. :)

After!  Kevin moved the light to the center of
the wall, we bought a light (obviously!), Kevin
added some beautiful trim and rope accents on the
left and we decided to add a little hook on the right
to hang your robe or towel.

Before

After:  Kevin added trim and the rope accents
on the far corner by the sink and I added
blinds and curtains (thanks to my mom for the
help!  I am admittedly, terrible with curtains.) :)

Last, but not least, the shower curtain and
the door.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture
of the original door, but it was an ugly "barn" like
door with a latch.  We ordered this door from
Mentor Lumber and Kevin stained it and hung it.

Now presenting, my first attempt at a video!!!!  Even though I just walked you through all the pictures, there is something fun about watching a video.  It's like really being on HGTV, but Log Blog style.  Pardon my voice, I'm just getting over a cold.

I think that's it!  We hope you like the bathroom transformation.  Stay tuned for our next installment! :)