It’s been a minute since I’ve shown a house update and we’ve gotten a LOT done! And by we, I mean Randy. Handy Randy has been definitely that, super handy. He’s gotten so much done over the last few months and thanks to that, the house is really coming together. Our first floor is almost completely done now with only a few rooms left to spare and some finishing touches. Like I said in my last renovation post, Randy prefers to get the floors and a full bathroom done before moving in. So while we did get our main ensuite bathroom set up, there were a few more details we wanted to get finished before showing it off. The other bathrooms came together shortly after that.
So first up, our master bathroom. Like you may have seen in my original house post and the update of the kitchen, the entire house desperate need of a facelift and the bathrooms were no exception. Small, old tiles all over the floors and across walls, crusty wallpaper that had to be steamed off and a tub and toilet that had to be replaced. And that’s just in one part of it.
The sink area vanity, sink and mirror all had to be ripped out as well. We knew it was it was a total gut job going in, well as the other bathrooms.
There was nothing really salvageable about it. So as settlement was made on the house, the renovation was started and demolition began.
Out came the tiles, the toilet, the tub and everything else with it. The sink and vanity area was ripped out as well.
It wasn’t easy though, Randy found that the tile was set in a three inch concrete mortar and metal mesh. The tub also had to freed out of 3 inches of concrete. Not an easy day but thankfully we did have some help from our good friend Pat.
While the main bathroom was ripped apart, the other upstairs full bathroom was demolished as well. Tiles, toilet, counter and sink all came out too. We figured get it all out while we had a dumpster out front.
The guys had fun smashing and pulling tile down with crowbars and such and I had fun cleaning it all up… not really.
Once the main bathroom was stripped down, I was set in to remove the wallpaper, which is my contribution to the renovation process. Down it came in both the front and main area of the bathrooms and then I moved on to the other full bathroom.
Once my wallpaper removal was completed, it was time for the new tub to go in. The guys made quick work of that. We chose a tub that was a little deeper this time around. Although I’m not a huge bath fan, I do occasionally with epsom salts after a massage or a tough workout. So we choose a bit more a soaking tub.
The tiled floor was replaced with a luxury vinyl flooring, an option that we chose for several parts of the house that doesn’t have the lovely hardwood finished floors. You’ll see that later!
Now came my favorite part, the tiles! We always have a tough time picking out tiles because we like so many of them. However, with both of us being fans of a more contemporary style, we wanted to do something a little more modern and trendy. I fell in love with the more geometric style that I had seen on Pinterest and was really interested to go down that road. Thankfully, I am very fortunate to have someone who is open to new ideas and trends. Randy went with a more elaborate tile on the last kitchen floor thanks to some photos I showed him of popular styles.
I was elated when we both landed on a teal option. Both of us are fans of a pop of color here and there in the house. So we thought this would really be a statement look in the house. After two hours of messing with patterns, we finally landed on a look we liked.
Randy spent an afternoon getting the tile set up and tacked in. Once that was set, the new shower head and faucets were set up and the glass door went up. It wasn’t long after that that the toilet was put in, a fresh coat of paint was put in and the barn door was installed. Needless to say, we are so happy with how it turned out.
We went with photos of all the places Randy has traveled to and mine as well. We felt the pop of color on the photos nicely offset the tiles.
In the sink area of the bathroom, we chose a vanity with enough storage for both of our personal items. Both of us agreed that white would brighten up the room against the grey walls and grey floors. I’m a big fan of modern sinks so we chose a more contemporary look for that. Now the faucet. I’m such a fan of these faucets. And shockingly, they were cheaper then your standard looking faucet.
Overall, we couldn’t be happier with how our master bathroom has turned out. The only thing that we have left is to put a home crafted barn door on the outside of the entire bathroom. Randy actually went and bought the wood yesterday for it!
Downstairs on our first floor, we had a small half bathroom that we had to deal with. Unfortunately, I never took photos of the before of this bathroom. But like most of the rest of the house, it was also covered in wallpaper. And it was not cute. The vanity was also ripped out, wallpaper was removed, and the toilet was yanked out.
The shocking move here was that instead of all paint, we opted to try our hand at some more modern wallpaper. We did that on one wall, switched things up with a navy blue vanity (navy blue is my favorite color!).
A new toilet was installed, the same flooring as upstairs was laid and paint was applied to the remaining 3 walls. A few finishing touches were set up and it was also good to go!
Now for that last full bathroom. It was put on hold for quite a few months. We didn’t have any guests staying over and with a full working bathroom as well as a half, we focused our attention on other parts of the house. As the fall came closer and a plan for some of my long distance girlfriends coming to visit, this bathroom was finally about to get it’s time.
I had removed the wallpaper in the room early in the summer so that was out of the way. We decided to try and salvage the tub, which is a periwinkle blue. After the struggle that Randy went through to get the other tub out, we figured, lets try to save it. In the future, the plan is to replace the shower tile with subway tiles and an accent tile. But for now, we wanted to get it up and functioning.
The vanity was replaced with the vanity that we had in Randy’s last house. We really liked this vanity and even thought about putting it in the master, but we decided to switch this up.
Again, we opted to go with a white vanity to offset the blue and grey features. The faucet was another really cool option that was similar to our others, but slightly different. We selected a wide mirror and lighting set up that were also quite modern.
Of course I had to go a blue route with the stylings to compliment the blue tub!
Overall, we are both thrilled with how they all came out. As I’ve said before, I’m very fortunate to have someone who is so talented with this kind of work and loves to do it. Together, we seem to come up with stylish looks that we both enjoy. While Randy does the handy work, I select fixtures, colors and stylings that I think will not only work for our style, but help with resale down the road. I hope to have some more renovation posts coming soon as we have more still to show off!
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