May 20, 2014

Our Master Bathroom Remodel

It's time to start another remodel here at The North End Loft! 

This time around we're having our master bathroom and bedroom redone. It's the first time in twenty years these rooms have been touched. Today, I'm sharing the bathroom. Are you ready for a 1990's hunter green and shiny brass blast from the past? Here are some before photos.
  
Green is my favorite color, so when hunter green was all the rage in the nineties, I used it liberally throughout my home. Even after it wasn't so popular anymore, I loved my bathroom for a long time. 


When I finally grew tired of the color, I was also starting to get too old for tired of climbing in and out of our tall claw foot tub. Claw foot tubs are fabulous for baths, but the wrap-around shower curtains don't create the most ideal showering experience. We were ready for a real shower stall, and knowing we'd be doing a complete overhaul soon, we just lived with everything as it was until we saved up enough to go all out. Who knew it would take so long? 


  

  
Can you tell I also loved marble? Now days, one sees real marble everywhere, but we couldn't afford to import the real thing as young parents starting out with our first home twenty-five years ago. So I picked faux marble vinyl for the floor and faux marble Formica for the counter the first time around. I thought it was really posh!






And let's not forget the once popular wallpaper border.



How's that for a trip back in time? 
 
We packed up everything from our bedroom and bathroom and are storing it in the front rooms of our house. Meanwhile, we kept out just what we need during the five or six weeks of construction and have moved into the rooms at the back of the house.


 Happily, our contractor is turning out to be the queen of dust containment, and she built a tunnel out of ten foot tall poles and huge sheets of plastic all the way from our front door through the living and dining rooms to the door of the master suite. 
 

  The bedroom door is on the other side of this plastic and is only accessible through the tunnel from the front door.

  
And this is looking through the long tunnel from the front door towards the kitchen. The bedroom door is just around the corner out of sight. I think this is the coolest thing ever!

Okay, are you ready for some really scary demo pictures? 

  
We're keeping the window, but replacing it with a new fiberglass one and surrounding it with tile. 


 There will be a knee wall next to the new vanity with frameless glass shower doors. 

  
This will be a new 48" wide linen cabinet with a smaller cabinet built in over the toilet, prized storage for an old house.

  
Under the vinyl and sub-floor is a thick layer of some kind of underlayment that can hopefully be sanded off. 

  
Because we're aiming for refinishing these original wood floors. To us, it's like finding gold under there!


This is where a shampoo niche is going in the shower. The old framing inside this 100 year-old wall has us all scratching our heads - not a 2" x 4" in sight, just a bunch of scrap wood nailed here and there! 

All this demo was accomplished in just one day, and now it's on to the fun part: making everything pretty.

  
This is the new floor plan.
  

This is my design board, and almost everything on it has been ordered. 

Inspiration Photos from My Blessed Life

This charming cottage bathroom belongs to Myra, who blogs at My Blessed Life.  I fell in love with every detail of Myra's darling eclectic bathroom and could easily picture it in our own home. We've been inspired by it to use subway tile for our shower, to refinish our wood floors, and even to duplicate our dining room wainscoting in our own bathroom. Thanks so much, Myra, for being our inspiration! 

We've been waiting for this new master bathroom for years and working on all of our plans for months, and we're so excited to be starting! Of course, I'll be sharing every step of the entire remodel with you, too. 

(And I promise no more scary photos.)

18 comments:

  1. How exciting, Laurel! The plans and your inspiration board look wonderful. Claw foot tubs are nice, but unless you do take baths a lot I think showers are more realistic. We don't have that dilemma here since our master bathroom has a WC that contains the toilet and shower. No room for a tub in the master even if I wanted one. The main/guest bathroom has a Jacuzzi tub and shower combo. We do use that tub as our aging muscles rebel and need a good soak every so often. : )

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  2. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!!

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  3. I just saw you featured on Brenda's blog today (Cozy Little House). Your home is so charming. I love older homes like yours. Love what you have planned for your bathroom remodel. I know it's going to look great!

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  4. We are souls sisters for sure! I used hunter green liberally in my home back in the day and I used to have farm animals in my bathroom too. I don't miss them a bit and neither will you. Your inspiration board looks amazing. I can hardly wait to see the reveal. And wow, that is quite the plastic jungle you have going there!

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  5. Very exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing the progress!

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  6. oh so awesome!!! I love your choices! Lucky for you that you stuck to the dark green - you might have had that lovely purple in there too :) Weren't the 90s awesome?!

    xox

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  7. Laurel, I am so so so excited for you! It's going to be GREAT!

    You have such a charm about you - loved the way you made me smile on this post.

    Be brave, the end will be worth the pain during the "gain!" Congrats. yay!!!!

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  8. As a fellow owner of a 100 year old home, in Kentucky, I can empathize with everything I saw here! We had a claw foot tub, and as pretty as they are, for us 'older' folks, they are difficult to manipulate! To say the least! We removed it and went with a large shower which we've never regretted. It will be fun following your progress, good luck! Vicki in Louisville KY

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  9. Yay for the 80's and saying good bye to its look! I'm so excited to see the progression...I love your materials. I want to take the tall tub out of our bathroom and replace it with a shower. Maybe you'll be our inspiration! :)
    Good luck with everything!

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  10. Very excited for you Laurel! This will be another major transformation and one I'm looking forward to seeing. If it turns out anything like your kitchen remodel did, and with the wonderful elements you have chosen, it will be just amazing! That tunnel idea is very cool! Wish I had your contractor years ago!

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  11. I love the look of a claw foot tub, but I have reached an age when I don't want to step into a tub. We have talked about removing the tub completely and having a larger shower.

    Your transformation will be wonderful.

    Nice write up on you at Cozy Little House.

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  12. Laurel, this is so exciting! Your design plan is beautiful and I cannot wait to see the finished room!
    Cheers! - Shelley

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  13. Oh wow! So very exciting!!! Can't wait to see it when it's done and I hope you can salvage those floors ... I know what you mean about feeling like you just discovered gold!! :)

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  14. Your on a roll with all the changes your making in your house Laurel! I was planning to do my master bath too, but of course, my pregnancy happened and everything is put on a quick hold! LOL! Love the design board, I'm sure it will be a dream. But I will miss that brass shower curtain holder you had there - that was a wonderful feature!

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  15. Laurel, How exciting! I love the bathroom style you have picked out. Wainscoting, hardwood floors, and subway tile sound perfect. I can't wait to see the end result! Thank you for stopping over and leaving a comment about my carrot sewing project. You're always too sweet. The garden is going pretty well so far. We have a lot of ants though. I read about pouring coffee grounds all around the ant hills to kill them and to pour baking soda around each plant as they won't cross over the line of baking soda. I did both this morning. We shall see how it works. Thanks again for all of your amazing advice!! ~ Jamie

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  16. Laurel this is so exciting and what a pretty board. I remember the 90's brass and the green. It was either that or blues and mauves. We went for the blue and mauve with the shiny brass. What was everyone thinking back then??? That was the design styles we had to choose from then and boy have things come a long way. I can't wait to see the changes, hopefully you have another bath to use.

    Cynthia

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  17. Ironically, I've been looking for this green marble vinyl all year. I need a tiny bit for a patch in my house (for my house it really works). Can you tell me the brand of it? It might help me locate some. I wish I could have bought it from you!

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  18. Yo sigo y me encanta todos los proyectos en su blog, pero este es de lejos mi favorito. No puedo esperar para ver el resulta final!! Te dejo aqui mi blog: http://goodvinilos.com/blog/

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