Monday, October 31, 2011

The Carriage House Bathroom Reveal...At Long Last

I won't lie.  There are still a few touch-ups, but nothing that you can tell from the pictures.  It's just me being super anal about things that probably no one else would notice.  Maybe my mother did rub off on me.  Hmm.  Anyway, here it is (drum roll please)...




You might be thinking that it looks a tad stark.  It does.  Originally I was going to paint it BM Woodlawn Blue which is what I painted the main room.  But, different light equals different look, and in the bathroom that color looked like a pastel Eastery color.  It also made the Travertine look pink.  No bueno.  I couldn't decide on a color and we had to move in so I just went with good old white.  We were going to use the original cast iron tub but it had a crack so we bought a new one.  We added (new plumbing/electrical/plaster) bead board, new vanity, toilet, fixtures, light and voila.  I would have liked to have switched the vanity to sit on the wall across from the toilet but there wasn't a lot of room and it would have cost a lot more to move the plumbing around.  We bought the little white cabinet off of Craigslist.  It's a little cramped there but we needed storage so it's functional.  It still needs a pop of color other than the shower curtain.  I'm taking an oil painting class right now and am working on something that may (or may not) work.  Either way it's probably going up just so that I don't have to look at a blank white wall.  

Just in case you forgot what it looked like before...enjoy!



Sunday, October 23, 2011

Bad Blogger, Bad!

I know I haven't posted any updates of the house in a while but we've been so busy just trying to get the carriage house room up and ready for us to live in that there just hasn't been any time.  As it was, we were living with our neighbor for two weeks since we had to be out of our old house and the carriage house room took a wee bit longer to finish up than we were anticipating.  You know how things always take twice as long as you think they are going to?  Well for us it's ten times longer.  Go figure.  The delays started with the plasterer.  It took him 4 days instead of the 2 we thought it would take.  Apparantly it was quite humid and it wasn't drying as fast.  Then my husband and a friend put the tile in the bathroom.  Let's just say they were a little out of practice and it took a few days.  My husband also sanded the floor...kind of.  He really needed a belt sander but made due with what he had.  Needless to say it didn't turn out too good, but it's clean and sealed.  When we finish the house and I'm looking for something else to do (and I have some extra cash) I'm going to revisit this room and really fix it up.  For now we just need a clean place to stay.  We ended up putting down some really cheap carpet tiles that I found online.  Not completely stylish, but it looks a hell of a lot better than it did.  After two weeks at our neighbor's house I was ready to pull my hair out.  They're amazing people, but you never feel comfortable at someone else's house, you know?   So the carriage house is livable now.  We've got our Ikea daybed that folds out into a king bed, two nightstands that I bought at a consignment store that will eventually be painted and go in my daughter's room, an antique that my husband made into a tv cabinet (yes we have tv/cable/internet...heaven!), a mini fridge, a baker's rack that serves as our kitchen/pantry with a microwave, and a fold out table where we eat our meals.  The room is tiny, but I'm getting used to it.  We're still tweaking the bathroom a bit but once it's done I'll show some before and afters.  Keep in mind, this is not high style we're talking about, but when you see the before's you'll be amazed.  I know I was.

Anyway, now for house updates.  Here's some pictures of where we are now in the new kitchen.


Where the plywood remains is where the windows will eventually be.  


This is the left wall looking into the kitchen.  They haven't finished with the drywall yet so they haven't cut out the window openings.


Looking from the kitchen into the new family room chock full of our belongings.


Hallway leading away from the kitchen and family room.  First door on the right will be a full bathroom.  Second door is the butler's pantry.


New entry from dining room into kitchen.

So there has been some progress.  The electrical, plumbing, and insulation are done in the kitchen.  Drywall is almost done and then the kitchen, family room, hallway and butler's pantry get new wood floors.  Supposedly  the new floors are going in at the end of this month.  Supposedly.  I think the cabinets go up after that.  The cabinets and appliances have been sitting in the house for ages so it will be nice to have a little walking room:)