The Country House Bathroom

The original thought when we got the country house was that we would live with it for while and gradually make changes.  However, after the previous owner had moved all of her belongings out we could really get a clear sense of what we had gotten ourselves into. In other words, a dump.  Every single finish in the house is crap that was poorly installed and/or executed.  Oh and I don't think anything has been cleaned in years. Everything has a grime that just doesn't seem to wash off. So we quickly realized, nah, we're just going to jump head first into another renovation. I think since our house is taking sooooo long to be restored I've been itching to do something creative.  The kitchen and bathroom is our main focus at the moment but I'm just going to start by discussing the bathroom. Since we're all going to be sharing the bathroom we needed something with two sinks. We started working on the bathroom and have a plan of what we want it to look like. I'm thinking beadboard walls, subway tiles and a new bathtub, and a green double vanity cabinet. Step one was gutting it.  Good riddance to the color, the old fiberglass one piece shower/bath, and the mismatched cabinet...everything.  Blech.  We're in a small town with limited shopping options and we're trying not to blow the bank on this renovation so we're getting most things from Lowe's. 

The toilet is going away too but we just haven't removed it yet.  And now we've had the new tub installed with the tile and new bathtub/shower fixtures.

Bam! And just to remind you of what it looked like before...

The cabinet is on order and the beadboard is getting ready to be installed. There's still more to do but this is a great start.  

The Latest On The Renovations

 It's been a while since I blogged about our house but, honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about...until now.  It's only taken a year + but the roof is finally done.  I remember the roofer saying that it would take 8 weeks.  Yah right.  Eight weeks plus 1 year.  In fairness, we can subtract about a month though since there was that little complication of a TREE FALLING ON OUR HOUSE!.  Lord help me I'm not making this up.

It literally fell right on top of the only section that had new slate.  But this was last April so all is well now and I can look back on it and say WTF! Still not over it. But it is done now and since the house is sealed drywall and new flooring went in. Hallelujah! It's finally starting to look like a home again. We did take advantage of the situation and change some of the layout of the house to make it more functional. I'll show some examples.

   

I had updated the foyer and living area but I can't find a picture of it. Before there was an entrance into the living room on the right or you could go straight through that opening and hit a wall and have to make a right and then go straight down a very narrow, dark hallway. Now when you come in the door you can see all the way to the back, and we made the openings into the living and dining rooms larger. In order to have it open to the back we had to move our back stairs.

Here's a view from the back to the front and you can see where the new back stairs went.  

The Powder room is getting a bit larger as well. Other things that changed are the layout of the kitchen, location of the butlers pantry and we are eliminating the second bathroom on the first floor since it really didn't make sense. I'll address all of that later.

Some other happenings...we did have another "ghost" issue in the house.  One of the workers was on the third floor wearing headphones. He felt "someone" grab his shoulder and pull him around but there was no one there.  It really freaked him out apparently, as would be totally normal.  I definitely have heard things in the house in the past which I just chalked up to an old house settling...at least that's what I told myself.  I'm not about to have a Scooby Doo moment where I go investigating what causes the noises. Nope. I just pretend that everything is normal and carry on. There was one night when I was in our room with the lights out and I heard footsteps coming into my room.  Sometimes our daughter would come in at night and try to sleep on one of the chairs in our room.  I definitely saw movement and spoke to her to tell her to go back to her room.  There was no response and eventually I got up but she wasn't there. I asked her about it in the morning and she said she hadn't gone in our room. I'm not really a believer in ghosts but I'm confident that I don't want to be proven wrong.  So we decided after the worker's experience to go ahead and burn some sage in the house and say a few prayers.  Since then there hasn't been anything to report so hopefully whatever was going on is no longer going to be a issue. So that's that for now.  They are starting some of the tiling as I write this so I'll have some updates about that in a few days. The goal is to work top down so the third floor will get done first. I can hardly wait.

We Bought A Country House!

 In the middle of the pandemic when school was virtual and we were all here...all day... every day...four people in 550 sqft with one bathroom... I thought I was going to lose my mind. I had to dust off that teaching certificate I never earned and try to teach my youngest about things that I couldn't even remember learning.  I remember one particular day when she wasn't getting a concept. Her teacher told me to have her watch a YouTube video.  The video, in my mind, could not have been more clear. I was thinking, ok, she's got this. It's going to be a breeze now.  Nope. Poor thing, she was just not getting it and I had to go in my room 2ft away and cry out of frustration. It was a low moment.  There is just no room here for any sort of privacy for moments like this. And don't even get me started about the bathroom.  I started dreaming of just getting away from it all..like in another city.  I had a friend, growing up, who always spent Christmas at their vacation home in Lake Tahoe. It sounded so charming. The idea of being in the mountains, out in nature, with the possibility of snow sounded like something out of a Hallmark movie. Also, I'd really like to get my city kids to get outside more and off of electronics.  So I started googling different areas in my state and came across a small college town, population 7,000 with beautiful pastures and mountains.  The goal was to have some land and be far enough from the town that it felt remote, but close enough to town to still get a cup of coffee. We had looked at a property in another town that was so remote I felt assured that if something happened to us we would definitely perish. No thanks. It took a while to find something because, lo and behold, we weren't the only ones looking for an escape.  We found a property with 17 acres and a small house with a detached studio.  The house itself is about 900 sqft...2 bedrooms/1 bathroom and meh.  But we knew we could make it cute. The studio was an art studio. Just one big 600 sqft room with a bathroom. When we looked at the house it was STUFFED with furniture, knick knacks and art. Oh and high gloss paint on both the walls and ceilings! Why? Must have been a special running on that paint. Bizarre.  Here are some befores.

Bathroom:

Bedroom 1:

Bedroom 2:

Kitchen:

Living Room:

Are you seeing a pattern here? Stuffed? Dark AF? It was a cloudy day though and that paint color isn't doing it any favors. It isn't a super bright house though since it's in the middle of the woods on a north facing mountain. Not ideal but we really bought it for the views and property. I'm not even going to bother sharing pictures of the studio because we don't plan on renovating it any time soon. We're just going to  focus on the main part and try to get it into this decade.  I'll be posting updates soon.