Great Start to the Weekend!

Mike and I had a wonderful start to our long MLK day weekend!  We've been accomplishing little things around the house that make big differences in my opinion.

I finished the second coat of varnish on the front doors.  They are looking a little more shiny now!

View from outside.

View from inside.  They just need one more coat!

Our Amazon fixtures came this week, so we were excited to get some finishing touches put up in the bathrooms.  It’s the little things in life, you know… like finally having your toilet paper on a holder, or hanging your towel on a towel rack rather than over the door.  Necessary for living?  No.  Nice to have?  Absolutely!

The toilet paper now has a home :)

Door stoppers for all the bedrooms and bathrooms (magnetic).

I also finally brought myself around to putting the hardware on the vanities.  Again, it’s nice to be able to use the drawers!

I used my handiwork to drill the holes for these, and then Mike finished up!

As I type, Mike is currently installing a curved Moen shower rod.  He had to buy a specialty bit to drill into this particular tile.  Here’s a look at all three of our bathrooms.  We still need to purchase mirrors, but after that, they are pretty much complete.  Thought it would be neat to give you a taste of the before and after on the master bathroom... Enjoy :)

A little reminder of just how FAR we've come... old master.

New master bath (minus the vanity mirror).

Another shot to show off the fantastic tile
work by my hubby (Mike Wolfe) and Uncle Frank Tau'a!  Nice work
gentlemen.  Took the inaugural shower in there last night!  Very spacious.

Here's what the Master currently looks like.  Still have a
way to go with decor, but no rush.  I can save that for later.

Upstairs guest bath.  Went with the beach theme.

Another to show off the tile work ;)

And finally the downstairs bath.  Still needs trim, a mirror, and glass for the shower, but totally usable as a nice half bath for now.  Wasn't too in love with the color once it went up on the walls, but it's growing on me.

Downstairs guest bath.

Demo Master, Guest, and Downstairs Bath

I know I've only been posting house stuff lately, but it's kind of been all-consuming.  Friday, June 7th was my last day of school!  I have to go in Monday and Tuesday to clean out my classroom and re-organize for next year.  With juggling end of the year school stuff and final grades, it's been hard to properly document details of the renovation.

I'm really going to try to do better and stay up to date with our projects.  So, without further ado... here are the three bathrooms and the progress we've made so far.

Downstairs Bathroom:
This lav has a unique story.  The original blueprints say that this is supposed to be a half bath.  The previous owners made it a full bath, but didn't get it properly permitted.  Basically, it was a disaster.  They put REALLY nice fixtures and went all out with expensive hardware--jet tub, can lights, mood lighting, picture window overlooking the pool, and even an engraved family portrait in one of the tiles. I guess it was supposed to be their spa get away.  The only problem was that they did it all wrong.  There was no access panel on the tub or shut off valve in case of a leak.  The wall was built on top of the already existing wall among other things.  Our plan is to demo the entire thing and start from scratch.  We want to put in a shower and move everything around.  Of course, we had to test it out... so here are our first (and last) test subjects who were cold from being in the pool outside... 

Who wouldn't want a giant window right above them while they were naked in the spa? 

Master Bathroom:

The master bathroom has a lot of potential.  The space is a bit small, but we're going to turn the tub into a shower.  We're getting a new vanity, new toilet and leveling/concreting/tiling the shower.  When we first looked at the house, it was NASTY.  Mold and mildew had completely taken over this shower.  Now we have completely demoed the entire master bath and we've even cut the hole through the ceiling to move the drain.  

Guest Bathroom:

The guest bathroom is a fairly simple remodel.  We plan to take everything out, buy a new tub, toilet and vanity, tile the floor and tub surround, then paint and add bead board to the bottom half of wall.  We're trying to salvage anything worth salvaging (mirrors, fixtures, etc.), but there's not much to salvage.  Here are the before and during pics.  The "afters" will come much later ;)