Bathroom Update at Gordon House

Bathroom Updates

We haven't done much in the way of working on the house since this time last year. Guess that project was so big we needed some time off!  As tall people, we were both pretty frustrated with the super low vanities in this house and how outdated the bathrooms were. I've spent hours cruising Craigslist looking for replacement vanities and things we might need. It was time to start on the bathrooms and stop putting it off. Cold winter days seem optimal for getting these projects done. So here's where we are today.

Note: It is incredibly hard to get good pictures in bathrooms - let alone smaller ones!

Upstairs hallway bath:

This is what it looks like now!

This is what it looked like when we moved in.
I should have gotten a close up of the wallpaper, which was a huge pain to remove.
Also note the yellow counter.
What you can't see is just how low the counter is - mid-thigh height on us.

To get by before we could 'attack' this bathroom, I painted the vanity gray, painted the walls gray, replaced the blue fabric in the cupboard doors and tried white chalk paint over the yellow counter.
It all worked fine, but the super low vanity was a pain.

Here's what the floors look like now - marble!
You can see that we took the marble half way up the wall.

Here's the floor before. I'm not even sure what this flooring material is. It's in squares like tile, but clicks together and is some kind of board material. It's in all the bathrooms and laundry room.

Here's the builder grade mirror that is original. We wanted to keep a large mirror in here because it really helps make the room feel bright, and bigger - so Jim framed it out with some trim. We kept the original hanging pendant lights - I like them! I still need to spray paint the chain and fixtures on the lights, but will have to wait until it's warm enough outside to do some spray painting. What you can't see in the picture is that the marble goes all the way to the ceiling behind the mirror.

Here's the builder grade mirror as it was when we started.

I never could find a vanity that fit this space on Craigslist and buying a new vanity was not in the budget. So Jim framed in this space and we are going with the more modern look.
This is much higher than the old vanity and works so much better for us!

The vanity from before when the yellow counter was painted over with white chalk paint.

The little chair is so that Hadley can reach the sink!

New farm sink and faucet.

The new counter top - marble.

The original sink - yellow counter top painted over with chalk paint (chalk paint works for everything and did hold up to water!)

How the bathroom looks now.

This is how it started.

Next up...

The very small bathroom off the family room:

Before
Vanity very low - as they all are in the house.
We replaced this toilet when we first moved in for a low water flush one.
In this photo I had already removed the wallpaper.

Here's a scrap of wallpaper from this bathroom.

Here's what it looks like now.

This is the corner shower in this room - we didn't make any changes to it.
The tile in this shower is decent, but in order to replace the door we would have to tear the tile out - and that's not going to happen. Hmmm. What to do?

Yep - make an extra long shower curtain to hang over the front of it!

I thought this was a cool idea for a rod. It's probably my favorite feature in this room.

And it works perfect!

I wanted to make the shower curtain from blue ticking - but couldn't find it anywhere. I had a bit of it already, but only enough for an accent. So, made the shower curtain with drop cloth material - (I seem to use it for everything!) and some white sheet scraps. Cost of shower curtain= free!

Saw this idea on Pinterest and it worked great.

A rough board, before a slight sanding and stain. I wanted to retain the rough look.

After staining.

And here's what it looks like now.

So pulling out the vanity and the tile glued on the wall meant we had some major wall repair on our hands. Looks at all that glue, and chunks of drywall came out with it. 

Here's what it looks like now. We got the vanity , sink and fixtures (all came together) off of Craigslist. I'm starting to think we should call this the Craigslist house.

Demo begins

The floor underneath the vanity - circa 1970's. On top of it is that same flooring material as the upstairs bathroom.

So to solve the bad wall problem and try to give the room some texture and interest, we opted to put up fake shiplap. We went back and forth with using cedar fence boards (which was going to mean lots and lots of sanding) and ended up using plywood. Which thankfully, Home Depot ripped those super large boards into 6 inch boards. The nail gun was a life saver!

I was really liking it in the natural wood state!

As much as I like the natural wood look, my vision had white walls, so once the walls were up, I painted them white. Took three coats - and using a paint with primer added. The wood really soaked up the paint.

For a tiny bathroom, it has a great feel. Last thing on the list to check off for this space, is to take the old floor up and put down tile. That's going to mean pulling the toiler and vanity out - again!
We need it to warm up to do the tiling project.

Next up - the master bathroom.
It needs a new vanity, counter and sink...and oh yeah, that same weird floor will need to be replaced and then we can check bathrooms off the remodel list!