Renovation Recap

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." ~ Albert Einstein

I am a glass half full kind of person, but even I can admit this past year was

 ...H.A.R.D...

With my husband being deployed for most of the year in 2014 I sort of fell off the grid.

But not because I was sulking under the covers (as previous deployments before kids!)

No, I have 2 boys to be strong for and well ~ a year is a long time to be down and out.

So I immersed myself into my projects. Besides the projects for my client's, I kept busy with kids sports, summer camps, traveling, school, lots of friends and family. But one thing that held a lot of my attention was the renovations at my house.

I renovated 2 bathrooms. And while I would never recommend that to most people, I had a reason for the madness. While I had my carpenter/contractor working on my master bath, I did our middle bathroom. My husband was aware that we were doing the master bathroom renovation. But the other one was a surprise!!  Let me show you how they turned out.

Humble beginnings.  

Our home has only had one owner before us ~ my husband's grandfather. We renovated everything but two of the bathrooms before we moved in. The bathrooms remained in the 1960's. Here are the before pics:

Middle Bathroom (accompanied by lots of summer time towels!)

These doors had to go!

Now to take out every... single... tile....

...which is gradually~ when you have kids....

I basically beat the tar out of the whole room during the hot month of July.

This is my master bathroom. I also did the demo in here too.

Any place I could save money allowed me to spend it in the other bathroom.

~ the secret reno!

My mom is an adventurer and she helped me kill most of the tiles. You can see her in the mirror! So funny!

Back when this tile was laid, there was just poured cement, not a backer board. So all of it had to be hammered out!

whew! I was exhausted.

Then it was a trip to the hazordous waste dump for things like toilets and tile, old vanities. I had to wear a vest and go to the top of a smelly mountain and dump the heavy heavy tiles, etc. 

We knew there were places where the subfloor was rotted. (In both bathrooms) So once we were down to subfloor and studs, my contractor could cut out and replace those parts.

The bathrooms actually back up to each other. So these are shots from one bathroom to the next. It was so tempting to just make one big bathroom, but thought better of sharing a bathroom with my kids.

This is my carpenter/contractor, Joel cutting out and replacing subfloor.

Once the tile was gone (middle bathroom pictured) then new concrete backer board was applied to floors and walls.

We have a store in Nashville called Southeastern Salvage. I used all travertine in both bathrooms with some marble accents. The key was having the amounts I needed to purchase as this type of place does not stock anything. You get what you need for that project.

This vanity was from clearance warehouse in Franklin, TN. called Head Springs Depot. The top was broken so it was half off. But that was fine with me since I was going to my granite yard and buying a remnant.

For the master bathroom I chose a honed travertine for the floor. I matched them with a smaller subway tile (not smoothed or honed) and a 1x1 marble accent in the cubby.

In the middle bathroom I kept the cast iron tub, but lost the birds!

Backer board down and ready to go!

I laid my floor (for the middle bath) on a diamond pattern.

After that I started the slow and process of tiling the tub surround.

I fell in love with this purple toned accent tile for the middle bath cubby.

Tile work is very time consuming. Like I said... it kept me busy.

Meanwhile, Joel was tiling the master shower.

I chose a dark grout for everything. Grout is very porous and needs to be sealed every couple years. But dark grout has a much cleaner appearance.

 My carpenter installed wood paneling in both bathrooms instead of retiling the walls. This is plywood picture framed out and then painted.

Then I painted for about two months. 

Since this is a really LONG post, I will show you the results of our master bathroom first.

By the light switches you will see an additional panel. I had a floor warming system put under the tile to keep our feet warm. This was another touch my husband didn't know about, but loves!

The glass doors really open up this small room.

When you are doing small spaces you can find high grade granite remnants for a fraction of the cost.

The faucet also came from Upsprings Depot in Franklin, TN.

The mini blinds will be the next to go once I find fabric for a roman shade.

 The subfloor was rotted when we moved in 3 years ago, so this is the first time we have been able to use the shower! What a huge difference this makes. Creating this room was just one way to show my husband how much he means to me and his sacrifices he makes for our family and country. Glad I could honor him in making his home welcoming. 

 Let me know what you think.

I will post my other bathroom reveal soon!

Click on the picture below to see the other bathroom reveal