Update

Well it's been awhile.We finished the bathroom and love it!!!! It took longer than expected but it also came out better than expected ,lol!!! This was a first on so many levels

These are the photos I had on my phone.I will take some more soon. This bathroom has been a game changer! We did not have a bathroom on the main floor and guests had to use the bathroom upstairs.We always stressed about having guests go upstairs especially if they were elderly.Now the only challenge is cleaning another bathroom. This bathroom was created from a closet and part of the dining room about 3 feet and part of the coat closet that was long and narrow.We still need to finish the hallway closet so that it is useable. Hopefully we can finish that before winter. Well it's good to write again ,I have missed this blog!!!

Bathroom update

We have slowly been working on the bathroom on weekends and days off. To say it's been a challenge is an understatement. Our house being almost 120 years old makes everything difficult. The floor is not level and we tried leveling it many times.We finally got it as close to level as we could and I finally tiled the floor.I wanted marble floor tiles but it wasn't in the budget. We found a porcelain tile that looked like honed marble and I fell in love with it.Hubby liked the look and the price too.So this week we layed down the tile.Hubby cut the tile and I laid it down.It was definitely not easy but we kept going and it was finally finished.The next day we decided to tile the shower.We originally bought a shower enclosure kit. I really didn't like the idea of the shower kit but now they sell one with glass doors and I finally gave in. The glass doors are really nice and look more expensive than we spent. My hubby talked to a contractor friend of ours and he told him we could use our glass door from the kit but add tile to the walls instead of using the plastic that it came with so that is what we did.We chose a classic white subway tile. The boys tiled about half of the shower Monday and Hubby and I finished the rest on Tuesday.Yesterday I grouted the floor and the niches in the shower.Today I'm going to grout the shower. Here are photos of the bathroom so far.

Main Floor Bathroom

We are finally building a bathroom on the main floor!!!! we actually started a few months ago but we have been so busy that I have not posted. We had been thinking about adding a powder room on the main level for guests since we have the main bathroom on the second floor.I really hated people having to go upstairs to use the bathroom and it was difficult for older people to climb the stairs. We figured out the space we would use for the bathroom.We would use two closets next to each other and a few feet from our dining room. The first closet we used was the entrance closet. It was a very long narrow closet and then there was a closet in the dining room ( which used to be an old bedroom originally).The dining room closet was also under our staircase. This powder room evolved into a full bathroom with the addition of a shower. Our upstairs bathroom only has a clawfoot bathtub so everyone wanted A shower. This addition of a shower complicated our design. It took longer to figure out positioning of everything but somehow once we knocked out walls and opened up the wall under the stairs we gained more head room and the space opened up magically!

Antique dresser

This antique dresser has always been a "bathroom dresser" . It is from my hubby's grandmother Beulah's house. It is almost twilight zonish how similar our houses are. They are located in two different states but are about the same age.Grandma sold her home around the time we bought ours.She always had this dresser in the main bathroom on the second floor,although we have had the dresser in different rooms thru out the years it is back in the bathroom!!!! I decided to stain the top of the dresser to help bring it back to its former beauty. I lightly sanded and painted two coats of a walnut stain and after it was dry used a satin sealer. I didn't touch the rest of the dresser but I cleaned it up with oil for wood .I really love how it turned out!!!! Here are photos after I stained it . A while ago I changed the hardware to glass pulls from hobby Lobby. I love how they look and I also made a little curtain.

This this the dresser that I added the venetian mirror on my last post. I really love how the bathroom looks!!!! I am linked to http://missmustardseed.com/2012/02/furniture-feature-friday-a-feature-a-link-party/

Bathroom update!!!!

We finally had time this weekend to connect the sink in the bathroom. It seems life gets busy around here!!!! I uploaded some photos to show my "new addition" to our main bathroom,my fireplace!!!!! This is a decorative fireplace that is a heater as well and I have to say it has kept our bathroom toasty warm!!!!!! I really love it. I have been looking at it since last year or so and finally I purchased it. Asking Trent to install an outlet for it opened a can of worms with electrical issues from previous owners. I am happy to say we now have safe, new wiring in our bathroom!!!!! Safety first!!!! Also the fireplace looks very cool with my mirrored sink since it is a mirrored fireplace. This bathroom still needs a few more finishing touches(new wall tile around bath tub, and tin ceiling ) but I love it so far!!!!

Bathroom photos

Can of worms!!!!

A week ago I bought a very cool(electric) wall fireplace to go in our main bathroom. It is soooo cold in there in winter so I bought this to add some heat and also it looks very cool!!!! I asked my husband to add an outlet for the fireplace to plug into. Trent being Trent wanted to add a two by four to the wall to make sure when we mounted the fireplace it would be secure!!!! We have bead board paneling in there ( installed by the previous owner) so hubby proceeds to remove a panel and was shocked at what he saw!!! There was old wiring taped together really badly.We have rewired the whole house but hadn't done the bathroom. So basically he ripped out most of the wall and we had to rewire the bathroom . It was a really stressful job(not to mention messy)This was a family affair .We had one of the boys in the attic with dad and we face timed( using the IPhone) when we needed to communicate . It was three days of work to get this complete, Today I am repainting the walls and cleaning up the mess so we can reinstall the sink. Now the only things left in that bathroom is to re-tile (I want subway tile on two small walls) and add the tin ceiling tile to cover the ugly popcorn ceiling!!!! The whole family joked with me that my little outlet project opened a can of worms.I had texted my hubby the day the fireplace was delivered ....FYI ,I bought a fireplace and it was delivered today!!!! So I also kept hearing jokingly.....FYI,I bought a fireplace today,LOL!!!!!

Bathroom update!!!!

We bought a gorgeous sink last April(  I have  been waiting a year  for it to be installed). We finally put it in the bathroom!!!! We are doing our bathroom in stages. Last year we installed the claw foot tub but thought we would redo the wall tile eventually and replace the floor. Now we might keep the tile and floor but add some were there isn't tile. After putting in the sink ,I really like the old school floor tiles . Anyway, we changed out our old sink . Well, I am in love with the sink!!!!! I also painted the bathroom  a dark teal color and it made the sink pop. I can't post photos until my hubby finishes working on my laptop. Hopefully this weekend!!!!

mini project

We have been moving stuff around the house as usual.We put this old cabinet in the bathroom for now to hold our towels and other items.I decided I would paint it a creamy white.The color is called paper white.I ran out of the paint and I will have to pick up more but for now I am calling this complete!!!! Here is the before and after.

Bathroom demo!!!!

Once again we are living in a construction zone!!!!! We had to rip out the old bathtub from our main bathroom.It had a crack that kept getting bigger and bigger!!!!No worries ,I hated the tub and have a clawfoot waitng to go in!!!!! This room is tied into our project from down stairs(it is directly above it).We are opening up the wall downstairs and will be moving pipes for this bathroom.At least the mess downstairs is hidden from anyones view at this point since we only demolished one side of the wall ( I can close the door and not see the mess!!!! Now the bathroom on the other hand is very visible!!!!! I will be cleaning up the mess today and the rest of the house for Thanksgiving. Here are a few photos.

Sidetracked!!!!

Well,Saturday we had a bathroom "emergency"!!!! The toilet overflowed one time to many!!!! This bathroom is on the second floor so you can imagine what we have to deal with!!!!! It also happened while a client was here!!! Luckily they had no clue while I was discreetly passing by with a bunch of towels.That was the last straw so we went out to Menards and bought a new toilet!!! I have never been so excited to purchase one before but this time I really was!!! As you know nothing is a simple project in an old house.We were slightly afraid we were opening a can of worms removing the old toilet.I had visions of a rotted out floor.Luckily the floor was intact.The worst part was removing the old wax .It looked like it had been there 100 yrs and then the last person just put the wax seal over the old one.Yuck!!!!! My hubby is a saint!!!! He was the one scraping that thing off!!!! We installed the new one and we are loving it!!!! Nothing beats peace of mind!!!!

Subway tile!!!!!

I have loved subway tile forever even before it became trendy!!!! We just put up some in the basement bathroom.On the wall in the very back of the tub.The kids get water everywhere when they take a bath.That is why I am Loving having the basement bathroom.I don't have to worry about water on the tin ceiling that is under the upstairs main bathroom!!!!! I don't know how we lived before our second bathroom .It was 4 very long years of kids pounding on the door when you were trying to take a relaxing bath!!!!! Next year we are adding a master bathroom!!!!! It won't be huge but it will have a claw foot tub w/ brass feet. Here are photos of the subway tile wall,we ran out of tile when we where almost done(of course!!!!) So I will have to buy more next week!!!!

Circuit Breaker update!!!!

This Monday we updated our electric box.Yeah!!! We hired an electrician who works for my brother in law. Our box was ancient to say the least!!!! We had old fuses that you had to buy and plug in. They are a pain you know where!!!! There were many times we had to run out and buy more fuses and couldn't find them at stores nearby!!! I am glad to see them gone!!!!! I have pictures but can not find my camera cord so as soon as I find it I will post pictures.Other updates are: Trent installed more outlets in the basement ,the bathroom walls are in (we just have to tape and mud and tile one half wall)I am working on painting a second coat on two walls in the bathroom that we have left the original brick/stone. That is what has been done this week !!!!! We usually start working on the house on Sundays,Mondays and Tues in between homeschooling the kids!!!!

A night without water

My Mother's Day gift from my husband was to start installing a much needed bathroom.Trent and his carpenter/and now plumber brother John installed the rough piping. It was really cool to see the progress.Our basement is starting to look like a normal livable space not a dungeon. Everything was coming along great until one of our old(really old) pipes broke.It would have been an easy fix if we had not run out of material to replace it. The next issue was that it was Sunday night and all the Menard's and Home Depots were closed.Because this pipe broke we had to leave the hot water closed and the cold water would not even get to the second floor
I was mortified !!!!! We could not flush the toilet unless we carried a bucket from the first floor. On top of that I had a client coming over at 9am the next day.After stressing for about 3 hours trying to find a 24 hr Home Depot.(there is one in Chicago) I finally canceled my appointment.The guys kept insisting they could get to Home depot at 6 am and have the pipe fixed in time for me to do my client.Thank God I canceled,they did put the pipe in but it was 12 in the afternoon before they finished and our house looked like a wreck!!!!! Thankfully this first step of our bathroom is complete.We now have to put in the floor.I found a cool white and black vintage looking tile. I am hoping John will come back and help with the installation.We have done a tile floor before but it has been a while.