A 50s Bathroom No More

Not exactly our style.  Might as well gut it to the studs. 

The closet behind the entry door makes this bathroom feel so much smaller than its footprint.  But the air intake for the central air pulls from the hall, in to the closet, and down to the crawl space.  I guess we'll have to work around this design.

Gutted to the studs, all water lines will need to be moved from the floor to the wall.

Just an FYI to those DIYers out there, if you remodel a bathroom from the 50s, there is no sheet rock behind that tile.  Instead, you'll get tar paper across the studs, chicken wire staples to the studs, and at least 1" of mortar for the tile.  Needless to say, it WILL be heavy.  Of this demo, moving the cast tub alone was easier than the tile walls... no comparison.

Sheetrock up, it's starting to look like a bathroom.

Kerdi membrane down, this shower will NOT be taking on water.

And more Ikea to finish the project on a budget.

One last FYI for the tile DIY, don't grout the entire project at the same time, you can't clean it off faster than it'll dry.  But if if does, a razor blade and taped fingers will get the job done.

Kitchen Work

 

 

Taken during our final walk through, prior to signing, there was a vision to making this a functional kitchen.

 



 

First up, we're going to need to re-org the washer/dryer location and add some storage.

 

 

Not many pictures taken during this demo, but Mark and Linda were a great help both inside and out.  A few measurements, a trip to Ikea, and some relaxing work in the crawl space moving water lines and the dryer exhaust were just a few tasks required to get this project completed.

 

HOLY CRAP, WE'RE AT IT AGAIN!?!?

Well, somebody fell asleep at the wheel, and we now own another home.  Let the 'Adventures in Atlanta' begin! 



 A little different view out the window at the new place.

Carport to Den to Master Bedroom

 Our new home in June 2013 had a converted carport to den with a utility closet and concrete flooring.  If this was to be our master bedroom, there was some work in our future.

The enclosed utility closet, accessed from the right half of the entry coat closet needed to be opened.

 

 

 

Once opened, it was time to gut and rewire.  The drop ceiling would not return.  Below, you can see the built in shelving on the back wall.  A nice feature, but it too has to go.

 

Demolition is was great, but the trash added up.  Two trips to the dump, and some 3,000 plus pounds. 

New hardwood floor down and the back wall patched, it's starting to look like a master bedroom.

Sheetrock sanded and ready for paint, this walk-in closet is better than expected.

Painted and cleaned, we now have a place to sleep.

Things I haven't killed yet

To our surprise, many of the plants in our garden are still hanging on! We have planted new ones too so here are some updated photos:




new creeping fig- hopefully will one day cover most of the back wall of the patio

Take a look at that! I will eat these tomatoes even though I've been told by K that they will be mealy and terrible. Why is he incapable of lying to further my excitement even though I may be slightly disappointed at the outcome?? Looks like I'm going to have to handle the whole Santa myth with any eventual children....probably a topic for another posting.
Anyways, we have tomatoes!

Growing succulents, I love these and the colors that they turn are so amazing, these have all done pretty well so far




Some basil and rosemary that I have actually used in cooking (Basil on pizza and Caprice salad -rosemary with potatoes)

This is daisy tree that my mom bought us, it is going crazy in a spot out by the garage

that's it for now!

More Lights!

So we decided to continue on with our lighting projects around the house since the dining room turned out so well, the next spot was the kitchen. The decision to rip out the old lighting was expedited by a trip to Ralphs where I saw the exact same set up over the deli counter.....see below for the old version

This set up has a pair of flourescent lights (kind of like the ones you see in office buildings) installed in an alcove and covered by a lovely sheet of plastic with faux wood paneling....quite breathtaking, but that wasn't the best part. Every time we turned this "light box" on to use the kitchen we heard a buzzing sound K said "reminded him of the presence of angels". It reminded me of what it might feel like to be a cafeteria worker, but we don't always have to see things eye to eye I suppose.

We didn't take any photos of the demo on this one, perhaps it was because we got wrapped up in tearing things down so quickly, but all we had to do was rip off the wood, take down the plastic sheet and de-install the fluorescent tubing. The alcove was finished so K patched up the holes we weren't going to use for our new fixtures and we just added the paint (leftover from a sample that I had tested out for the living room and decided not to use) and a strip of molding to cover up the edges. Check it out below

A vast improvement I think, and this one was a renovation on the cheap as well, both fixtures came from Ikea and were under $100 total, the molding was simple (under 20$ I think) and the paint was $3 because it was just a leftover sample.

let there be light

It has been a while since the last posting, but this is not as a result of a lack of projects around here so please enjoy project #1: lighting

As you can see above, this was our latest set up in the dining room. The table came with us from the apartment as did the chairs, and the lamp was a new addition right when we moved in (replacing a really ugly gaudy chandelier that was left here by the previous owner).

PHASE ONE: DEMO

Around here, we get really amped up to cut new holes in our ceiling.....at this point in the project, my role is to sit off to the side with a glass of wine and watch the magic happen. We took down the old light and then cut 2 holes on either side to accommodate 3 new lanterns that I had bought.

As you can see, new holes and now working on getting the wiring straightened out......

lights installed, now to see if all of the wiring and our newly installed dimmer switch was going to work....

Works great and makes a huge difference in the look of our dining room (all for under $150) You can also see the new table that we bought at Crate and Barrel with all of the wedding gift cards (thanks!)

more lighting projects on our next post, soon to come!