New views

We haven't been impacted too much from the work being done on the house. For the most part, all of the dust and dirt has been contained upstairs.

The one exception is in the bathroom downstairs. Since the plumbing is stacked, they replaced the pipe that connects from downstairs to upstairs. It required cutting a hole in the downstairs ceiling which enabled us to take these shots...

Me in the bathroom downstairs while Steve is in the bathroom upstairs (taken from both vantage points). I know we are 2 wild and crazy kids!!!

Other than a great deal of dirt and heat getting through which forced us to move all toiletries out of the bathroom - this wasn't a big deal...until today.

Today when I went to do laundry in the basement, I noticed water on the floor. Apparently there is some kind of blockage which now prevents us from using any water upstairs. The washer drains right there in the basement. Fortunately, my mom teaches close by and was able to get us access to the school bathroom and we will be staying at their house tonight.

Never missing a moment to joke about it. Steve proclaimed that our anniversary had really gone down the crapper. My reply, "Yes, it's a real pisser."

Laundry room/bathroom Part 2

Here is what the laundry room/bathroom looks like now. This is the nook for the toilet. Originally it was going to be on the wall to the left of the sink but it didn't work plumbing wise. I think it will be better to have one toilet that is not next to a window.
Steve and PT are standing where the bathtub will be (to the right of the toilet).

Below is the area above where the vanities will go. They have started marking where the sconces will be hung.

This is the innards of the plumbing for the sinks. Yep - that's right - double vanities!!!

Plumbing for the toilet and bathtub....

Here is more of the laundry room setup. The first shot is just with the framing. The second and third show the progression of the plumbing and electric .

This final shot shows where the old entrance to the attic was. It is being moved out into the hallway. This wall will be for the bathtub on the left and linen closet on the right.

Laundry room/bathroom in progress Part 1

Underneath the yellow linoleum was this lovely yellow and green linoleum. We decide not to save this...


In order to do the plumbing on this wall, they needed to frame it out because the plaster was too fragile.

This is the wall where the kitchen cabinet was. In the corner will be a toilet area. Where the orange tool is standing will be the bathtub shower. In the unseen corner will be a linen closet.

Kitchen ...soon to be bathroom/laundry room

I didn't take many pics of this room before.

Here is the kitchen sink, which we are hoping to reuse somehow in phase II when we remodel the downstairs kitchen.

This wall where the kitchen sink was is going to have the 2 sinks/vanities.

This corner (to the left of the window) had a stove, which is now in the garage. The thought is to rehab this also. Going forward this will be walled off to make the laundry room part.

The wall not shown has the kitchen cabinet, which I will show before/after in another post.

Justification

I think we have most of the bathroom stuff picked out, which I will post pictures of later. It now comes down to justifying the purchase of a double vanity for the kids bathroom.

After looking at HD, Menards and Lowe's - I stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for....at Pottery Barn....Teen. As if it wasn't bad enough to pick something that is from PB - now it is in the teen catalogue? They do have a similar item in the regular PB - its just the wrong color.

Here are some pics of the fabulousy over-priced item that I want more than anything and am struggling to justify....

Do you see all the cute storage spaces?

Of course I realized now - that if I get this I will surely have boys - who will have no appreciation for this at all...... I guess I will have to think about this one a little more.

more...?

I must go to the store tonight so I can stop scouring the internet for this stuff...

Tile and bathroom inspiration

I'm too lazy to take the time and document where I found these pictures. I am leaning towards the very last picture, which uses the hectagon tiles....

Shopping!

We had the contractor over this evening to do another walk through and talk more numbers. The goal is still to start things in early June. With that in mind we really should be doing more to box things up - the less we have out and in their way the better.

We also walked through all of the purchases that need to be made - which is clearly the more fun part. Here's what's on the list (side note: Steve wanted me to write all of this down when the contractor was here - just so we don't forget what we need to do.....I hear where he is coming from - but this is shopping....no chance of me forgetting what we need on this one!):

1. Double vanity, 2 sinks, 2 faucets and a large mirror for the new bathroom upstairs (existing ktichen) - we have started referring to this as the kids' bathroom
2. Single Vanity, sink, faucet and mirror for the master bath - I am starting to think pedestal - but we will see on that one. I figure if we do for pedestal I will have more options on side storage cabinets.
3. Two toilets!!
4. Corner shower for the master bath
5. Shower/Bath combo for kids bath
6. Tile for both bathrooms
7. A whole mess of light fixtures
8. A storage chest for the kids bathroom linens - hopefully we can refurbish something from a flea market or garage sale

So when all is said and done - we will have tripled the number of working bathrooms in the house. We have done pretty well with just the one small bathroom - but there have definitely been some difficult moments when it would have been nice to have more than one. We also opted to keep it a single sink in our bathroom. A double would probably fit - but since the bathroom ceiling is sloped - I figured I'd rather have the storage space than the extra sink. Besides - I can always regulate Steve to the full bath downstairs or take over the kids bath until they are of age to realize it.

I have collected a few pictures of things I like so far. I am sure this will change when I actually go see them in person.
ok - I give up. I am using Steve's laptop and it is very slow. I am going to go search for a few pics of my "dream" bathrooms - to get a few more ideas and call it a night...


One more thing. We also will need a new washer and dryer, but since we are keeping the ones we have in the basement - there is no rush on this purchase...here is the Maytage Neptune front loader washer. Teach and the doc just got new appliances - so I will have to get some recommendations from them on this one.


Did I mention that Steve checked in on me mid-post and asked if my OCD had kicked in yet? That was a good 30 mins ago, so I think the answer would be yes now.