E. Poff Consulting

House Renovations: Part II-B – Master Bathroom

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For whatever reason, the master bathroom renovation turned out to be one of my favorite rooms. I think it was the fact that we were able to easily and cost-effectively transform a 25 sqft space into something that worked for us.

Master Bath Before

This was the room that was the big deal breaker for me. I did not want to purchase this house for two reasons: the kitchen and the master bathroom. I wanted a bathtub and not a shower and I have a true aversion to paneling. Because my husband loved the yard, trees and location, I caved but with the understanding that I would get a house with which I could be happy. Of course, I had visions of an addition with a soaking tub, walk-in closet and vanity to die for, but I settled for a modest redo of the space we had since we really didn’t have the money for whiz-bang addition.

So, I started the project by keeping the paneling, but jazzing it up a bit by filling in the lines, priming it and coating it with a layer of Venetian Plaster to make it look like drywall without having to rip everything out. Of course, when we removed the cabinets, there was thick drywall there. This caused a bit of an issue, since we were going to have more wall exposed once we had the new cabinet installed. We decided to try to even the wall out, by removing the piece of drywall that was showing and replacing it with a piece of extra paneling we had from the kitchen. It wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to work.

Everything's Out!

We also removed the existing vanity and linoleum flooring. We temporarily removed the commode and placed it in the family room – lovely! The commode was fairly new, low flow and worked well, so we placed it back after the floors were completed.

We upgraded to marble flooring in this small space and I’m glad we did. I think it turned out very well and it didn’t cost much more than regular tile. I thought it would be much harder to cut, but it proved to work just fine with the tile saw as long as I moved the tile through very slowly. We were able to complete the floor in this room in about a half a day. Of course, we still had to grout it, but that proved to be fairly easy too.

Shower Grout

Luckily, this 60s ranch did not have pink, green or aqua tile in the bathrooms! We were blessed with a nice low-key white tile, but the grout (what there was of it) was in pretty sad shape. I decided to take on the task of re-grouting the shower. I will NEVER DO THIS AGAIN! It was a huge pain and took much longer than I had anticipated but the results speak for themselves, so I am glad I did it – once.
We finished the bathroom off with baseboards, a new special order vanity and medicine cabinet, updated plumbing and drainage for the sink, a new light fixture, and Ikea wall cabinets for extra storage. I threw in a basket hamper and a few plants and there you have it. I bathroom redo for well under $1000! I may not have gotten my soaking tub, but at least I don’t have to worry about finding money to eat!

Master Bath After

Keywords: bathroom, budget, diy, do it yourself, home improvement, renovations

House Renovations: Part II – Front Bathroom

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Front Bathroom Before

The front bathroom renovation didn’t involve any demolition, so it wasn’t as intense as some of the other projects.  The bathroom was one of the more pleasant rooms in the house to start.  We decided that we would not remove the yellowish tile that was in the shower and on half of the walls.  It was pretty neutral and we felt that removing the butterfly wallpaper and adding a complimentary color would help a lot.  We also decided that the peach sink and bathtub could be refinished to white and this would further help the color coordination of the room.

This room involved a ton of painting!  We started with the cabinets.  To lighten up the room, we sanded down the dark brown cabinets, primed and painted them white.  We removed the original hardware and later replaced them with new oil-rubbed bronze accents.

Originally, we had planned to remove the sink and cabinets, but the day we were going to rip them out, we realized that we would also be removing some of the wall tiles, and we knew that there was no way that we would ever be able to match those up, so we decided to keep it and paint the cabinets.So, after we painted all of the cabinets white, we took down the fluorescent boxed lights and replaced them with something a little more soothing.   The lights were the biggest pain in the room.

Painting the Cabinets

The original lights had no electrical box (fluorescents usually don’t) and were not centered where we needed the new light fixture to be.  And of course, there was a stud in the way.  Add to that, the bathroom is way at the front of the house and there is no crawl room in the attic over that area, so it was very difficult to get the wiring right.  What started as a project that should have taken a couple of hours, it took us almost a week to do!  (Sigh!)

The only thing that went right was ripping off the old wallpaper.  I had planned to paint over it after a serious ordeal with wallpaper at the old house.  I noticed a few spots where the wallpaper was coming off, so I decided to rip those parts off so it would be smooth to paint over.  To my surprise, the wallpaper ripped right off.  I was able to remove the wall paper with no tools or goop to loosen the glue in about thirty minutes!  Woohoo!  The yellowed butterflies were gone without the fuss.  After priming the walls, I decided to use Venetian Plaster to cover the walls.  I had never used the stuff before, but figured that I’d give it a try.

Venetian Plaster

This is not a faux finish but rather a thick plaster-like substance you goop on your walls with a spreader.  It was actually easier than I thought it would be.  It took a lot of time to apply but it’s really fun and a bit artistic!  I think it turned out well and I like how it complimented the tile.  It’s hard to see in the pictures, but the tile had little specs of the same color throughout.

To finish off, I removed the swan shower door.  It was okay, but I’m not a fan of swans or shower doors.  When I removed it, I left it outside for our annual bulk item pickup and I felt so awful when our neighbor said he had the same shower door and that he loved it –oops!

Bathtub Refinished

I tried to refinish the tub and sink myself.  This was a big no-no!  Besides making me high as a kite, the kits they sell out the home improvement stores just aren’t up to the job.  After a failed attempt, I called in a pro – The TubMan, and in a day and a half he had the tub and sink looking like new.

It didn’t cost very much, so I should have just had a pro out from the start.  You live and learn.

Keywords: bathroom, diy, home improvement, renovations, shower

House Renovations: Part I

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Okay I’m switching gears here and I am finally going to post some pictures of our house renovations.  We bought our house almost two years ago, and I am just now getting around to posting the work we did (and are still doing).  So I’ll concentrate on a room per blog post.  Today I’m going to start with the living room/dining room.

When we first saw the house, we thought the living area looked a bit like a funeral parlor.  I’m not really sure if that’s an accurate description but it smelled a little musty and was empty except for one small table at the end.  The previous owner had given away most of his living furniture.  This was no big deal. The big deal about this room was the paint!

AQUA PAINT - Lovely

My goodness there was aqua marine paint everywhere.  Pictures cannot ever do this paint color justice.  Once we moved in and removed the carpet and drapes, I felt like I was living in a pool.

Okay so the first thing we did after pulling down all of the 70s drapes, was to pull up the 70s carpet and start painting that puppy!  Boy oh boy is it difficult to cover 25+ year old paint.  We primed and the next day I swear the color was more intense and aqua than it had been before we primed.  It was like we were splattering the walls with milk –skim milk.  After trying to prime, we decided to texture the walls so they would be a little easier to paint.  Even after the primer and joint compound cover, it still took two coats of paint and a third layer of “touch up”!  I should have chosen a darker color but the house was so dark, I really wanted to lighten it up.

Painting the Ceiling

Okay, so once the painting was done, we patched the floors where the carpet tacks had ripped out the cement.  Then it was laminate time!  We laid down the moisture barrier and bought Pergo with the cushion attached.  My hubby Ken and I aren’t very good at making quick decisions.  This has been a long and sometimes painful process having to make so many decisions.  The first thing we decided on was the floor.  It went on sale at Lowes and as soon as I decided I wanted it, when my husband, Ken, went to go get it, someone else decided it was nice too and took all of the boxes.  I think we visited four or five Lowes with the “other person” grabbing all of the boxes of flooring just minutes before we arrived.  Finally, we found one store with enough boxes but they weren’t on sale.  Ken used his charm and bargaining power and got the manager to give us a lower price and we bought all of the remaining boxes.

Installing the flooring was interesting!

Installing the Floor

My husband and I were under the impression that a five year old could install this stuff.  It was a real pain getting started.  The first few pieces did NOT want to go together and we bent a few grooves and had to toss some of the boards.   After a day of pure frustration and only getting two rows done, we finally figured out what we were doing.  By the next day we finished most of the room, except for the entry and a closet.  We even brought our then five year old in to tap in a few pieces.  So yeah, once you figure out what the heck you are doing, a five year old CAN do it!

We thought we’d have more time to renovate before moving in, but we sold our other house quickly (which was a good thing) and had to move into the house way before it was done.  So we moved in and placed most of the furniture into the middle of the rooms so we could finish the baseboards.  So we worked on the baseboards which came out very nicely.  Special thanks go out to my brother-in-law Tim who let us borrow his miter saw.  That saw rocks!  If you ever need to install baseboards, don’t attempt to do it without a good miter saw.  We were worried that the baseboards were going to be a real problem.  The first couple of cuts took us several hours to get right, but once we realized that 1/16^th of an inch makes a huge difference, we found our groove, worked well together, and got them done fairly quickly.  I have to say doing the baseboards was probably one of my favorite parts of the renovation.  They really make the house look “finished”.

New Chandelier

And for this room, one of the last things we did was get a new chandelier.   The original was interesting and I actually liked it.  My sister liked it too, because she took it!  I think that chandelier would work better in a house with taller ceilings and I tend to like more contemporary things.  Anyway, I like the new light and it was reasonably inexpensive.

So that’s the living/dining area!  That took us about two months to complete.  Of course, we were working on other things at the time and small things like new drapes and the light came much later.

Let me know what you think.

Living Room with Baseboards and Furniture

Keywords: do it yourself, home improvement, house, renovations