The week-and-a-half-bathroom remodel. Done.

We did it. The party is today and everything that was on our list was finished yesterday ... right on schedule. The painter left around noon, the shower door was installed at 1:00 and I came in after I finished another job around 7:00 PM and styled it. Whew!

The cabinet doors were still a little tacky so we left the doors and drawers a little bit open and the light was gone when I took the photos (9 PM - eesh) so they are not the best but you will get the general idea.  The new faucet will not arrive for a few more weeks ... but phase one of this bathroom update is done and everyone is happy.



At some point in the near future, we will replace the mirror with a larger one and move the light fixtures (they need to be centered and raised) and possibly add a ceiling light fixture. Further down the road, the cabinet doors and drawers will most likely be replaced with stain grade raised panels ... but for now, the faux staining is a huge improvement.

Here is a recap of what we did:

We replaced the old linoleum floor with a polished marble hexagon tile, put in new baseboards, faux stained the white painted cabinets and changed the door pulls to glass knobs.

We replaced the old shower door with a new smaller profile door with reeded glass (and also replaced the cabinet doors above the toilet with matching glass). We removed the towel bar - I did not like its position near the toilet - and replaced it with towel hooks:

We replaced the outdated light fixtures ... I chose a fixture that could be placed up or down so they could be used now and also in the future plan.

We removed the old recessed tissue holder, patched the wall and replaced with a new holder.

We also added new hooks over the vanity where the old hooks were (to cover the holes).

The new faucet is on order.

Asbury 8" widespread faucet | Restoration Hardware

The before photos:

And again ... the after:

What do you think?

The week-and-a-half-bathroom remodel. Part Three.

We are on countdown to the bathroom remodel deadline - there are only two more full days of work before the party on Thursday.

The painting is almost finished - the faux staining of the cabinets is coming out great. I can already tell that the dark cabinet is going to work much better with the green tile.

Many times (more often than not) I opt to paint cabinetry white. But in this case it was just too stark and since we have to keep the existing less-than-perfect tile countertops and sink I wanted them to blend rather than stand out. 

Can you picture the darker cabinet with the new floor?

The old cabinet door hinges were painted white, in horrible shape and had to be replaced. But finding a replacement hinge that fit the existing doors ended up not being an easy task. After trying a few hardware stores with no success it seemed hopeless ... and then I remembered this:

Universal Satin Oil-Rubbed Bronze Metallic Spray Paint

This paint is amazing - I have used it on everything from tired looking light fixtures to my wrought iron fencing (really!). The painters soaked the old hinges in acid to remove all the old paint and they will be sprayed oil rubbed bronze. They are not the greatest looking hinges and this way they will just disappear.  And the new knobs will shine.

Today the painting should be finished and by Wednesday all the fixtures (except the back-ordered faucet) will be put up and cross your fingers, the new shower door installed. 

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And then I will come in and style everything. I can hardly wait!

The week-and-a-half-bathroom remodel. Part Two.

The week-and-a-half-bathroom "remodel" is halfway done ...

The new floor is installed and it looks gorgeous. The crew I normally use was booked and could not come on such short notice, so I used a tile guy that was referred to me by another contractor. I was told he did a great job but needed much hand holding. Fine, I thought ... I can do that. It turned out he didn't need any hand holding really and I was thrilled with his work and his pleasant and so-willing-to-please attitude. Thank you Juan!

Laying the tile was the easy part (for me anyway) - getting the material took much more effort. We ordered a specific marble hexagon knowing we could get it delivered quickly and I added one extra day for insurance - when you have a week or so deadline every day counts. I scheduled the demo and on my way to pick up the material, I got a call that it had come in the wrong color - yellow. Yikes. Normally I prefer to have all the materials and fixtures on site BEFORE demo. The fast pace of this project made that impossible and the timing & scheduling is a lot more crucial. All turned out well, thanks to a very hardworking sales rep, and the delay turned out to be only a slight inconvenience for the client. The guys laying the tile were more than understanding and that helped my stress level tremendously. Again, "Thank you, Juan!"

BEFORE

AFTER

Today the painters started and because of the deadline they will work through the weekend. I am crossing my fingers that most of the fixtures will be delivered earlier than promised and anxious to see how the faux stain turns out ... and so far the glass cabinet doors and new shower doors are on schedule.  Whew!

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Happy weekend everyone!

August

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I'm working on a bathroom remodel this week ... one of those "Can we hurry and get this done in a week and a half?" jobs. It seems like I have a lot of those going on lately. Maybe because it's summer?  So far so good and I'm thinking we can pull it off. 

The bathroom is in a beautiful home where almost everything has been updated except for this bathroom. In a perfect world, it would require a complete overhaul. But instead we are going to make a few cosmetic changes to try to keep the costs down - which means the tile counter (and matching shower) has to stay. And the sink. But the floor had to go.

12x12 hexagon marble flooring

We ordered hexagon marble tiles for the floor and the installation started today. We also ordered new hardware - a new faucet, light fixtures, knobs, and hooks and a new shower door with reeded glass.

Traditional Green Glass Hook - Restoration Hardware

At some point, the client would love to re-face the cabinets but you know how that goes ... if you change the cabinet you should probably change the counters and if you change the counters you should re-do the shower ... and the project (and costs) just grow and grow. So we decided to paint the existing cabinets to look like a nice stained cabinet - an inexpensive fix that will help dramatically - like this example that Kristen Davis did:

Kristen F. Davis Designs

I'll keep you updated on our progress ... 

Happy August!