Master Bathroom - tile complete!

You might remember this post where I went through the whole process of tile selection for the master bathroom. It was quite a long description of how we ended up picking what we did.  We ended up going with karina wavy travertine tile - large tiles on the floor, small tiles around the bathtub, and subway tiles in our shower.  

Karina wavy is supposed to look like this:

So imagine my surprise when I walked in Monday morning and the floor looked like this:

Maybe some of you can't see the difference, or don't see what the big deal was.  But look at the subway tiles on the bottom of those pictures compared to the tile on the floor.  What was on the floor was a LOT darker than what I thought should be on the floor.  And a lot darker than what was going in the shower and around the tub.  

Unfortunately, this tile fit my biggest fear of travertine.  I didn't want brown, earthy travertine.  I wanted ivory colored travertine - light and breezy.  Not dark.  And I wanted all the tile in our bathroom to match and not look different.  So I called up Ann and Arthur, let them know my concerns, and we met there the next morning before the tile guy continued.  They agreed that the tile was darker than the rest of the Karina Wavy tile.  So they went back to Floor & Decor and saw that the tile was, in fact, Karina Wavy.  It just happened that the majority of the larger tiles came in a dark color.  

I've tried really hard not to be high maintenance throughout the project.  Things don't always go your way - I get that.  But I've also learned that, since we're doing this thing from ground up, changing things at this point is a lot cheaper and easier than changing them later on if you really don't like them.  It's not necessarily worth it to just live with a floor you don't want.  Luckily our master bath floor isn't that much space or in any intricate pattern - so having the tile guys remove the floor tile didn't cost us too much in lost tile, or too much in extra labor time.  So that's what happened.  They removed all the dark tiles on the floor (saving the few that were lighter) while Ann and Arthur picked through all the large Karina Wavy tiles at Floor & Decor and grabbed all the lightest tiles.  (Major thanks to them - they also went through all the downstairs bathroom travertine tiles to get rid of the uglier tiles).  

So that's the story of the master bathroom tile stress.  The rest of it went off without a hitch.  The one special request I made with the tile layout was to put the subway tiles in the shower in a herringbone pattern.  I thought it would add a little more interest and look great.  I think I was right - here's the final shower:

And the rest of the bathroom:

(View from the shower)

Doesn't that floor tile look much better?

All the bathrooms are fully tiled now.  All that's left to finish them up is to bring in the vanities, toilets, lights, and fixtures.  

The kitchen cabinets are almost done - they should be finished up today (a little bit of drama went along with them as well - which is why they are taking more than a week to be completed).  They started priming the inside of the house today and should finish up painting next week.  And the carpenter has finished up his other projects (TV stand and fireplace mantle).  I would have updated the blog about those two today, but I couldn't get good pictures yesterday since everything was covered in plastic due to the priming.  I'll post them as soon as I can!

It's getting very close to completion......

I'm a nerd...

Bookcases really excite me.  I've always dreamed of having a library one day, but since this house isn't quite big enough for that, just one wall of bookcases will have to do.

The carpenter installed the bookcases today and I couldn't be happier with them.  I can't wait to fill them up and have a whole wall full of books.  These definitely beat the Ikea bookcases we currently use (and that are currently overflowing).  I don't think we'll run out of room for books any time soon!  And also, in case you doubt the number of books we already have, I don't think they'll look bare at all once we get all our books in there.  Clearly they won't be jam-packed, but that will be nice for once.  We'll be able to put some other decorative items around (and if anyone has any really cool bookends, you can give them to me!) and will have some extra room (for future books.....)

Here's what they look like now.  To put it in perspective, they are up against the pantry wall, in the back of the living room.  We'll put our sofa a few feet in front of them.  That window to the right is the window that looks out on the street.  (And you can see a little bit of the kitchen cabinets to the left there - more on them later).  Also, the painters will paint them the same white all of the trim is being painted.

LOVE!  Thank you, Kyle, for indulging my obsession with all things book-related.

Tile work almost done...

The tile is finished in the guest bathrooms!  They completed them towards the end of last week, and are currently working on the master bathroom (it's pretty close to being finished as well).

Upstairs Guest Bath:

Downstairs Guest Bath:

I have a few more posts coming soon... not feeling like typing out a lot right now - test is on Thursday so I'm feeling pretty drained - but perhaps I'll have some energy for a longer post later this week.  We had some issues come up last week regarding the master bath tile and the kitchen cabinets that caused me some stress (on top of the stress that is the week before an exam... it was not a pretty sight).  Should all be worked out now, and I'll hopefully give the rundown later. 

Happenings at the new house

A few pictures to show what's been going on....

The new stairwell has been built

Kitchen cabinets are delivered (and will hopefully get installed this week!)

Tile in the laundry room was installed

Duroc was put around the tub in the master bathroom

More trim work done

Garage door was installed

Bathroom renovation progress

We are almost done with turning our one bathroom into two.  Just a few finishing touches left, but it's ready for people to come look!

Tuesday:  Drywall was put up.

Guest Bath:

Master Bathroom:

Wednesday: Tile work began

Guest Bathroom:

Thursday: Tile work completed

Guest Bathroom:

Master Bathroom: They had to do some tile patchwork where the toilet had originally been.  You could never tell it's been patched!

Friday: Plumbing was finished (Shower fixtures, sinks installed, and new toilet installed)

Guest Bath:

Master Bath:

Saturday: Painting

Guest Bathroom:

Master Bath:

And that's where we are now.  I think they both look great!  The last few finishing touches include trim work around the ceiling, baseboards in the guest bathroom, hanging the mirrors, and adding a shower door to the new shower.

Becoming even more like a home!

Here are a few more in-progress pictures from today.  They are currently installing the crown molding, baseboards, window and door frames, and doors.  Not quite done yet but here is an idea of what it will look like...

That last shot is a picture of the stairwell right now - the stairs are all taken out! 

Bathroom Renovation

I posted a picture earlier of our current bathroom, torn apart.  Why did we do this?

Basically, because it appears no one wants to buy a house with only one bathroom.  We've had several people come look at our house and they have all said they really like the house but they really want two bathrooms.  After talking to Ann about the different options, we decided it would be best to go ahead and turn our bathroom into two bathrooms.  The whole project is only taking a week to finish, so we don't even have to take it off the market.  (We even had one person come look at it last Friday, in the midst of the mess).

The goal from this project, of course, is to bring more people in to the house (those who are only looking at houses with two bathrooms), get more money for the house once someone does make an offer, and hopefully get an offer sooner than we would have.  So, it's quite an inconvenience, but will hopefully pay off.

Here are a few more in-progress pictures:

So this is looking into what will be the master bathroom. The framing is where the wall will be.  We kept our current bathtub/shower in the same place as it was originally, and we moved the toilet from the area to the right of that door (that goes into the master bedroom) to underneath the window (where it is in this picture).  You can kind of seem the plumbing where the pedestal sink will be, diagonally across from the toilet.

This is the best I could do of the other bathroom.  We took out ("we" being the people we are paying to do it - we would take way too long and definitely don't have the time right now) the vanity that was to the left of the door.  It was too big for either of our new bathrooms.  The area on the right is where the new shower is going to be.  It is where our coat closet used to be.  A pedestal sink is going to the left of the door (you can see the base there), and the toilet will be across from the door.

And here's a shot of what used to be the coat closet.  The drywall will be finished tomorrow I believe, and painting will happen on Wed. or Thurs.  It will just be a blank wall and no one will ever know that it used to be a closet!  Unfortunately, we don't have a good place to put all our coats since my sister's garage is already full of our stuff.  So right now all our coats are in my trunk.

(Sorry the picture is sideways - I just don't feel like fixing it now).  Here's part of one of the pedestal sinks.  We found it on craigslist for a pretty good deal.  We'll probably be buying the other one from Home Depot or Lowes.

Arthur is in charge of everything with the bathrooms, so we haven't had to do too much work (thank goodness).  Both of the new bathrooms will be pretty small but I'm surprised that they actually feel bigger than I would have thought.  About average size of bathrooms in this neighborhood.

So that's what is currently going on in our house.  I'm ready to be done with all of this craziness.  My test is in only 2.5 weeks so I kind of feel like I'm losing my mind at times.  But it will all be over soon!