...Siding Snafu...

   "Elisa, you're gonna want to come in here and see this," says Kevin, sporting a towel, fresh out of the shower. Um, okay....

  In our lovely master bathroom - the one we gutted and started over on when we moved in {see that post} - now features 2 nails coming through the gray, penny tile of our little shower cubbies... Thank you siding guys. Not only are a few tiles actually popped right out, but the grout is cracked and some surrounding tiles are chipped and scuffed up.

  We worked with a contractor to do our master bath remodel - Kevin is pretty handy, but moving plumbing, a shower from scratch, and moving walls? not so much - and when we asked him to install 2 cubbies in our new shower so we could stash shampoo, soaps and such he said "no problem." What he should have said was, "not on this exterior wall." We have now learned that there needs to be a minimum of 3 inches between, well, anything, and the outside of your house. Our cubby, set directly between the studs on the exterior wall, was no match for the 1.5" nails used by the siding guys. If they had ONLY nailed in, like 4" lower, they would have avoided our cute tile, and come in right in-between our two cubbies.

Here is what the cubbies were like before:

  So! Not necessarily the siding guys fault, but the company is paying for a tile expert to fix us up. Kevin was able to secure an additional sheet of our same tile from the Tile Shop, and a smaller bag of matching grout. I don't think its possible for us to do home projects without encountering the silliest of issues. *sigh* we're used to it I suppose...

Master Bathroom Finishing Touches!

  Back in July of last year, we shared the progress on our master bathroom project (see that post here!) - and we thought we'd share the results!

Our wall color is Behr "Sea Salt" - a warm aqua color, the color of water :)
We added our finishing touches on the wall above the toilet

Blue and aqua glass bottles and candle holders collected over the years tie in our wall color.
My favorites are the two ornate perfume style bottles that I collected from a garage sale last year, the light blue marbled glass candle globe that I purchased in Germany when I was 14 (I actually WATCHED the glass blower make it just for me!) + just love the framed illustration by Mary Kazura (purchased at the MCAD Art Sale many years ago + Mary and I used to work together in the MCAD admissions office) We call the print "Dancing Teeth"! - just some teeth out frolicking in a meadow. You know, the usual.

Four photos taken by Kevin, from the balcony of our Honeymoon cruise stateroom, of churning water near Honduras :) Its nice to add a little something personal to such a personal room...

Our metal rack (purchased a set at IKEA in Denmark - my very first IKEA visit EVER!) holds some of our everyday items: Tooth Brush, Q-Tips, a vintage blue Ball jar holds our cotton puffs, + Kevin's razor, nail clippers, and essential oils (my favorite natural scent: Jasmine).

We found this long blue laminate tray at IKEA - the perfect size to sit atop our toilet tank!
+ with a cute tissue box pattern from Up & Up at Target :)

We went simple with a brushed nickel framed mirror: kind of masculine, but not too chunky,
+ a simple three-bulb  lighting with white frosted glass bell shades.
We didn't have ANYWHERE to hang a hand towel, so Kevin suggested a hook right around the little 'corner' to the right of the sink. I really like how simple it is, and it's right where you need it.

And lastly, here is our shower - We love our big gray tile and our tiny gray tile, our big shower head,
inset wall cubbies to hold our shampoo and conditioner, and corner seat :)
The frameless glass with towel bar handle = adds no visual weight to the room. We love it!

Thanks for visiting our master bathroom!

Do NOT go in there!!

Whew!! That bathroom is messed up! for real...it is completely torn apart.

our new shower will be the length of the back wall
where the toilet and little corner shower used to be

the new wall has been framed up
(you can see the line on the left where the door frame used to be)
our new vanity will go in here + a newly painted mirror
(reclaimed from my parent's home circa 1973)

Ready to prime and paint this mirror - cross you fingers that it turns out okay!

From my parent's old master bathroom, to my basement for the last few years, taken apart and ready for a new look :)

Don't worry Kevin, we'll get this thing looking better...

Stay tuned!!

Hey! Why don't we build a new kitchen AND a new bathroom...at the SAME TIME!

Great Idea!
So we've taken on a FEW projects at the new house...  In addition to the kitchen remodel, we have added a master bathroom re-do as well. I mean why not?


Master Bath BEFORE:

So there's a toilet...and a shower... and that's about it...

The sink/mirror space is separate...
but there is no door between this area and the rest of the bedroom...
kind of like a motel room... 
The mirror is already down in this pic, but I think you can tell where it was...

The Plan:
Remove the wall in between the toilet/shower space and the sink space, build a new wall to enclose a new vanity, shower, and toilet together, and most importantly: behind closed doors. We are reconfiguring the toilet placement as well as the placement/shape/size of shower to allow us to actually FIT inside.


So now we need to figure out tile for the floor and shower and the vanity, mirror, etc.


Small space = small vanity cabinet. Let's try to find one shall we?

1. Dark Wood? Not sure if this would be just a dark box in a small bathroom
2. Maple? I like this...but we're planning light/medium gray (aka "Delorean Gray") tile and
I'm not sure how they will pair
3. White? This will def go with the gray tile, but doesn't look like real wood really...