The Master

Our master suite was added on to the house in the early 90's and increased the square footage of the house by about a third. The architecture and design of it is a huge part of what sold us on this house. Unfortunately, while the design is good, the construction is/was terrible. Like uncapped live wires loose in the walls, cracks across an un-braced ceiling, recessed lights falling out of the ceiling, leaky pipes in the laundry room terrible. So our budget quickly doubled (and our timeline tripled) while our contractor fixed up the rooms to be what they should have been 20 years ago.

There were a few important aesthetic changes as well.

before                                                               after!

First, removing the carpet in the bathroom (ew), removing the ugly tile surrounding the tub, removing the old broken whirlpool tub, ripping out the really ugly brown shower room (which also housed a fat wall AND a toilet- it was a cramped, weird space and you banged your knees on the toilet every time you stepped out of the shower- it kills me that I don't have a "before" picture), removing the industrial cemented glass block window, removing the superfluous spot lights that pointed straight down to the floor, removing the tiny recessed LED spot lights over the sink that cast shadows all over your face, and painting over the not-actually-ugly but definitely too dark, hot, and non-matching dark blue paint.

 

And that was just the demo work.  There were also a few design decisions to be made, and tile, fixtures, and accessories to be picked out and purchased.

 

Ta da!  The space above previously housed a shower, a weirdly thick wall, and a toilet; now it simply houses the shower bench of JP's dreams.  (Seriously, he's always wanted a shower bench; I've never had the desire to sit in the shower, so I don't really understand it, but I'm glad he's happy.)


Here's the "after" pictures:

 

 

   

I could spend a couple thousand words detailing all the changes (and the struggles, the tub alone is a saga), but let's just say there are many, and all of them are for the better.

In the laundry room, which continues on behind the bathroom (through the pocket door to the right in the first picture below), there was also a fixing of pipes, a repairing and rebuilding of the soaked laundry room wall, and ripping up of the linoleum in the laundry room and toilet room.

 

(new shelf! sometimes the little things are the most exciting)

You're getting a picture of the toilet below because you have NO IDEA what I went through to get it... many weeks, many phone calls, many lost/broken shipped toilet pieces in boxes strewn about my living room.  We also had the cabinet built in to house pool accessories like sunscreen and towels, and higher shelves for batteries and light bulbs because they had nowhere else to go.  

(Yes, previously this bathroom had two toilets. Now it just has the one back here.  It's a few yards longer to walk in the middle of the night, and it's also the one people will use to come in from the pool, but I don't mind walking/sharing in exchange for a much bigger, better shower. Also, the tub in the shower room was weird and it bruised my shins when I walked by.  Also also, having a toilet area a bit further away from the main bathroom area is not a terrible thing when you share a bathroom.  Not pointing any fingers.)

 

In the bedroom we ripped out the cheap looking built-ins against the back wall, filled in the bald spots on the floor with the carpet removed from the bathroom (our contractor's idea- saved us the expense of re-carpeting the whole room and it looks seamless!), replaced the broken recessed lights, and painted the walls.

In progress (so many weeks of progress, thanks to electric/ceiling issues):

 

Complete!

 

 

 

 

 

Our room has been a torn up mess since we moved in, so it is beyond lovely to walk in and gain the sense of relaxed calm you want to feel in your grown-up retreat.  We still need to get the glass shower door installed (tomorrow) and the cabinet fronts replaced (next month), but considering what it looked like a few short weeks ago, I'm crossing this room off my list.