Monday, April 30, 2012

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.

24 comments:

  1. It's beautiful! Those windows with the pretty tree are my favorite part!

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  2. What's the paint color for your bedroom walls? Love it!

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    1. Sherwin Williams Silver Strand. It's the same one we used in our bedroom in Austin. I absolutely love it. It might be going in our living room, entry, and kitchen as well. (Or those might be Valspar's Gravity... decisions, decisions.)

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  3. Looks lovely and serene, and I think you accomplished all this at warp speed!

    Lisa M

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  4. It's so beautiful! Well done!!

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  5. Gorgeous! We have the same color in our bedroom, and I absolutely love it.

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  6. Your bathroom now looks like a spa! Hooray! Congrats and (I'm sure you will) enjoy! : )

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  7. I'm just wondering whether your home inspector caught any of the structural issues in the addition. It seems outrageous that your sellers got away with selling that house with those problems without giving you a massive credit.

    Anyway, I'm glad that your contractor caught them and repaired them so you didn't have to live with another intrusive remodel. The results are GORGEOUS! Seriously, if you ever get burned out at SEC, you should become a designer!

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  8. Your bedroom has a huge glass wall facing the street? Isn't that a little strange? Seems like it would be loud/not very private.

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    1. It faces our back yard, patio, and pool. It's very private and not loud ;). (the car you see is ours, parked on our very long driveway)

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  9. HI there, I feel rather uncomfortable writing on your blog since I am very new to blogging and not sure what all the netiquette stuff should be. I don't know you and you don't know me but hey, I clicked "Next Blog" from my blog and ended up here. Go figure. Anyway, I just wanted to say that as an ex-interior architect I love you home and it seems like you have a perfect family. Well done and congratulations! Very refreshing.

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  10. lovely! Curious-what is the paint color on your bedroom walls? Loving it!

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    1. nevermind. :) I see your reply up above...

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  11. sorry, that should be YOUR home, I love YOUR home! Wow, talk about duffing an intro!

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    1. Haha, comments are always appreciated and enjoyed and no one judges a typo in the blogging world :). Welcome!

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  12. Love it! We just made a few changes to our master bathroom (new lights, new paint, new glass shower surround) and somehow it took 2 months, a huge hole, and many margaritas on my part. I am in awe of the fact that y'all made all of those changes, had to make all the decisions that go along with it and people aren't encouraging you to join AA. I had a tenth of the decisions and changes to make and I apparently took self-medicating by tequila too far.

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    1. This made me LOL at work when I read it on my phone. I think it actually helped that I had too many decisions and too little time to make them!

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  13. I love the bathroom...do you mind sharing how much that part of the renovation cost (even a ballpark number)? I would really like to re-do our master bath (and rip everything out) but I have NO idea how much it would be.

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    1. You can email me! Everyone time I post dollar amounts of anything it makes someone mad. It was a big reno for a big space and took about half of our total house remodeling budget, but we saved a lot of money by leaving the original cabinets (we're getting new fronts put on for about $400, but replacing the whole structure would have been a couple thousand), and the original sink area counter top (which we don't love, but don't dislike), original sinks, and faucets. I also bargain shopped and coupon-cut like crazy for anything we purchased. Ripping out the old stuff is a big part of the cost (that I had never thought about before) and the tile is pricey (even if you only pick tiles from the "bargain" section of the warehouse). But I do love it and I know it ups the re-sell value of our house too (or at least, I hope it does!).

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  14. Its perfect. And I do really love that room wall color too. I am so jealous. We bought our house based on layout, etc. and we are in the process of fixing it a room at a time. Its so slow and drives me crazy!

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  15. It looks beautiful. I think this is probably why you are so successful in life -- you actually get this stuff done! Almost 7 years later, I'm still looking at my ugly bathroom and doing absolutely nothing about it!

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  16. Is your house worth what you paid for it even after all the renovation costs? (I don't think you had known about a lot of the problems up front.)

    (p.s. I really like the before/after pics.)

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  17. Beautiful. Have you looked at Ikea bathroom cabinets? They are gorgeous and cheap.

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  18. I have to ditto everyone elses comment...oh my god...it looks spectacular. Do you help with other people's houses too?? pretty please lol....

    Nice to know that you have switched jobs and houses and neighborhoods and loving it. I read your posts in Jan after a long time as I was studying for the CA bar cuz of our recent move and was amazed how all these changes happenned. And then few weeks later it hit us, my husband lost his job. And now we've settled on the east coast of Canada. From looking at houses in california to now looking for houses here. I am amazed at how unexpectedly everything changed.

    I have to ask...and please I hope you answer....is fixing and remodeling things in a house less or more expensive than buying a newly customized house? What made you guys decide to buy an old one and remodel it? In terms of cost, I always feel that it isn't worth it to fix old houses unless you do it yourself but I haven't done any recent shopping.

    I love the windows in the house...the skylights, the master bedroom pictures. I haven't seen any house with such beautiful windows. Feels soo serene looking at the garden...what a find...good job!

    ariel...

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