Approaching the Finish Line

More bathroom reno updates!

Here’s the view when you walk in the room – note that the pipes sticking out of the wall on the right are where the vanity will be installed after it arrives. Also note that the red wall looks redder in these pictures – it’s more of a rust than cherry tone in real life!

And this is the view from the corner where the toilet is – and I promise that empty corner will look more fleshed out when the vanity comes in! Note that we need to put in some kind shelving thing on that wall on the right of the picture – we haven’t even started looking yet, but it will be something lovely that will hold towels and other bathroom paraphernalia.

Now the view from the tub – check out that great door! When we lived in our condo, the bathrooms had these doors in natural wood – and the previous owners left two extras in our storage locker. Dave took them when we moved, as he thought we might want to use them one day. Painted white? Et voila! Perfect door to let the sun to the hallway!

The tub is my favourite tub of life. Look at these stunning faucets! Look how pretty! I just love this shot.

A closeup on the shower tiling, which I fully love. Note that pipe sticking out – the rainshower head and handheld shower with slide bar are both scheduled to be delivered in the next week, so we’re still waiting on those. Additionally, the glass door for the shower is being built – we couldn’t order ’til the glass guys (who are also doing the mirror for the vanity) could come do the exact measurements of everything else in complete state, so that is about two weeks out as well!

So yeah, we have a few more pieces we’re waiting on, and still have to buy the shelving, towel racks and hooks, and toilet paper dispenser (completely forgot to look for these small pieces today) but it’s very close to done. We also need to figure out the window coverings, but I am thinking we might do a super sheer vertical blind type thing. Or maybe just sheer drapes would be better. Thoughts? Other suggestions are welcome!

Love! Love! Love!

Edit! I feel compelled to add that this was our original vision of what we’d do – before any design planning, but after we’d chosen the key fixtures.

While my renders are clearly more circus-cake baker than designer, I still think these are fun.

In Tile

Yay! More reno progress shots. I know, the week isn’t even done yet, but they have gotten a lot done this week already and, well, Dave did a photo shoot without me even asking so I am thrilled to have new pictures!

This first shot captures a major level of reno in progress. The tile in the shower hasn’t been grouted yet, but it’s all laid – the grout itself will add another element, as it’s a lovely grey shade that will act as another accent. The floor is started and will be finished this weekend. The paint is done. (For the accent wall, we went with the unusual choice of a contrasting colour to the blues/greys/etc. found in the tile which should also look great with the walnut of the vanity, it’s a rusty red-orange. We ended up also using the same glass tiles as act as an accent colour in the shower for the floor of the shower – the dark grey slate tiles were too big to ensure flatness on the shower floor, and the small glass tiles allowed us to reduce the volume of separate elements happening in the room anyway, which is probably a good thing considering the various design risks we decided to take!

Anyway, this is the view from the corner opposite where the door will hang. Purty!

The view from the toilet corner, this goes to show the spaciousness of the room – that wall on the right is the side of the shower. Those things sticking out of the wall are the plumbing and sconce things where the vanity will be.

And the lovely view from the corner where the tub will be. I think the neutral walls are just a stunning colour, just the right amount of tone to offset the white of the subway tile but still super, super neutral in order to ensure good lighting on the face when doing makeup. Indeed!

So remaining to be done? Well, the tile gets finished and grouted, baseboard and trim get laid, lighting is hung, and fixtures get installed. We are calling the glass guy about doing that part of the shower tomorrow, as we couldn’t have him in ’til the shower was done enough to get exact measurements, but that only goes a week between measure and installation. The vanity and showerheads don’t come ’til later in the month so we have a bit of a wait on that finish line. That said, the rest of it will likely go into mid-to-late next week to and, in short, it’s a mere week tops ’til I don’t have to take those occasional middle-of-the-night bathroom breaks all the way downstairs. Whoo whoo!

Walled In

Another week down, and only one (!) to go in the magic that is our bathroom reno.

The plastic to your left is where the door will be, and the big metal frame thing is the wall that the vanity goes on. You can see the shower in its grey cementboard glory.

This shot is taken from the corner where the toilet will be – look at those glorious walls!

And this is taken from the corner where the tub will be – you can see the general layout probably best in this shot.

Isn’t it thrilling? This week will consist of tiling, painting, and installing the fixtures. The vanity and sink unfortunately couldn’t be rushed, thus aren’t being delivered ’til between the 23rd and 26th of the month, but the rest should theoretically be done this week. We still have to pick up all the small pieces (extra shelving, big glorious mirror, new towels, curtains, toilet paper dispenser, etc.) but the guts of the room will be complete!

I can’t believe it. I am ecstatic!

Two Weeks Down…

Two or three to go!

The insulated wall is where the 5′ long vanity will be set. The door is directly across from that insulated wall, making the vanity the first thing you see.

The room looks skinnier than it actually is here because of the lens Dave used to capture the whole thing, but you get a sense! The freestanding tub will be on an angle in the corner where the big window is – then I will sit in that tub staring out the window at the glowing CN Tower. Dream!

And a shot from the croner – the wooden box-looking thing in the top middle-to-right of the shot is where the spacious shower will go. The toilet will go in basically the bottom right of this shot, in the corner of the room farthest from the door.

It smells so good in there right now with all the freshly cut wood! With the subfloors fully down, electrical ready, and plumbing roughed in, this week will consist of finishing building and insulating the walls, prepping the floor for tiles, and then we get to tiling and installation. So exciting!

Our Answer to Babyjail

We got a call from Ella + Elliot on Friday that this little bug’s most important pieces of furniture have arrived – and in far less time than the 4-6 weeks we’d been anticipating, no less!

We (and by “we” I mean I, not like the renoland version of “we”, which means Dave) spent a fair amount of time investigating the bazillion options out there for baby furniture. Convertible versus non-convertible cribs! Cribs whose sides slide down versus ones that don’t! Round cribs versus square cribs! Dressers + change tables versus dresser change tables! Crib change tables! Classic woods and whites versus colourful pieces! There were a lot of options – and not the kind that make you excited, but the kind that make you feel like you’re going to have a mental breakdown if someone doesn’t just bloody tell you what to do. Anyway, after months of back-and-forthing (and harassing everyone from girlfriends to store clerks to our moms), we set our dial to the Classic series from Oeuf NYC.

Here’s the crib (only we didn’t do this change table) that Jen still swears looks like babyjail (perfect for imprisoning this little creature!). This crib changes into a toddler bed at some point – though don’t ask me when kids change from crib to bed as I have no flipping clue and refuse to research things so far in the future.

And here is the dresser/change table combo.

This is the corresponding hutch for the dresser that we plan to order later on!

This unit will last through his lifetime!

We can’t pick it up quite yet, as the future kid room is currently filled with contractor tools and equipment (there’s nowhere else to put that stuff!) but surely will in a few weeks.

After finding a picture of a baby room I liked on the Ella + Elliot site, I did some major hunting and found the exact wallpaper they had used that made me so into that room. For your reference, it’s called Frames by Taylor & Wood, and can’t be purchased in Canada – but I found it at Graham and Brown’s online store, where they were happy to ship up here when I put in the order request this week! As a point of reference, this is the general layout we’re going to pull together in this room.

Whew!

Pretty Little Things

Another day of stalking around, resulting in more pretty little things!

We got two of these wall sconces, and one will go on each side of the mirror.

In other lighting news, I took a quick shot of the pendant light we got to hang over the tub. (Apologies for the quality, but I can’t find any good pictures online!)

And we picked up our sink faucets.

Finally, we confirmed the tiles, as we didn’t find anything we liked better – just have to go in Monday morning to make the order. All that’s remaining to find are the mirror/medicine cabinet (depending on what we find), towel bars and hooks, toilet paper dispenser, and shelving. Miracle!

All Tiled Up

I almost forgot to showcase where we’re at with The Great Tile Hunt of 2009!

This is the winning palette thus far, and we found all of it at Olympia Tile. The brownish fabric looking tile is floor, the dark grey is the shower floor, and the glass is the shower accent. For the bulk of the shower, we’re looking at subway tile in some shade of white, though remain unsure on the matte versus glossy question at this point.

Patience, Jenny!

You know, I’ve never been a patient person. I am very much about getting things done quickly and efficiently, and always feel there is no time to waste.

So this reno thing is a bit of a challenge in that nobody else in this business appears to have the compulsive now gene. With work, it’s easy – all of our suppliers are used to dealing with irritating people like me and build their businesses on the ability to deliver now. It’s standard.

But plumbing stores? Yeah. I’ve been waiting for a call back since… Tuesday? Wednesday? I forget. But early this week. And yesterday they actually emailed me to confirm my phone number, which I’ve left numerous times this week. And when I responded within seconds to say “Yes! That’s it! Please call me now!”? They were already offline. And clearly done with the daily email check, as it’s eighteen hours later and I’ve gotten no calls.

Sigh. And sigh.

Tips on how to reduce my sense of urgency around any and all project management initiatives would be greatly appreciated!

Lessons in Bathroom Renoland

Because I have way too much to say today, I will do my best to keep this short, but admit that it will probably get slightly out of hand, as we’ve learned a lot in the last couple of weeks!

First off: Consider hiring a designer. Seriously. We indeed considered this option and had been planning to go this route, but given that we ended up pushing the job a year ahead of when we’d been originally planning to do it, we had to nix it for the sake of a big chunk of money that we simply didn’t – and wouldn’t soon! – have. We’re doing our best with what we’ve got, but it is freaking hard!

There are a bazillion options and brands and price points and it’s been exhausting trying to figure everything out. (I will not deny that I got a little bit weepy on Saturday night after a particularly long day of shopping and online searching and spending over $100 on bathroom-themed magazines. Yikes!) Designers have a good sense of what will look good without investing so much energy and can appropriately direct you to best places for the right brands for you. Dream!

In any case, since we clearly didn’t, these tips are intended for those who – like us – just didn’t have the extra budgetary wiggle room to go full force. Good luck!

1. Make a budget. Know going in that you will probably not stick to this, as everything costs more than you think and, even if you search a bazillion stores for best prices, sometimes the pieces just don’t work together at that rate. (Le sigh. Dave says our taste is far higher end than our bank accounts.) Add a row to your spreadsheet that adds a miscellaneous 15% to your total cost. That’ll be about right. Regardless, this is no reason to stop tracking! I’ve been updating our spreadsheet daily, even if the costs are higher than anticipated, as I want to make sure I always know where we are – and know, at the end, what it actually cost. Also be aware that, while the budget will have to give in some spots, you should most definitely not compromise in others! Be consistent in your store-stalking to find the best possible prices on the pieces that you do decide on. Keep hunting for ways to tighten it up!

   

2. Talk to everyone you know. Familiarize yourself with the most commonly cited hole-in-the-wall stores that you can. They will probably not all have website – or if they do, they’ll be randomly thrown together 1998 style sites – so you’ll likely have to investigate them in person. But even if they specialize in just one thing that you’re going to have to investigate, knowing about them can mean real savings – though, sadly, not in your jam-packed outlook calendar!
3. Shop for fixtures before your job is set to begin. Ideally, give yourself 4-6 weeks, taking the first two to select the big stuff and the remainder to wait for its delivery. We didn’t start the shopping ’til the renos had already begun and are wishing we’d even placed the orders two or three weeks ago, as we’re now forced to beg suppliers for tighter delivery timelines. Oopsie.
4. Pick one piece to serve as the star and put your best dollars there. After much investigation, we decided that we wanted this to be the vanity (the room is L shaped and it’s the feature against the long part of the L – the first thing you see when you enter the room). We hadn’t intended on spending quite so much on a vanity – I was traumatized to discover what those things cost – but it really is going to bring the room to life. We followed up by cutting budgets on the other components within the room, which was challenging but worthwhile as that is the piece that won’t change.
5. Design it so that accents look intentional instead of like a thinly veiled cheap-out tactic. I flipping love the look of subway tile – and I particularly love how inexpensive it can be. But I’ve seen lots of examples online of it looking… well, chintzy. We’re hoping to put something together that lets us keep the costs reasonable, while featuring the accents in bold enough light that they become naturally linked. One of the owners of my company recommended going with a particularly spectacular accent on this note – he personally did an $80/sqft tile accent alongside his few-dollars-per-sqft stuff – a bit pricey for me, but I got the point!

   

6. Don’t forget lighting! This hadn’t even occurred to me, but we decided last night to do a lovely chandelier-type fixture over the soaker tub. I had just been assuming we’d throw up a few potlights and that would be it. Now that we’ve looked at so many examples, though, I think this will add a delicious element to the room in terms of impact, and I’m glad we thought of it before all the walls went up!
7. Get a good fan. Nothing is more annoying than a bathroom that takes too long to unfog in the morning – except, of course, for a room that sounds like the inside of an airplane. This is a small cost in the grand scheme of your budget and worth splurging on.
8. Look for rebates and credits! We discovered that Toronto has a water conservation rebate for dual flush toilets, allowing us to invest a little more in a higher end toilet knowing that it would effectively cost us the same amount as a lower priced one in the long run. We’ll also be participating in the new national home reno tax credit program (assuming it gets approved) – while you can only get a maximum of $1350 a year, that’s still a chunk of the budget you can put back into your pocket!
9. Go small with the small stuff. We’re trying to get as cost-effective as possible with the storage, small fixtures, and all those forms of goodie. You can always upgrade the little guys at a later date – swapping the big pieces is the pill you won’t want to swallow.

   

10. Think about how much you’ll use it. In a multiple person household, a good bathroom is worth its weight in gold. Even if you estimate approximately ten minutes on a daily shower, ten minutes per person daily in (delicate!) ladies’ room breaks, and fifteen minutes of face-prepping/hairstyling/otherwise getting ready for the day, two people spend about seventy minutes a day in the bathroom. (And this doesn’t even count additional time spent in there by/with kid(s) or doing luxurious activities – like enjoying a glass of wine with a junky novel in your deep soaker!) Even with this minimal daily time spend, the average couple is at 24,920 minutes in the bathroom a year – that’s over 415 hours or 17.5 days! Even if you only plan on staying in the house for another five years, a two-person household would be looking at 86.5 days of bathroom time over that period. What would you really pay for every one of those hours to be pleasant? Remember that the longer you spend in your home – and your bathroom – the more you’re able to amortize that cost… and for me? I’m thinking that six cents a minute sounds damn fantastic.

Inexperience has peppered this little road for me, as I had no clue what we were in for and actually thought – ahem, apologies wherever due! – that it would be pretty easy to pull together. But, despite its complications, knowing that everything is on its way has left me feeling relatively victorious in my very old Victorian (sorry, sorry, bad one) and I’m looking forward to the next steps!

Living in Renoland: A Retrospective

So this bathroom renovation is pretty much the priciest single thing we’ll have to do in this house. We waited nearly two years to do it (had in fact been planning to wait three, but the coming arrival of this kid pushed it up a year) because of the cost factor. We wanted to save and get stuff we would really love forever – mostly because we only wanted to do this once. We plan on sticking around here for many years to come, so we wanted it to be a dreamy, dreamy bathroom.

We’ve additionally done a bunch of stuff over the first two years that I haven’t entirely updated herein! Last year was dedicated to small changes on the first floor to make it liveable, along with gutting the entire second and third floors. That year’s big costly item was was doing new windows and doors for the entire house – no cheap adventure and used up the big slush fund for year one!

I must also note that every time I say that “we” did something, really I mean that Dave did it. Sure, I helped here and there by holding something or passing another thing, but… well, I focused on colours and accessories, which aren’t really represented to date. Hah.

In any case, in the interest of remembering what we’ve done, I wanted to review the stuff we’ve done to date. This was the main first floor room before – horrid colour (peach!), awful built-in cabinets, lots of… well, just plain not for me!

The main first floor room after – we undertook a serious colour change, took out the hideous in-wall cabinets and rebuilt the walls to be smooth and flat again.

Now, obviously, this isn’t the end for this room. Our objective is to do the third floor as a big den, then possibly knock out that big wall behind the couch, take out the closet behind it, and have a bigger main first floor living/dining room. There will be billowy bay window curtains and all those electronics will disappear. But for now? That’s the first phase of transition!

Then we have the bedroom. Ah, the bedroom! I madly wanted a serene, spacious quiet zone. Lots of airiness, very little stuff. It started out completely crazy-style with clutter and 150 year old plaster and just lots of ugly all over the place. (Note before you harshly judge me that those aren’t our curtains and that’s not our clutter!)

This was the first room that Dave had ever completely recreated in his life, so it took some time.

After framing and insulation and all that stuff came drywalling, mudding, and endless sanding.

But it turned into a real room!

This is a shot before we did the trim and put in the floor vents and added the artwork and hung the curtains, but Dave is too busy on the next phase to get a proper updated shot of this room, and my camera just doesn’t do it justice! I will say: the fan at night? Yes and yes. Strong votes for this.

So now we’re at the bathroom. And here is a sample of how it looked on the first day of renovations when the wall between the rooms first came down.

And that is gutted – it was even worse as two horribly ugly rooms!

What I haven’t mentioned is that we’re also building a room for this kid out of the room we used as our bedroom while building the master – Dave has thus far only reached the subfloor and wiring stage, but that’s set to be finished over the next eight weeks as well. Oh yeah, and the hallway – which is mostly done but for the final sanding, laying of hardwood, and banister install. We’ve got an orderly fashion in which to do things, and said things are moving sure enough!

Funny thing: it isn’t horrible living in renovations. We moved into this house in January of last year, having bought the place with a renovated (not to our taste) first floor. The second and third floor were nightmarish looking, but we suspected it had potential – and there was what, even on a foggy afternoon, we were sure would be a dreamy view of my beloved CN Tower from what we designatd as the future third floor patio! We estimated that it would take about five years to turn it from hideous to prettious, and we thought: let’s do it.

Some people thought we were bananas. They said we’d murder each other. Well, we did a few things on the first floor, gutted the entire top two floors, and will have rebuilt the bulk of the second floor by the end of this year, and we haven’t yet! In fact, I don’t mind living in a reno situation at all! Of course, we’ve contained our renolands like Dexter does his kill rooms (tons of plastic and duct tape) and done a lot of dust-cleaning, but it’s not so bad. Because when each room is done, it’s exactly how we envisioned it – even I can be patient for those kinds of results!

In any case, next year will be the third floor (including patio), and the year after that will be the outdoors (including garage), and the one after that will be the revisions to the not-quite-our-taste first floor. Five year plan? Right on track.