Pics of our first house!! **Bubble bath by Friday night!! (new pics p. 4)**

[JohnZ46]

OOOooh!! I think some of the paint stores do!! I don't think the big box home improvement stores do, but I'm pretty sure the paint specialty stores do!! I'll have to check that. Thank you!!!

If you have Michael's Craft Stores near where you live, you can sometimes get small bottles of acrylic paint for cheap. Plus they have a really large color range.

http://www.michaels.com

You can also find interesting stuff in their clearance aisle.

 

[Forever a Princess]

The house is 104 years old, so every "little" project becomes a HUGE project by the time we're through. Just the lights, for example...The way the old fixtures were put up was not up to current code, so new boxes needed to be put in, new braces for fans and chandeliers, new holes in the ceiling..(hence the medalions we had to place at the top of the chandelier and ceiling fan), etc. Fortunately, DP used to be a lighting vendor rep for Lowes, and did lighting and ceiling fan displays all day every day. So she knows her way around it pretty well. But even for a pro, with all of the extra stuff that had to be done to make it work, a 1-2 hour project like installing a new chandelier or ceiling fan bacame a weekend project, with LOTS of trips to Lowes and Home Depot...

Wow, the wall colors look great. The above sounds like how our house remodeling projects go-except our house was built in 1982.

I love to hear what other "Weekend Warriors" are doing, please keep up the pics.

 

[ChrizJen]

Well, it's been a while, so I figured I would put up a couple of pictures of what we've begun lovingly referring to as "The Nightmare at the Top of the Stairs"...

OK, so here are a couple of "before-before" pictures (when we were looking at the house, old owner's stuff still in it):

(not particularly pretty, but functional...still functional.
...Not so much anymore... :

Here's the gaping hole that was hidden by the old medicine cabinet!!

Here's the hole in the floor where the drain used to be for the sink...

As we were pulling off the old floor and subfloor, we thought we found a treasure underneath. The original floor, which looked to be still in good shape!

We thought we could maybe sand it and refinish it, but then we got to the floor around the toilet...

Oh well, too bad. But we do have some really nice cork flooring to put down, so I'm sure we'll be just as happy with that. (and probably a little less work...LOL)

OK, so I'll spare you the gross picture of the hole in the floor where the toilet flange is supposed to be. But let's just say that we're trying to figure out how we're going to attach our new toilet to the floor...LOL
So here's a picture of the room as it looks now:

 

[ChrizJen]

So first thing tomorrow morning, we're back to work on it!!
Just a little more floor to pull up, then we're going to paint the walls.
Then, if we get that done tomorrow, we'll probably start laying the new floor on Saturday.
I don't anticipate getting much more than that done this weekend.
But then next weekend, we'll assemble the new sink/vanity/medicine cabinet and install those and the new toilet.

Then the weekend after that, maybe we'll finish up the trim around the shower, and we'll be finished!!

(But I think I'm probably dreaming to think that things will go smoothly enough to get it all done that easily...LOL)

Stay tuned, though!!

 

[ChrizJen]

OK, I'm now going to post pics of the things we have that are going into the bathroom:
Here's a swatch of the cork floor:

Here's the medicine cabinet (from Ikea):

Here's the sink (also from Ikea):

Here's the vanity that matches the medicine cabinet:

And this is the closest I can find to the color that we got for the walls (the actual color is Eddie Bauer "Gardener Green"):

ETA: OH yeah!! I forgot the faucet! Here's a pic of the faucet for the sink!:

OK, so that's a peek at what's going in there. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can show you actual pictures of the stuff in the room!!

That's it for today. I need to get some work done!!!

 

[Jenvenza]

It looks fantastic!! You have done a wonderful job!

 

[ChrizJen]

Thanks! We're starting to get really excited about the prospect of finally getting it finished!!

 

[SandraVB79]

It looks great, can't wait to see the finished room! (and can't wait for MY internet connection to be installed, so that I can DIS more, lol)

 

[HannahBanana]

i love the color in the dining room so inviting :] And i also really like the ideas you have for the bathroom upstairs

 

[ChrizJen]

Thanks for all of the nice comments!

We had great intentions this past weekend, but things just did not get moving like we wanted them to. Too much other stuff going on. Friday we hung out with some friends and had a cookout.
Then the rest of the weekend was spent helping friends. We have some friends who were moving, and we promised to help with the big move on Sunday, but one of them was hospitalized suddenly on Friday night, so we had to pitch in on Saturday to help pack too!!
So we didn't get much done in the bathroom. (which is a shame, because it was a 3 day weekend! ) But we have NO other commitments this weekend, so we'll be in that bathroom ALL weekend long!! Can't wait to post some pics on Monday of the progress we make!!

Thanks for your input so far. Keep checking back! I'll be posting more updates!

Oh! And maybe tonight I can get a picture posted of the art that we got for the kitchen. We bought a great frame with some colorful flowers, and we decided that it would look great in the kitchen in place of the canvas that we were going to do. So that canvas will now go in the dining room.

Anyhow, check back later and hopefully I'll have a picture of that!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Man, I really need to start shopping at Ikea. I love the medicine cabinet and the chandelier in the dining room.

What year is your house? It looks like you have plaster walls in the close up in the dining room.

 

[WeLuvDiznee]

Love,love,love Ikea! I just purchased ALOT of stuff from there to redo my 2 DD's room.

 

[ChrizJen]

Man, I really need to start shopping at Ikea. I love the medicine cabinet and the chandelier in the dining room.

What year is your house? It looks like you have plaster walls in the close up in the dining room.

Ikea is an addiction...

Our house was built in 1904. And aside from the kitchen (which was "redone" probably about 10-15 years ago by a previous owner), and the sunroom addition, they're all plaster walls.

 

[ChrizJen]

OK, nothing exciting, but here's a picture of the art that we hung in the kitchen:

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Ikea is an addiction...

Our house was built in 1904. And aside from the kitchen (which was "redone" probably about 10-15 years ago by a previous owner), and the sunroom addition, they're all plaster walls.

Awesome! I love old houses. Mine is 1938 and my mom's, which is next door, is 1730. We have plaster walls but my mom has horse hair.

 

[ChrizJen]

Update:

OK, so we're a little behind "schedule" on the bathroom. I had actually hoped that by this next weekend we would be wrapping things up. No such luck.
Here's where we are: We finally figured out the toilet problem, and we were able to buy a "flange adapter" for that. It's an actual cast-iron flange (the bracket thingie that you bolt the toilet down onto...I'm learning SO much through this process of do-it-yourself home improvement!! It's AMAZING!!!)
It's got a rubber gasket around its base that fits into the cast-iron drain pipe, then as you screw the flange down, the rubber tightens to the sides of the pipe, forming a seal! (OK, for some of you, that's probably way more than you ever wanted to know about toilets! But we're actually VERY excited about our toilet flange adapter!!! )

So we got the flange adapter in, and Jen pulled up the remainder of the old flooring. Then on Sunday, I painted the ceiling and the walls in the bathroom. Our next thing is to figure out the problem with the sink drain pipe, then we'll be able to lay the floor!!
We're hoping to go Saturday to a local plumbing supply store and get the drain thing figured out. If that goes quickly, we'll get started on the floor.
Then the weekend after that, we'll get the sink and toilet in, and then all that will be left is trimming the whole room out, and we're FINISHED!!!

Realistically, it will probably take 3 more weekends. But I am SO excited and ready to have it done!!

I'll post a pic tonight or tomorrow morning of the walls with the fresh paint on them...

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Glad you guys got past the toilet issue. I forgot about the cast iron bit, we had the same issue when we renovated our bath.

 

[ChrizJen]

I've got new pictures!!
We got LOTS of work done in the bathroom this weekend!!

First, we got all of our plumbing problems fixed!!! You don't know how excited we are about that!!! When we went to the plumbing supply store, we described our problems, (we even brought pictures to show them...LOL) The guy heard us out, looked at the pictures for a minute, then said that we would probably have to call a plumber for the sink drain problem. But luckily, Jen asked him if we couldn't just cut the floor around the drain pipe, cut the bad part off, then affix a new pipe to the old one (which is what we were planning to do, but we just didn't know what to use to connect the old pipe to the new one.) Then the guy said, "Oh! well if you can do that, then I can fix you up! I'll get the right part for you!" He underestimated the power of the determined Do-It-Yourself Duo!!

We got the subfloor all cut and put down, and got the tub and tile all scrubbed down. All that's left is to put in the new vanity light, lay the cork floor (which will probably take about a week total, because we'll have to follow up with 2 or 3 coats of polyeurethane) put in trim, and then move the toilet, sink, and medicine cabinet in! It's getting closer!!

Next weekend we're having my neices over for a fun girls' sleepover, so we'll have less time to work. But we hope to get the new vanity light put in, get the cork laid, and hopefully get some of the trim put in.

So ANYHOW, here are the pics of the latest progress:
(You'll get to see the green that I painted on the walls in these pics. Also note that in these pics, only half of the subfloor was in. We actually got the whole thing done this weekend, but I took pictures before the second half was laid. And after we were all finished yesterday, I just didn't have the energy to take the camera back up there to take more pics...LOL)

Here's a picture of the toilet flange adapter that we were OH-SO proud of!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the adapter we got for the sink drain problem

And here's what the room looks like now (except, as I said before, the subfloor is comeplete now)

I'm getting so excited to be getting things done. It's a lot of hard work, but it will be SO worth it in the end when I can finally saok in a long bubble bath in my new bathroom!!

OH, and for those of you still nice enough to keep up with this photo journal, thanks!! I know that for most of you, this is the "boring" part. But I promise that VERY soon, I'll have official "AFTER" pics to post!!!

 

[orangesforadam]

The color choices are so bold and gorgeous! Great job! Your house is wonderful!

 

[ChrizJen]

The color choices are so bold and gorgeous! Great job! Your house is wonderful!

Thanks!

Well, we made a little more prgress this weekend. (we had my nieces over for a slumber party on Saturday night, so we weren't able to get as much done as we'd have liked to.)

But we got the vanity light removed and replaced with the new one. We got the tub all scrubbed and sparkling clean. (AGAIN...it's amazing how much dirt you kick up doing this stuff!!) We placed some insulation in the hole from the old medicine cabinet. We got the new medicine cabinet all assembled, but weren't actually able to hang it yet, because we're going to need longer screws for the toggle bolts. And by the time we got to that point, we were both exhausted, and neither wanted to go back to Lowes. So we were officially done for the weekend. *SIGH*

Anyway, I didn't take any new pics this weekend, but I will get one of the new vanity light this evening if I remember.
Thanks for checking back!!