master bath renovation

27 May | 2013

Master Bath Remodel – After

May 27, 2013 By The Lucky Lass 2 Comments

It’s not quite officially done, but close enough!! The shower is usable and everything works!

Master Bath Shower After

I am very happy with how it looks, although I will say I am not happy about the process. This “ten day renovation” ended up taking close to 8 weeks. Well, actually more than that considering there is still one piece of shoe molding to put down, and a little bit of caulking and touch-up painting to be done.

Here’s a view with my fish-eye lens, which really gives you a view of the whole room:

New Master Bath Shower room

**Update** It has been about a month since I started writing this post. They came and fixed the shoe molding, and did all the touch up work, only to find (after they left) that someone gouged the new flooring. As in, a whole plank needs to be replaced. We have a couple of spare planks, but it is disappointing.

Overall, I love it. I love how it turned out. I think it looks good and clean, it feels restful and relaxing.

Peanut Loves the New Shower

So now for some of the details– I don’t know exactly how the budget breaks down since everything went through my contractor. But I can tell you what products we used. We went with Moen “Eva” fixtures in the shower, and the matching model for the towel bar, toilet paper holder, and robe hooks. This is not the cheapo version you can find at any box store- this is the real deal that shouldn’t have any problems for a looong time to come.

Moen Eva Toilet Paper Holder

We decided to stick with shiny chrome for all the finishes as well- I like how it looks.

Moen Eva Towel Bar

The last time you saw my light fixture, it was upside down. A few minutes of taking out the screws, flipping it over, and re-screwing it took care of that problem. It is Hampton Bay from Home Depot. I like how I don’t see the light bulbs anymore.

New Light Sconce

In the shower, I really wanted to have a niche built into the wall. At first, this seemed like it would be a major problem since two-thirds of the shower shares an exterior wall. The product that our tile guys got (I didn’t catch the name) is already insulated pre-built box that was perfect. The cut a hole, stuck it in, and tiled right over it. It’s 12″ by 12″ square, and holds quite a bit!

Shower Niche

You can get a glimpse from the photo above, and below, that we used a marble accent tile called “Biltmore.” You can read more about it in the progress of the bathroom here.

Moen Eva Shower head and handle

It really is a pretty, light green that goes very well with the gray paint we picked out- “Passive” by Sherwin Williams.

New Flooring and Toilet

And I am LOVING the floor. It is a vinyl plank by Armstrong in Exotic Fruitwood- Persimmon. This pic really makes it look a bit more red, but it looks like real wood. I specifically wanted vinyl flooring because unless we went all out with heated flooring, just doing tile would mean constantly cold feet. Not only does this product stay a good temperature, but looks so good, warms up the space, and I don’t have to worry about it getting wet!

And now….for dramatic effect….the before and after!

Shower Room Before

New Master Bath Shower room

I will say I’m pleased with the product, but not the journey. I have some serious thinking to do before doing any other (big) projects in this house!!

Linking up to these parties: Thrifty Decor Chick; Remodelaholic

Filed Under: Before and After, Homey Stuff, Uncategorized Tagged With: marble accent shower, master bath renovation, new shower, tiled shower

25 Mar | 2013

Master Bath Progress

March 25, 2013 By The Lucky Lass 2 Comments

Or, a comedy of errors?

We are now officially into the fifth week of this “ten-day” renovation of our master bathroom shower room. Our little five foot by six foot room is getting a complete overhaul, and it is still not done. I would wonder in a time like this if it would have actually been faster if we had done it ourselves (without knowing what we were doing). I like how it is coming together– I think I chose the right products now and feel that everything looks great together. But I am not happy with a number of things about this renovation, and where things stand at this point. I am hoping that within the next week, everything will be fixed and finished up and we can finally have a bathroom again.

So one thing I love is our tile choices:

I chose a white 6″ by 6″ tile with an accent band of white 2″ by 8″ subway tile set off by a “biltmore” marble pencil tile. I love how this looks. Everything looks clean and bright, and the marble is gorgeous. Originally, we had planned the marble accent to be a carerra marble tile, but all the tiles that came in only looked white with just enough gray to make them look dirty. There was almost no veining in any of the tile, and it really looked awful. Thankfully my husband saw it before they tiled the whole shower and stopped them. On the downside, it set us back several days until they could reschedule.

I went to the Tile Shop in Richmond to find a replacement tile when we knew the carerra wouldn’t work. They helped me immensely, and even took into the back to let me look through their selection of marble pencil tiles. I knew this was the one as soon as I saw it. It reminded me of “ming green” marble tiles that the designer Sarah Richardson likes to use in her projects. We love her portfolio, so I knew Mr. Lucky would like it. They had everything I needed in stock, and so we were ready to rock by the next day.

The tile is still not finished however– there is a small section along one side that is not finished, and there is another part that bumps out.

Bowed Out Tile

I think it’s from the drywall mud being too thick behind it. I am so disappointed by this. It looks much better grouted and caulked, but you can still see it sticking out some. I would think that for the amount of money we are paying, and that this project is a complete gut- that it should be done right. It should look good and be done well, and I find this unacceptable. I could live with it if I had to, and it might not be noticeable once the shower door is in, but come on people. Do it right the first time.

You can see in the picture above that the room has already been painted, and it’s a beautiful soft gray. I need to look up the name, but I think it was Sherwin Williams’ “Passion.” The electrician has been to visit us too, but installed the light fixture upside down.

New Light Fixture Upside Down

It’s the type of fixture you can install either up or down, but I had wanted it the other way, primarily so that I didn’t see the light bulbs. When it is on, it just glares into my eyeballs. Not fun. But! There is plenty of light in there now and it looks so much better than it did before! Hopefully in another week I will have after shots for you. In the meantime, tile needs to be fixed and finished, plumber needs to come out, and we need the shower door installed.

Here’s hoping we don’t get into week six….

Filed Under: Before and After, Homey Stuff, Uncategorized Tagged With: master bath reno, master bath renovation, new shower room, shower renovation, tiled shower

5 Mar | 2013

Master Bath Remodel – Part 1

March 5, 2013 By The Lucky Lass 2 Comments

Mr. Lucky and I finally bit the bullet and brought in a contractor to renovate our master bathroom. We do not have enough money to have the whole thing done, so we wanted to focus on the most important part- the shower room. In this post, I am going to show you some never before seen before pictures of the master bath, and show you so demo pictures, as well as explain the things they found wrong. Oh yes, as with most renos you come across things that make you say, “What were they thinking??” This bathroom is no exception. Although, I think the sad part is the house is not even ten years old yet. This is a fairly “new” built construction and it was very poorly done.

Shower Room Before

The shower room measures about five feet by six feet, and contained a small, glass-enclosed, corner shower and a toilet. One small fluorescent recessed light above the shower was all the light this little space had. One nice feature of this room, is that the ceilings are about fifteen feet high. Having such high ceilings certainly helps make it feel not so tight and cramped.

Odd Unused Space

Black Tiled Shower – not helping with keeping it light

We first knew we had some issues with this room when I found a little mushroom growing up in between the shower and the floor. After some inspection in the basement, we realized that there must be a leak, and now the entire subfloor was being eaten up by mold. We had mold experts come out and do tests at a time when we barely had a penny to spare, and thankfully everything tested to be within normal limits. At this point, we simply stopped using the shower, and realized that before we sold the house we would have to replace the shower and at least the floor in that little room. Fast-forward a few years, and we finally have some money in our savings account to do something.

Jetted Tub with Secret Cat Hideout

Living in this house for nearly five years, we have come to recognize the flaws and problems. The master bathroom is a cobbled piece of puppy poop. The main part of the bathroom has its own share of problems. Some problems including a jetted tub that was used before the house had a water treatment system in place, so it is stained Virginia clay red; the tiled opening to get to the electrical for the tub broke within the first week of us living in the house; and the vanity. Oh the vanity! Problem #1- bought at a second hand store (we think) it was originally an oak color that someone primed but never actually painted. #2- the vanity was meant for a single sink, but they modified it to fit a double. This in an of itself is not a huge problem, but it means there is very little space on the counter, and the drawers were screwed in place so storage underneath is also crazy and not very easy to get to.

Cramped Double Sink – Keeping it real people!

We didn’t even realize there was a bottom drawer that pulls out across the entire vanity until a few months ago. Yay for extra storage! Boo because it’s really awkward to open and it’s broken up inside so the only thing that sort of fits are a few rolls of toilet paper.

Extra Storage – sort of

On top of it all, it, the sink, the faucets, the tile, and the floors are all just ugly, and none of the trim matches- each window and door opening had a different kind of trim around it accounting for a total of FOUR different looks.

Tile Trim Around Doorway – tile what?

It was all such craziness! So to sell the house, we know we HAD to fix the shower room but I also thought it would look really pitiful to just fix that room and leave the rest of it looking like crap. Excuse my language but really, I couldn’t see anyone walking into this bathroom and thinking they could live here. So we saved our pennies and called one of our friends who happens to be a contractor, drew up a contract, and figured out what we could do.

Two weeks ago, demo started. A really nice guy named Lloyd came out and ripped out everything in two days. He did a great job, and called us in a few times to show us stuff and to ask questions. First, we found that the mold did grow all over the subfloor, and you can see the outline of the shower stall. As we expected, the builder did not properly seal the shower (at all), and it leaked around the entire thing.

Yucky Subfloor

All of that went out, and new subfloor went in. Looking good there, non-spongey floor!

New Subfloor

Second item that presented itself was the fan/vent. We wanted to replace the fan with a better, quieter model that also had a light in it. Upon taking out the old fan, Lloyd noticed it was not actually venting to anywhere- it was just moving air into the attic. Awesome, NOT. Talk about conditions for mold! Geeze, it’s almost like the builder of this house wanted mold to run rampant. Thankfully, we do not actually have any mold up there (maybe from not really using the shower much), and a few days later someone came out to put in a new vent that went into the soffit.

Before – One Light One Dinky Fan

Progress – New Fan Dry Fit

The third item that came to our attention were the walls in the room. Originally, there were these bump-outs that we thought existed for some reason. But in taking down the drywall, we discovered there was no reason for them at all except to make the room smaller. So down came the walls, and we added a few more square feet to our footprint. It did mean that we had to move the shower head to the opposite wall so that it wouldn’t be on an exterior wall. There was also just enough space to fit a five foot by three foot shower pan. We had thought at first with installing a four foot by three foot vinyl shower pan, but if we can fit an extra foot, do it!

Sheetrock Down Bumpouts Gone

The reason we chose a vinyl shower pan was mostly about money. They are cheap and seamless. I really wanted a schluter shower system (as I’d seen them on Holmes on Homes) but no one here had even heard of it (really). Our contractor also repeatedly reminded us that since we are planning on selling in a few years, we don’t want to sink a ton of money into this bathroom (or the house in general). Basically, spend just enough to look good and be right. So while a tiled shower floor would look awesome, we could not really justify a couple extra thousand dollars to spend on it. So here’s the new shower pan in place. They actually had to shave a little bit off a few of the studs to make it fit.

New Vinyl Shower Pan

A few days after demo, the electrician came in to do his thing. His list was short and sweet. We wanted to keep the existing recessed light, but add the new fan with light, and also a wall sconce so that Mr. Lucky could see what he was reading on the commode. He also moved all the switches to the outside of the room.

New Switches

The four switches turn each of the lights on and off separately, as well as the fan and its light separately. Thankfully, we did not get any bad news from him- the worst of it was having to stack two of the switches because there was not enough room for a four-switch box.

About a week later and everything has passed inspection and now we’re just waiting for the dry wall guys to show up. They had some other, larger job on their list that came first, so our “ten-day” reno is turning into three weeks. I’m mildly annoyed but not surprised. I really did expect it to take longer than predicted, but why can’t people just be up front about it? Oh well, hopefully everyone will show up this week and it will be done- except for the shower door.