The Cottage Bathroom Becomes a Room : Post 2

The last couple of weeks have been pretty transformative in the Cottage. The bathroom almost looks like a room that you might feel clean in, instead of a room that is gross and dirty and full of debris.

We left off with floors and rough plumbing and SOME walls built, but not finished. We hired out the tiling for the shower to make some time up. This, of course, makes me super sad because of how much I love tiling, and I feel deep down inside as though it’s not “mine” if I didn’t do it with my own hands. But, my design was implemented beautifully by Chris Wilson, a local tiler who actually lives right down the street from the Cottage.

In progress shots :

It took a lot longer to complete than I expected, but the drywall in the closet (also hired out) was finished, and looks great. Hiring out was very stressful for me, because everyone had to wait for someone else for each step and I was ready to go and wanted to get woodworking and painting done, but I had to wait. It’s definitely not my thing to wait. I had a rough time letting go, and to be honest, I don’t think I really did let go. Turns out that what we learned in this project is that Doug (and we knew this) doesn’t like to pay for things we can do ourselves. I, on the other hand, wasn’t concerned about paying the money for the work, but I was frustrated that things didn’t go in what I felt was a logical order. It was a growing experience.

The end product of the tile is great. I must say, for the first shower in this house EVER (house built in 1876), this is a lovely one.

This shot gives a bit of the layout. The closets are behind me, and the vanity is to the right, shower and tub to the left, and the toilet is tucked behind the shower, with the shower wall a sort of privacy wall. I really like the layout a lot, and it’s so roomy. It’s also very bright, considering we took out the largest window in the room!

From the other direction, you can see the linen closet, and the entrance to the walk-in closet. Storage for days. You’re welcome, tenants.

The walk-in closet has the same flooring as the rest of the bathroom.

Color! Well, sort of. I chose a gray paint (“Platinum Band”) which I really love. It’s a great neutral for a rental, without feeling sterile or boring.

I got some paint on the walls just to see how it looked (and to get the vanity wall done before the plumber comes back to do finish plumbing (which still hasn’t happened yet, but I hope soon). I LOVE this shade of gray.

While painting was happening, we started work on the baseboards and getting everything cut and dryfit. It was a race of sorts – I was painting while Doug was getting the baseboards done. I won. Naturally.

I started painting the bottoms of the walls, so that the baseboards could go in right away and I wouldn’t have to trim them carefully. Score one for intelligent laziness. Also, I used to think the tiles on the floor were too big. Now that the room is coming together, I STILL think that smaller ones would have looked better, but I no longer think this feels like a kitchen floor. I like it much better. And, at about $.03 a tile, the price was right.

And I made sure that we had lovely cast-iron period-appropriate vent covers. Details matter to me, even in a rental!

Remember when I stripped all the hardware from this house overnight in a crockpot? Look how great the copper looks! More details that matter.

The closets are going gray, as are the ceilings in both rooms. Plain white ceilings just bore me – though they are white in all the other rooms. Also, I am now officially dying to have a walk-in closet at Martin Place. The jealousy of this bathroom is real, folks. Time to start saving my pennies.

Also on my “hate” list : boring builder-grade lights. This one in the closet had to go.

Much nicer and cuter!!! I had to fight very hard not to put a chandelier in here, as it’s not going to be my house, and I’m convinced that most of the world is wrong and wouldn’t want a chandelier in a closet.

The transition piece from the bathroom to the Living Room was expertly trimmed and cut by Doug. I still have a couple more layers of stain and poly to go, but it looks wonderful. He had some tricky trimming to do, that was probably best not to get on film.

Veronica and I got the cutting-in done in a day. There is a LOT to do in this space, but we rocked it out.

Above the shower took some balancing.

And we were ALMOST done, and I started getting tired of going up and down the ladder. Naturally, I made Doug hold my gallon of paint so I could stay put.

I’m excited about the progress that’s happened in just a few weeks. Next up – finishing the woodwork and painting, and then about 100 small projects to complete before we officially become landlords!