Our unFINISHED master bath

So....I kinda lied to you guys.  I told you I would show you our finished master bathroom and well, I can't. I wish I could...TRUST ME, I really wish I could.  But, it's not finished.  Our bathroom is one of two rooms in our house that I am not happy with.  There are things I love about it, but overall, I'm not thrilled with it.  I love the feel and look of it, but it's just not perfect to me yet.  That being said, here are the pictures of our bathroom the way it looks right now.

Here is what you see when you walk in.  The trim is not all painted and the bead board still needs a molding across the top.   I love the exposed pipes on the tub!  Ben has good taste!

$5 to the first person to point out what's missing in this next picture....

Yup, that's right-we STILL don't have mirrors!!  See the little round mirror on my vanity?  Ben and I take turns with that in the mornings! HAHAHAHA!  not kidding.  (I WAS, however, kidding about the $5.) LOL.  The reason we don't have mirrors yet is simple-I can't find any I like.  I have searched high and low, and can't find the perfect mirrors.  I want dark wood frames, and it's amazing how difficult it has been to find them!

Here is the massive shower that Ben HAD to have! Haha.  I got my tub, so he insisted that we not skimp on the shower.  He is very tall, so we had to have more glass than the average shower.  All of the fixtures and the frame are oil rubbed bronze.  The shower walls are just white on white cultured marble and I LOVE them!  SOOOOO much easier to keep clean than tile and grout!!  See the painter's tape on the ceiling? Hahaha....that's where the light is supposed to go.  We just haven't picked out a shower globe yet! 

Here's another view.  This is my vanity and you can see the doors into our hideously messy and small closet, and the bedroom.

We have a separate potty room.

 This house has verrrrry little storage space, so I don't have any linen closets.  This is how we store the towels, wash cloths, bath stuff, etc.  Not the prettiest, but it works for now.

Here's my pretty chandelier I mentioned in the last post.  Nothing SUPER fancy, but it's perfect for the space and exactly what I wanted!  Thank you Lowes!

And all lit up.  It's so pretty at night when it's dark!

Here's a close up of the lights over our vanities.  I love how the globes have the lacey etchings on them!! Very antique looking...but in a brand new light!

This is all you get to see of our closet right now.  I've got to get some cute baskets to organize all that junk on top.  Oh-and I have 2 words for small spaces....pocket doors.  We did one here, going into our bedroom from the bathroom, and in Audrey's bathroom as well.

There you have it!  That's our master bathroom as it sits right now.  So what's on the to-do list in here?  

-finish painting all trim

-find MIRRORS!!!

-finish molding on bead board

-find and install shower globe

-new blinds and curtain for the tub window.  It does have blinds by the way.  I just put them up for the pictures! I wouldn't want to scare the neighbors! ;)

Master Bathroom Beginnings

It turns out the hubs took a couple pictures of our master bathroom in the works that I didn't know he had.  They were all on his phone, so let me go ahead and apologize for the terrible quality!!  Remember that first night we walked through the house and that little concrete room that Ben told me would be the master bathroom??  In case you missed it, this is how it started.

The neighbors told us that the previous owner used this as her TV room.  This isn't a great picture to really understand the layout of the space.  The wall you see to the very far left is the wall that now separates our closet from the bathroom.  We ripped out the wood paneling and sheet rocked over the doorway you see on the far right.  

Now, think back to the kitchen/dining room area.  We took down a wall in the dining room, and it was then "hooked" to this concrete room.  So, in order to frame in our bathroom, we had to build a new wall.   Have I confused you yet? :)  Here's a picture to help.  Again, these were taken on a phone.

At this stage, the dining room wall had just come down, and we had ripped out the wood and sheet rock separating the closet from the "concrete room."  See waaaayyy back there in the back?  That little room with the spots on the walls used to be the owner's bathroom.  It is now our closet.

Here's a close up of the old bathroom that is now our closet.  All of the walls were tiled, and when we ripped it out, it left black spots everywhere.  Old glue or mortar maybe?

This picture shows the dining room after we had the new wall built.  See the studs back there?  The "concrete room" is on the other side of those studs.  Once it was all sheet rocked and finished, it separated the bathroom, and created a little hallway right off the dining room.

Here it is with the sheet rock.  The stud you see is a column we had to add for support.  There is another one across the dining room as well.

Ok, so how much have I confused you?  I realize how hard this must be to follow, and it's equally as difficult to explain!  The concrete was VERY unlevel, so my dad mixed some kind of concrete stuff he poured on the floors.  It settles into the low parts and makes it more level.  It doesn't work perfectly, but it helps a lot!  I knew I wanted a large tile, and you CANNOT lay big tiles on uneven floor!

There were 3 things I wanted in our master bath.  One was a claw foot tub, and hubby delivered!  The second was a gorgeous crystal light over the tub, and I found the perfect one at Lowes!  (I'll show you later!)  The third was bead board!  Ahhhh...bead board, how do I love thee?

I chose a huge tile (I believe they are 20x20).  We got enough to continue into the closet, simply because I didn't want to break up the floor so much.  Because of the layout of the house, you have to walk through our bathroom to get to our closet.  We have hardwood in the bedroom, and I knew there would be tile in the bathroom.  We hate carpet, and don't have a single piece in the entire house.  So, tile for the closet as well!  Dad and I laid the tile together.  It was a lot harder to do than Audrey's shower because the tiles were so much bigger.  Plus, they weighed 20 pounds a piece.  I'm not kidding.  Each box was 100 pounds and there were only 5 tile per box!  They are some kind of marble....I didn't pay much attention...I just knew they were purrrrrrdy! :)  I picked two dark wood vanities from Lowes; one 36 inch and one 48 inch.  The shower is in the corner between them.  So....here is what you get to see of our bathroom right now!

This was before bead board, paint, shower, etc.  We had just finished grouting the tile, so we basically just set the tub and vanities in there to get a feel for things!

The shower pan is installed here, but the glass was yet to come!

So do you understand the layout of our bathroom or have I completely thrown you for a loop?? :0)  Stay with me!  

 

An October Christmas

If you know me well, you know that I hate surprises.  Well, let me clarify.  I hate "surprises" that you know are coming.  Like Christmas presents.  You KNOW they are coming....and you still have to wait for them.  Maybe that's what I don't like-just waiting in general.  I peaked at my presents every year when I was a kid.  One year I even unwrapped things under the tree while no one was home and rewrapped them! Hahaha!!! I know, I know, I'm awful.  Everyone tells me.  But I just can't stand the suspense!! The only kind of surprise I like is an ACTUAL surprise-one that you have no clue is coming!!  Well, back in October of 2009, my husband delivered an actual surprise! (It's hard to do with me! I always know!)  He called home from work and said I was not allowed to come outside when he got home.  (My daughter and I would always run out to the driveway when we heard his truck coming down the road.)  Apparently, my Christmas present was in the back of his truck, and I was getting it that night!!  Woohoo! My kind of Christmas! :)  Later that night, we all went out to the farmhouse, and this is how it all went down....

I was greeted by Santa!

Even his reindeer came to help.  (This is our Papa John-Ben's dad!)  They are removing the GIANT wooden box that covered the present.

This was written on the box. <3

Here we are waiting to see what's underneath the box!  Doesn't she look excited  scared?!

I know what it is!!!!

A gorgeous claw foot tub for our master bathroom! Ahhhh...he does listen! :)

We were so excited!!  There is nothing like a hot bubble bath after a long day!

It's huge!!!!  We love it!

I think she was wondering where the water was....

Merry Early Christmas to ME!!!  (and Audrey Grace!)