Bathroom Remodel

[lb2006]

My husband & I are getting ready to start our whole house remodel.  There are some items we're doing ourselves, big stuff left to the contractor - first up, the guest bathroom. 

We're moving a wall and taking everything pretty much down the the studs & starting again, plumbing included.  We bought a 1971 fixer a little over a year ago.  We wanted lakefront & to get a fabulous lot, you buy a old/needs LOT of updating house.  Our home has not had any updates except an oven insert since 1971.    The sky is the limit on remodel ideas.... I'm wanting to go with a more timeless color theme for the guest bath & am thinking grays & whites. 

Any pros/cons you can recommend with color?  I don't want the bathroom to look like it's from a certain decade, if possible.  (if that makes sense).

[mrs.jacinthe]

Can you post some pictures?

This is possibly my favorite bathroom ever:



From this TOH story: www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20628975,00.html

[lb2006]

of current bathroom? Think sea-foam green tiles all over the wall. Our current bathroom has a wall separating the tub from the toilet. We're moving that wall closer to the toilet to install a longer tub.

Here is what i'm considering (theme/color):
1.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZLRdSIp4gs/TyEAnw27CDI/AAAAAAAAF_I/2dySpTjR-rM/s1600/fullview2.jpg - i think the grout on the floor would be a pain for tile that tiny

[lb2006]

Awesome! I love the grays & whites, but am thinking a larger tile floor - i'll have to see if have a photo of our 'current' guest bath so folks can appreciate the greatness of the 70s decor

[SusanBAnthony]

Honestly I kind of love it the way it is. Very retro, lol.

But I am cheap like that, I would leave the tile and just put in a new vanity and faucets and get rid of the flower walls.

The pics posted are lovely and imo timeless except for the vanity with baskets, that seems too trendy.

[lb2006]

Here is a photo showing the vanity.Attachment Deleted

[mrs.jacinthe]

Ok, I like the tub/toilet but not so much the vanity. It's pretty much worthy. However, I think if you put in a new vanity and countertop, changed out the lights, and took down the wallpaper, the rest is definitely workable.

BUT if you're planning on a gut-reno, I think I'd probably go with a large shower instead of a tub if this is a guest bathroom. To be honest, I've never been a guest in someone's house and been all "oooh, you know what would be great? To take a bath!"

[lb2006]

okay, perhaps i should clarify - in the future, it will be our child(ren) bathroom until we add the upstairs. So i think a bathtub needs to be in there. The wallpaper is already gone, the rest is still there

[lys]

Gray is very trendy right now - I would avoid it as a main color - but use it in towels or other accents if you want to have it in the bathroom.
Focus on insulation, energy efficient furnace, water heater,appliances and good thermal windows.
How's the roof?
New exterior doors.
I like real wood floors - preferably site finished.
Bathroom - keep it neutral and plain

[pitterwoo]

Oh wow, I think that is a totally workable bathroom with the changes mentioned by mrsJ and removing the tub sticky decals. The bathroom will date, much like kitchens no matter what you do. The more your accent colors come from towels and accessories the better so your fixtures can stay neutral.

[ohjessica]

I agree, leave the tile and work around it. Flowers removed is a good first step. I would change out the vanity, frame out the mirror and change the light fixture.

[lb2006]

Jan 22, 2013 16:58:16 GMT -5 lys said:

Gray is very trendy right now - I would avoid it as a main color - but use it in towels or other accents if you want to have it in the bathroom.
Focus on insulation, energy efficient furnace, water heater,appliances and good thermal windows.
How's the roof?
New exterior doors.
I like real wood floors - preferably site finished.
Bathroom - keep it neutral and plain

Okay, perhaps i should've clarified in the original post.  Once the whole house remodel is underway, everything will be brought up to current code (i.e. re-doing entire plumbing, electrical, insulation, new windows, water heater, bolstering footers, re-pitching the roof to finish in an upstairs - including a new roof)

Flower decals are gone off the tub, as is the wallpaper.  The wall tile looks in decent shape, the floor tile is pretty bad.  I'm not sure we can rip out the vanity without messing up the tile.  The wallpaper had a think backer-paper to it.  Bathroom vents/fans weren't required in 1971, so it doesn't have one...my assumption is this backer paper was some sort of vapor barrier for the walls?

I am not putting hardwood floors in a bathroom, that's destined for disaster   We had site-finished hardwood floors at our last house.....very $$$ - we are looking at all sorts of options for this house

[house]

I love your vanity! If it were mine I would try to make it look like this with a different top:


or

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 23, 2013 9:03:31 GMT -5 lb2006 said:

Okay, perhaps i should've clarified in the original post.  Once the whole house remodel is underway, everything will be brought up to current code (i.e. re-doing entire plumbing, electrical, insulation, new windows, water heater, bolstering footers, re-pitching the roof to finish in an upstairs - including a new roof)

Whoa that's a lot of work!  Are you going to finish the whole house at once or in pieces over time?  Are you hiring it all out or DIYing it? 

We bought a 70's raised ranch fixer upper for the property as well.  It has a lot of potential with the size and layout of the rooms.  We spent the first 3 years getting the "guts" of the house updated and improving the energy efficiency by leaps and bounds.  We've put on a new roof, replaced the fuel oil furnace with a geothermal heat pump, tripled the insulation in the attic, replaced a patio door, added gutters with top of the line guards for all of our tree debris, converted the garage back into a two car garage and added new doors, replaced the well pressure tank, installed a water softener, replaced the water heater, ground down the garage floor to pitch water out of the garage and applied two layers of epoxy over it, sealed all of the exposed foundation walls, and installed a large composite fence. 

We're just now getting to the interior remodels.  We wanted to completely gut and move every fixture in our master and main bathrooms (the main bathroom being a bathroom for future kids but also the bathroom guests use as we don't have a powder room).  The master was avocado and the main bathroom was harvest gold.  They were both small at 45 sf so we expanded them to 70 sf for the main bathroom and 130 sf for the master by taking space from the odd shaped master bedroom.  That lead us to move the wall between our master bedroom and LR to gain some space back and that meant we needed to remove the chimney and two unusable fireplaces (one on each floor) that was on that wall to gain space for the master closet.  We also needed to replace the flooring in the hall and master bedroom but there was no easy spot to stop and start it so we installed new site finished solid HW in all 3 bedrooms and hallway.  We also needed to install all new windows in the areas where walls were moving so we removed and re-hung the siding on two sides of the house.  While we had the subfloor up to reroute all of the plumbing and HVAC we also decided to redo all of the basement lighting and add recessed lights.  We DIYed everything but the major plumbing and we had professional help with the electrical and custom mud shower base (ie. we ran of the the electrical lines and installed the boxes but the electrician stopped by to tell us where to put everything and to connect to the main panel and for the shower base DH helped mix the mud and install it so we got a discount).  It's taken us a very long time but we've saved a ton of money in the process.  We started in July of 2011 and we're looking to finish this spring.  Here's some pictures:

Old layout and changes


New layout


Main bathroom before


After




Master bathroom before


currently in progress




Example of the 800 sf of HW floors we installed and DIY finished on site to replace the stained white carpet.

[decoraholic]

Fox - your bathrooms are looking great!

[lb2006]

Fox - your main bathroom layout is similar to ours now, except the door is by the tub. We want a larger tub in that bathroom & will bump the separating toilet wall down one foot.

We worked with an architect for 5 months to design our new house plans & have stamped plans ready to go. We're working with the same contractor who helped us with larger projects at our last house, so he's great about us providing lots of sweat equity. My husband is great with HVAC and electrical, but we need help with footers, framing, etc.

We essentially bought the house for the location, lot & porch, and are overhauling the entire house, slowly but surely! I'd love to compare notes as we go. Y'all have been a great help - thank you for ALL of the opinions!

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 23, 2013 10:54:32 GMT -5 decoraholic said:

Fox - your bathrooms are looking great!

Thanks!  Hopefully this weekend we'll clean everything out of the master bathroom so I can post more current photos with everything grouted.  We've been focusing on drywall and paint in the bedroom so we can move out of the basement!  Sleeping on a futon gets old fast.  We're in the home stretch now though!

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 23, 2013 11:11:11 GMT -5 lb2006 said:

Fox - your main bathroom layout is similar to ours now, except the door is by the tub. We want a larger tub in that bathroom & will bump the separating toilet wall down one foot.

We worked with an architect for 5 months to design our new house plans & have stamped plans ready to go. We're working with the same contractor who helped us with larger projects at our last house, so he's great about us providing lots of sweat equity. My husband is great with HVAC and electrical, but we need help with footers, framing, etc.

We essentially bought the house for the location, lot & porch, and are overhauling the entire house, slowly but surely! I'd love to compare notes as we go. Y'all have been a great help - thank you for ALL of the opinions!

Yeah I couldn't remember what level of detail I've told you before I just feel like we have such similar homes/plans I should share.  LOL. 

Do you have any floor plans or pictures you can share of the rest of the house?  What is your expected timeline?  Are you living in the house during the remodel? 

It sounds like an awesomely big reno and an amazing lot.  I love that kind of stuff.  I've been acting as architect (I always wanted to be one) and have been drawing up floor plans since we before we even bought the house 4 years ago.  Recently I've been having lunch with the architects I'm working with right now and going through ideas with them since they love home remodeling just as much as I do.  They have been giving me all kinds of ideas on furnishings and layouts for our closet system. 

[lb2006]

Our plans electronically are too huge, we've made copies of the stamped plans & have been taking notes, drawing ourselves, etc on them.

Estimated timeline for first phase(guest bath, add a bath, kitchen, laundry, breakfast, pantry, dining area, family room)is 2-3 years as we're adopting & that's our current timeline. Later we will literally raise & re-pitch the roof to add the upstairs I have more photos, but am a little uncomfortable putting all our business on here!

And yes, our plan is to live in the house during the remodel. I say that now....