En Suite Bathroom

Lighten and Brighten Up!

Published on June 15, 2010September 9, 2010 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

I love light and bright rooms, don’t we all? I have compiled a list of changes we have made to make our house brighter.

1. Add a sky tube to a dark, windowless room, like our main bathroom.

2. Mirrors! The mirrors in both of our upstairs bathrooms extend to or close to the ceilings. The large mirrors reflect light while making the space feel larger.

3. Our new dining light fixture makes our space feel brighter because the shade is white. The old fixture was oil rubbed bronze, so it felt darker.

4. When Ben replaced all of our windows, he enlarged some of the windows. All three bedroom windows are now 1 foot closer to the floors. The added light does make a huge difference. Ben also made a smart decision by making egress windows in our basement. All of the basement windows were the smaller of the two shown below. Not only are the bedrooms more functional, livable bedrooms, but the light is great. It doesn’t seem as much like a basement.

5. Our new front door has a window. At first, I hated the idea, due to lack of privacy-I liked to look out our peep-hole at the people on the other side, knowing they couldn’t see me. Now, they know I’m on the other side of the door-not answering… Any who, I love the light this little window lets in. The new back door is almost entirely glass, too. I love it, lack of privacy and all.

The full glass back door floods the staircase and basement landing with light.

6. Lamps-duh! We all know they add light, but a lamp in a dark corner can make a world of difference.

Master Bathroom Reno, Take 2

Published on June 14, 2010September 9, 2010 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

After we replaced the old furnace with our new geothermal heating and cooling unit, we were able to remove the ductwork raceway in our master bathroom.

Without the wall for the ductwork, we had enough room to move our toilet and add a 5 foot bathtub/shower.

With a new floor plan, we started to re-remodel our master bathroom.

The first item to go was the small shower stall. You can see into our kitchen through that vertical hole.

The toilet and vanity soon followed. Ben moved the toilet plumbing and we got to work rebuilding. We had some sheet rock to patch after tearing down the wall, so that was the first change. Then Ben installed our new bathtub and we built a wall at the end.

We decided to make the end wall a 3/4 tall wall to keep the shower light and bright.

Once our wall was built, we installed out 12 inch square white marble surround. This is a square lay pattern with glass tile accents. I love that the marble extends to the ceiling.

More marble and grainte soon followed. Ben did a wonderful job installing our absolute black granite and white marble checker board floor. It definitely makes a statement while being classic.

We let the tile set before grouting with an unsanded white grout. Sanded grout would have scratched the marble. To keep with the rest of the house, we installed the same trim pattern we used in our master bedroom. Unfortunately, we could not completely install the trim at this point becuase we had to move our electrical panel first.

Here’s a shot of the vanity Ben built. He even cut and polished the granite!

I filled and sanded about 1,000,000 holes. A lot of primer, paint, sweat, blood and tears later, we had a new bathroom!

Master Bathroom Reno, Take 1

Published on June 11, 2010September 9, 2010 by Our Humble AbodeLeave a comment

Our master bathroom was awkward, to say the least. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of it, but here’s a layout:

As you can see, there was a lot of wasted space and even more doors. The master bathroom, and therefor, the master bedroom, were connected to our kitchen!

Ben closed the door way to the kitchen and added a shower stall in place of the small closet. The wall on the other side of the shower had to stay because the furnace duct work ran through it and out the roof. Notice the electrical panel: