Thursday, July 8, 2010

The AO House: Bathroom Before

My current project is the main level bathroom. Well - it's not so current. "We've" been working on this bathroom since we moved in to the house in April 2009. This bathroom and the kitchen were the main projects that we tackled, as they both needed a complete gut job renovation.

Carter, his dad, and my dad all pitched together to complete different parts of the bathroom reno. And, it's actually been done for a good while (several months). When they were done with their genius work (you should see the tile job in our shower by my father-in-law), they handed me a beautiful white box, which as I've mentioned before, has been quite a challenge (so many possibilities).

As I will likely post more about the bathroom as it slowly comes together, I thought I'd show you what we were working with in some "before" shots:

Glorious mustard yellow/peach-ish tile









As you can see, it was old, dirty and way ugly. And yet, we didn't run away terrified when we toured the house. I'm actually very fond of this type of tile work typical of our home's era (1950s), but the color of these tiles was NOT working for me. We've decided to keep the tile work upstairs, but this tile (and basically everything in this bathroom) had to go.

Demolition begins:








Farewell sad little mustard toilet.

The finishes in this bathroom were one of the first things we picked, and looking back, I would have made some changes (doesn't that always happen) but overall, I'm happy with what we've done. The floor and shower have gotten new white tile, the walls have gotten beadboard wainscotting, the tub has been reglazed to white and we have a new toilet and pedestal sink.

I will post more pictures, but there is no fun in an "after" without the "before"!

8 comments:

  1. Ooh. demo is fun. Can't wait to see the afters!

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  2. That mustard yellow is heinous! Too bad they couldn't just do a nice black and white, which is so classic....

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  3. Hello! I am certainly looking forward to your "after" BUT, I must say, that I AM sad that you got rid of the old "stuff" -- I think it was pretty nice! How bad can yello be? It was a very nice tile job, in my opinion. Maybe you could have 'worked' with it and painted the vanity black (which is what I plan to do with my bathroom to update it to save money) -- so please keep that in mind before you re-do your other bathroom. You will save yourself a lot of money! Find comfort in the old! NOT that I DON'T like the 'new' - but in this economy, we all have to work with what we have! No? (Yes, I know, I can hear you saying, "Is she trying to ruin and take away from my beautiful redo to come???" No! Certainly not! I just want you to think about saving what you have with your SECOND bathroom! Guess I am old-fashioned... :)
    Best regards,
    Gloria

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  4. P.S. Hope you are not mad at me for giving my opinion... You happen to be THE blog that I've connected to where I have finally said my thoughts about people re-doing stuff that I don't think needs to be re-done. I have seen SO MANY recently! (Yes, again, I can hear you saying, "Hey! Who asked this person for guilt for me for demo-ing my bathroom!")
    Again, apologies! Please don't be mad?
    gv

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  5. Hi Gloria - not mad at all! I happen to agree with you - we bought our house because it was old and quirky. As I mentioned in the post, we are indeed keeping the tile upstairs, because we like it. I just couldn't live with the color in the downstairs bath - it was ugly, and I want to love my home.

    Since re-doing it, I have seen options such as painting the tile, which I was not aware of at the time (an estimate to reglaze the whole bathroom was out of our budget), so I may have taken a different approach. But, we're happy with our choice. I appreciate your comment - thanks!

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  6. Hi, Daniela! I not only became a Follower, but I subscribed to your blog, so I got the email about your new post (above). So after I read it and enjoyed it, I then I scrolled down and saw your bathroom post and said to myself, "Hey, I think that I commented on this!" (You know how many 'blogs' we all view--it's hard to keep track!) So I scrolled down again and saw your answer to me... THANK YOU for being gracious. You could have said, "Oh my, I don't know this person, didn't she ever hear of 'If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all?'" So I appreciate your graciousness in your reply to me!! :)
    Best,
    Gloria

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  7. Ihave that exact same pink tile in my house and I HATE IT!! If I wasent a renter I would have pulled out my hammer and removed it all. But since I dont own, I cant, ahhh the joys of renting :)

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