We are finally getting around to a post for the main bathroom and the guest room, despite the fact that the rooms (neither of them) are completely done, but because we must move on to the next phase, we thought we were close enough to do a post for each of these rooms and we'll just explain a bit of what still needs to be accomplished.
We'll start with the guest room. This bedroom is on the second level of the house and because this house was never meant to have a second story, the ceiling height is an issue. At about four inches under 7 feet, most people can stand in the space, but some (like a certain family member who was paying us a visit recently) who stand at over 6' in height, will certainly not want to use the area to do jumping jacks.
Beyond the issue of the ceiling height, the guest room was arguably up for the most disgusting room in the house when we purchased it. I know we've said that about nearly every room, but the individual who was residing in this space didn't seem to care about anything. He is also the individual who opened large bags of dog food and spread it all over the carpet to feed his dogs. At some point, he (or someone) sprayed some type of substance on the ceiling and let it drip down, and he also made so, so, so many holes in the walls that I have to wonder what on earth he was doing in the room. Truly, the photos do not do justice to just how filthy and smelly this room was. I didn't want to even go in it, let alone touch anything inside it.
This room also has only one small window (again, because it was never meant to be living space when the house was built, but rather would've been used as attic storage), which makes for a very, very dark room. In some ways, I'm glad we waited to do this room because it gave some time to really ponder what to do to the space to help it feel better (beyond the sage-ing, which took place immediately upon move in).
Everything that has been done in all of the other rooms had to be done to this room, starting with pulling out the filthy carpet, removing all the staples from the wood flooring beneath it, texturing the walls, adding/replacing trim and baseboards, painting, changing out the door and hardware, replacing the light fixture, replacing plugs, switches, and so on. In addition, this room had no heat, so that was added in the form of an electric wall heater. We've had good luck with these in the past in my studios, and since there is no ducting for the central heating system upstairs, it made sense for this room. Granted, it wasn't a fun project for Sam, but he was able to get it done so no one will freeze in cold months.
There was really quite a bit of behind-the-viewable work done in this room, but it's also the stuff that most people don't care to read about, but it all became quite time-consuming. Unfortunately, we were working on a tight timeline to get this ready for our visitor, so we weren't great about taking photos along the way.
As with other rooms in the house, we decided to use the same flooring upstairs that we used to cover the painted wood floors on the main level. Since Sam was busy with other items, I was tasked with laying it in this room. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I will admit that it was also quite painful on the hands and knees.
The closet doors were an item that I was worried about from the beginning as well. First, they don't sit well/don't close properly, but they also are covered in spray-on wall texture because whomever did the wall texture decided to spray it absolutely everywhere and as heavily as possible. I had thought that if we pulled them off, I could sand it off, but as Sam discovered when he tried to help out with this part of the project, it's a lot harder to remove than we anticipated. In fact, it was so difficult to remove, that we didn't quite get to putting them back in place before our visitor arrived, so he had to live with open closet space until we're able to get them put back on.
Eventually, they will have hardware that coordinates with other areas of the house and we'll get them to sit better on the closet as well.
As for the rest of the room, this is what it looks like now.
The main bathroom was another space that was up for the vote of "most disgusting room in the house." In some respects, it was nice to work on these two rooms at the same time because they were both so gross and it has provided some mental relief to see the spaces get cleaned up.
One of the frustrations with the main bathroom in this house was the layout. Again, having some time to think about it while we worked on other rooms, I really wanted to change the configuration. It didn't make sense to me that the toilet was sitting behind the door when one walks into the room and then there was a great deal of void space between the vanity and the shower.
But, as has been the case in other rooms, Sam was hesitant to attempt to rearrange the space because of the foundation and the potential difficulty with re-routing plumbing. I was not thrilled with leaving everything in the same configuration, but I also didn't want to create more headaches for us to deal with (as there are plenty without making additional as we move along).
We pondered a bit and ultimately decided that things would stay in the same format, but that we'd do our best to improve the feel and space in the room.
The first thing to happen was to get everything out of the space, and since we don't have another tub or shower in the house, that meant we'd be showering at the gym until we got the bathroom back to a functional level. So, we wanted to make sure we could move as swiftly as possible and made sure we had the majority of pieces before starting at all.
It was a vast improvement, simply by removing everything. We also got to see where there was likely a much larger window at some point in time in this room. Our best guess is that there was likely only a tub at some juncture, and when a shower was installed, the old window space was covered up and a newer, smaller version was put in its place, centered on the wall.
Also, to my surprise, we realized that there was almost two feet of space sitting behind the tub/shower wall going unused. In such a small bathroom, I was shocked that this space wasn't utilized (whether for storage or a larger shower), so I wanted to do a small closet/cabinet area here when we re-installed everything. But, because we planned to do an inset shelf in the shower, we realized that it would leave only a very small space after it was drywalled, so opted to let that project go. Perhaps, someday in the future, someone else will discover this same space and decide that it should be cabinetry.
More behind-the-scenes work took place, including plumbing, fixtures, and moving the new tub into place. As has become a tradition, Sam broke the new tub. Ugh. As he was sliding it into place, it wouldn't quite fit and one of the corners split off. After fixing the tub in our last project house (and in a much more inconvenient location), I know that there are fixes, so I told him not to stress about it. It's just always upsetting to have something brand new break.
I'll spare anyone reading the painfulness of tiling and grouting this room. It was not something I would care to do again - I'll say that much, but it got done. The tile that we used had been chosen for the shower stall in the secondary bath, but because we didn't end up installing a shower in that space, we decided to instead use it in this bathroom and avoid having to make yet another decision about tile (and to find something in stock).
Somewhere along the way, Sam made a comment about installing a pocket door instead of the swinging door that was originally in this room. Genius! Yes, yes, and yes. Although I know he regretted ever mentioning it, I am so very glad he did, because it honestly makes such a huge difference in the layout and feel of this room.
We'd also chosen a much larger vanity for this room than what was in it prior. The room needed a little more storage and the wonky cabinet in the corner wasn't a good solution. I was personally a tad unsure about how the larger vanity would work out, but after getting it into place, it seems like an appropriate decision.
The things that are a part of this house without completely taking it down to bare bones remain. The floors still slant, walls are still crooked, but we think that the space is much more conducive to use today than it was before.
There are still things to be done in this room as well. Some of the tiles need to be fixed on the floor, the inset shelf inside the shower needs some finishing work with tile as well, but all-in-all, the work is closing in on being finished and we are so very glad to be able to shower and bathe once again at home. This room was a lot of work (and it's still not complete), but every time I am in it, I appreciate it just a little more.
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