Master Bath Update

Over the last few weeks, my hubby has been updating our master bathroom. When we bought this house in 1996, it was perfect. The colors were perfect. The size was perfect. The outside was non-existent other than a fence and the entire yard being sodded.

And it was a model home for the neighborhood. It was one of the first houses built to showcase the 1) neighborhood, 2) the builder, 3) it was built in 1994 or 1995.

Which means, it is seriously dated.

Over the years, we did many things to this house, mainly outside. The inside didn't need much work.

tile floor hubs laid many years ago

Except about eight years ago, the hubs was seriously tired of the carpeting in the bathroom, so he tiled the floors of both upstairs baths. Now, I couldn't just let the tiles be boring squares. I had to have a pattern. A few years later, he added a light in the shower. Now I could see what on those cloudy gloomy days. .



light for shower stall

Fast forward--since the floors were redone, we knew it was only a matter of time before we tackled the wallpaper. We would go to new house builds and home shows, but up until this last year, everything was dark browns/beige and dark granite counters.

Did I mention that I HATE granite? Especially dark blacks/browns? Yeah, hate it. This year, many model homes were returning to lighter counters.

And guess what? Our bathroom counters are light marble! Imagine that! The cabinets are Merilatte, and I have to say that I LOVE them. They are plastic coated white and cleaning them is easy-easy!

Now, I was ready for the hubs to redo the bathroom.

I had one final request--keep the gold fixtures.

Now, this wasn't because I'm overly fond of gold, but because it would become extremely pricey to replace: 2 sink faucets and drains, 1 large light fixture, 3 towel bars plus toilet paper holder, one Jacuzzi faucet set, one shower set (head and knob are separate), and one shower door and frame.

Since the bath would retain the gold fixtures, we were limited to the colors that would work well with it.

We chose Mount Tam, by Kelley Moore paints. It's a dark olive green color. I tried to upload a color swatch, but they have it blocked. Sorry.

Before hubs started ripping off wallpaper, we knew the tall ceilings would need a little accent. The wallpaper had a border, so we decided that crown molding would help offset the ceiling, plus add a more regal quality to the bathroom.

Yes, my hubs cut the molding and installed it. He has skills . . . and some really cool tools. You can see the molding in some of the finished pictures at the bottom of the blog.

He also painted the ceiling (18 years, remember? It needed it!), and we replaced the vents and various other fixtures that looked nasty over time and bathroom dampness. The ceiling color is called Cubist Grey. Actually, the ceiling and most of the walls inside the house are painted this color.

Here's some pictures. Sorry, but I don't have any before pics the reno because the hubs started in on the bathroom before I took some shots! Here are a few in process. . . . and Maggie managed to photobomb mot of them!

This is the room with the toilet. This was the one wall that didn't have sizing on it prior to the wallpaper, which results in tearing the drywall paper.
 



This is the same room with the crown molding and post painting. The wicker trashcan and tissue cover are NOT new, but they seem to work in this room!

 



This is the old fixture, but we purchased new lamp shades--alabaster in a bell shape. The original shades were off white in a tulip pattern with petals that almost touched the shades next to it. I think it helps modernize it a little.  

Our double sink area. The mirror was a %$## to move out of the bathroom and back into the bath. But we managed without breaking it. YAY! We have new towels on order. These off white ones are being retired to the car rag bin. New soap dispensers--you can't find anything gold, so I'm going to buy some gold paint and paint the pumps to match.  Maggie is relaxing in her spot near the Jacuzzi tub. The black iron tree on the wall is new décor.

 These are candle holders we found at Pier One. This shelf is larger than it looks and it takes up a lot of space. One of the hub's projects is to put some shelves into it with doors to give us a linen closet in this room, which is sorely missing!
I don't want curtains, so I'm getting hubs to make a wooden valence like he did in our formal dining area.

Close up of the candle holders and the "books" ( found at the at home store, previously Garden Ridge)

 

So there you have it. One bathroom down, and one and a half to go. I DID manage to snap a few pics of my daughter's bathroom before they were stripped down!

 

Later, Peeps! 

Yarn

So I wonder which one I'll chit-chat about today:

A) Spinning a good yarn, i.e. telling a good tale.

B) Yarn the material used in knitting or crocheting. Originally spun from wool, but now made from synthetic fibers.

Hm, A or B? A or B?

Actually, I thought about B, but if I have time I might touch on A.

Today, the topic is yarn, the material. And as any good blog reader wonders, "What's up with that?"

Here's the dealio. I finished making the Angels All Around afghan and mailed it to my brother--hopefully this bro will think to send me an email to let me know it arrived safely--*hint, hint*--and yes, this is a sore subject on many levels.

Anyhoo, the yarn brand I usually buy from Hobby Lobby--I Love this Yarn--was cleaned out. Though I did find six skeins (I had an extra one already) of the same lot number of Ivory to make another Angels All Around for Brenda Novak's For the Cure auction in May. But they didn't have enough skeins of a light and dark color to make a different afghan called, Comfy Cozy.

1 of 12 strips, dark sage green

Red Heart had two colors that would work, plus it was a dollar less per skein. I chose dark sage for the centers of the strips and light sage for the borders. The strips are narrower than the other patterns, but I have to make more of them.

While crocheting the first strip, I wasn't paying attention to the texture since hubs and I were catching up on Arrow, and I was learning a new pattern. I started crocheting the second strip while watching the kidlet at swim practice. That was when I started to pay attention to the texture. Maybe it was just the heat and humidity in the natatorium, but I really don't care for the texture of this brand--it's coarse to work with and doesn't slide through my fingers as easily. *blech*

Oh, I'll finish this afghan, and the colors will look very pretty, especially if my other bro has brown leather furniture, but I hope the yarn becomes easier to work with.

We shall see. I'll discuss spinning a good tale vs. diagramming sentence structure at a later date.
Won't that be special?

Later, Peeps!