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How We Made Our Main Floor Bath a Jewel! Edmonton's Flufftastic Fairy Tells All...

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Home Stager with Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369

How We Made Our Main Floor Bath a Jewel! Edmonton's Flufftastic Fairy Tells All...

We took possession of our home in March of 2000. It's a lovely home built in the '40s with cove  and plasterwork ceilings, cross cut oak hardwood floors and a lovely large lot!

It was a mess when we bought it, even our agent had reservations about us buying it, (crayon on all the walls, a wall paper border in every room [not the same one and not the same heights] nasty stained carpet in the living room and hallway, all kinds of things) but I knew what I could do with it!

The first day we took possession I ripped out the living room and hallway carpeting to expose the beautiful hardwood underneath and scheduled to have it refinished. (Dave was a bit surprised to come to his 'brand new' house from work and find a mountain of carpet that needed to get outta there and the carpet tacking removed!)

Then I went downstairs to rip out the metal cubicle, stand alone, shower that just sat over the drain and every time someone took a shower water ran to the floor drain located by the washer and dryer. While doing that I noticed the ceiling tiles in the bathroom next to it (an actual room with a door) were all stained. So I ripped them out too and found that the joists were wet. WTH?!?

I call my dad and he says the toilet seal in the main floor bathroom must be worn out and he came over to replace it. Doncha love dads!?!

The problem was the plywood sub-floor had also gotten wet and, because in the 40's they used nails instead of screws, the floor squeaked. And squeaked. And Squeaked ! It would squeak if you breathed in there, forget about walking around or drying yourself after a bath. That sound drove me crazy! But we knew we'd have to gut the bathroom to fix it and we couldn't afford it.

So we listened to that squeak for almost 10 years. Then came the decision to get new triple pane windows and what better time to gut the bathroom so the installers could not only put a new window in, but a bigger one!before

So the demo began!

demo






demo




demo




Dave and I both worked like mad getting everything out of there! We found some cool stuff too!demo





demo




demo






We got a plumber to replace the stack and plumbing, replaced the old copper with PEX, and replaced the stained  and lifted sub-floor with new plywood and sheeted over that with another layer of 5/8 ply so we could tile.
demodemodemo










New insulation and we were ready for the window!

build




This is the only bathroom on the main floor, and the floor space is 5x5 with the bath tub adding some extra at one end, so I needed to get some storage in there somehow. So I bought a kitchen upper cabinet and inserted in between 3 studs, making sure to frame around it to keep the structural integrity of the wall. The cabinet didn't lose any of it's depth, but it doesn't stick out so far into the room.

build



I also framed a niche above that for some glass shelves.

build





Green board for the walls and it's starting to look like a room again!

build

We bought a drop in tub, so I could tile the enclosure and a vanity that was on sale at the local hardware store! Woo hoo! That bathtub sat in our dining room, then the living room, then the dining room again. The cats got very confused!
build




Then the windows finally came! How that went is a whole other post!
window




So we built a frame for the tub to drop into and we were off! Kerdi membrane for the walls to waterproof!
ditra




Heated floor and Ditra matting so we could install the marble tile I had found on sale at a local tile place Woo Hoo! I also found some shaved rock tiles so I added them to the floor.

heated floorrock floor








I had found this beautiful Kraus vessel sink with waterfall faucet online and it was even more beautiful when we saw it in person! The tile place, Flooring Factory Outlet, had 3x4 marble tiles, so we bought one to use as the vanity top and had holes hydro-drilled to fit the sink and faucet.
sink
The wall tiles had two different tones so I made a pattern with them.
tile pattern





A few years before our neighbour, who was in construction, came over and told us he had some scrap marble he was getting rid of, did we want it? Heck yeah! There were 15 slabs, 2 x 4, some wider, some longer, but I knew I could do something cool with it, so we rented a big tile saw and I made window & door frames as well as base board and a mid wall border with it.

tile pattern

The niche I made a bit of a permanent art display using marble scraps for inserted glass shelves.

niche




I did all the tile, but Dave did all the grouting.

grout



Then to draw the eye up and make the room feel taller, crown moulding and a ceiling the same colour.

crown




To add a little glamour a shallow chandelier and a big mirror. Plus more shelving above the toilet from IKEA.
chandelier



I realize the bathroom is a bit unique and not everyone might like it, but we love it, and so far have not had any negative feed back from our guests. In fact just the opposite...


bath

bath









Comments (11)

Deb McNeill
Flying M Team Small World Realty Fort Worth, Tx - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

The bath looks GREAT! Especially love that vessel sink. Darned if it doesn't look like you had a lot of fun doing this project! Congrats! Time for a long, lovely soak in that tub...

Jan 17, 2012 05:32 AM
Peg Barcelo
Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369 - Summerland, BC
The FlufftasticStager from Summerland, BC

Deb, we did have fun, but there were also a lot of frustrations as well. It was a lot of work, but no more squeaky floor! Yay!

Jan 17, 2012 06:05 AM
John McCormack, CRS
Albuquerque Homes Realty - Albuquerque, NM
Honesty, Integrity, Results, Experienced. HIRE Me!

WOW Peg when you make over you really make over!  Awesome as in night and day difference.  Great job and great post!

Jan 17, 2012 06:54 AM
Sharon Tara
Sharon Tara Transformations - Portsmouth, NH
Retired New Hampshire Home Stager

You earned that new bathroom living with that squeak for so long!  I love it...it's just beautiful!!

Jan 17, 2012 08:26 AM
Peg Barcelo
Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369 - Summerland, BC
The FlufftasticStager from Summerland, BC

Thanx John! It was a lot of work, thanx for the great feedback! I've been doing a series on small spaces and wanted to reference our bathroom, so had to post this first!

Sharon, thank you, I know you're looking at it from a Stager's perspective! It's so nice with the warm floor and silence! Woo hoo!

Jan 17, 2012 08:33 AM
Sharon Lee
Sharon Lee's Virtual Assistance - Jonesborough, TN
Retired and loving life

Peg-You are a whiz with that stuff. COOL!!! It is beautiful. Looks like it was a lot of work but the reward is wonderful.

Jan 17, 2012 10:19 AM
Peg Barcelo
Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369 - Summerland, BC
The FlufftasticStager from Summerland, BC

Sharon, we absolutely love the bathroom now! Thanx! You'll need to show us your woman cave soon!

Jan 17, 2012 11:12 AM
Pam Miller
Realty Associates - Conroe, TX
Broker Associate - Water Crest on Lake Conroe

Peg - It is Fantastic!  And, I am so impressed with all the work you did yourself!!!  Girlfriend, you are good!

Jan 17, 2012 12:22 PM
Peg Barcelo
Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369 - Summerland, BC
The FlufftasticStager from Summerland, BC

PamMmy, Thanx! I am proud of what I accomplished! Dave helped too!

Jan 17, 2012 01:04 PM
Tom Arstingstall, General Contractor, Dry Rot, Water Damage Sacramento, El Dorado County - (916) 765-5366
Dry Rot and Water Damage www.tromlerconstruction.com Mobile - 916-765-5366 - Placerville, CA
General Contractor, Dry Rot and Water Damage

You may be in the wrong profession Peg, you were born to be a contractor. That is some fine renovation work there, and you captured it all in photos. The pictures tell the story as thw work progressed - Nice!

I will go on record as saying this is excellent work!

Jan 17, 2012 05:43 PM
Peg Barcelo
Fluff My House! Home Staging Inc. 250.486.6369 - Summerland, BC
The FlufftasticStager from Summerland, BC

Tom, Thank you! It means a lot coming from someone in the biz! I really appreciate it! I love doing tile work! I found marble to be a bit unfriendly with the veins splitting every once in a while when cutting, that could be annoying... Otherwise, it was so hard to hang the mirror and IKEA shelf, because then I was covering up the beautiful tile! LOL! I always take pix of everything now. 1 to prove I did it, and 2 to write a post about it! I have befores and afters from 1997!

Jan 18, 2012 12:25 AM