Say goodbye to the circus - a bungalow bathroom renovation

Big project. After contemplating it for several years, we finally found - or were given - the time to rehab our bathroom. It is a limited rehab in that we did not change out the floor tile and we kept the plumbing fixtures but we did change out all of the lighting, wallpaper, accessories and decor. 

To say that things were rough to begin with is an understatement. The bathroom was a sort of mish mosh of thigns that had been added over the years. The over-sized and low-hanging light fixture, the big cabinet over the toilet, and the weird wallpaper choice all made the room a bit full and made me feel claustrophobic. 

The layers of paint and chipping and delaminating plaster were particularly bad in this room and there was some bad cracking and mold on the ceiling that just couldn't be fixxed given the surface texture and years of poor upkeep. 

The fist big part of the project was to remove all of the wallpaper. We were very fortunate that this part was relatively easy. We perforated the surface and sprayed it with warm water and it pealed off without too much work. After getting the paper down, I washed down the walls several times to remove all of the glue. 

There was a significant amount of patching to do in this room before we could paint. The main walls had odd score marks. It looked like the PO's contractor cut the wallpaper in place, scoring all of the original plaster. The lower part of the walls are all original faux tile - a plaster scored to look like tile. 

Thee were some areas where the original finish of the faux tile was visible and it was an incredible finish - as fine as Venetian plaster. Unfrotunately it had been covered with several years of paint to the bestw e could do is to patch areas that had fallen off and then apply another layer of paint. 

 

For the fixtures and accessories and all of the new hardware, we chose a polished nickel finish. This way all of the new stuff matches and it has a classic look. Nothing in the room was original so we figured we could take some liberties with this and get what we like. Unfortunately, with COVID happening, getting orders in has been a bit difficult but we have everything now except a couple towel bars. 

The new ceiling fixture is nice and high but still has some character so the room feels much lighter and larger.  

The colors that we chose for the room are much cooler than what we have around the rest of the house. My wife and daughter chose them all. We used all Sherwin Williams paints and the lower color and trim is "Greek Villa", the ceiling is "Crisp Blue" and the walls are "Debonair". I'd like to say that I miss the circus that was our previous decor but I don't. This is such a welcomed change. 

We are particularly happy with our choice of fixtures over the refurbished medicine cabinet. It is the Davis Double sconce with the faceted turtle shade. It provides a good amount of light and is also very decorative - and doesn't hang down over the cabinet the way our old one did.  

For being almost 100 years old, we are happy with our medicine cabinet. We had to change out the hardware though. A Home Depot white pull and plastic magnet latch just didn't do it justice. New polished nickel hinges and thumb latch fit the look of the historic bathroom and coordinate well with the rest of the room.  

 As we add more details, I'll update with another post but the bathroom is being used again and we are happy with how it came out. 

More Siding Restoration Work

I really should post on this thing more than once a year. Actually, I really should work on the house more than once a year but life being as it is, I just haven't had the time. Hopefully that will change in the coming year. 

 This [ast spring I was able to finish all of the painting on the front of the house (except the front gable). We will be hiring out the gable work because it is just too precarious for me and I don't want to take any chances.

I also tackled the south side of the house. This side is by far the worst in terms of condition. This is where the flashing from the roof went behind the fascia so there was quite a bit of damage. The scraping and sanding was extensive.   

There was also a tiny bit of carpentry work required on this side. When the PO installed the siding, they removed the piece of trim above the bottom board on the bay. I replaced that with a new piece of trim.

It was great to "turn the corner" on the painting and it is looking great. I should be able to finish this side and maybe even get a bit of the north side done before the snow starts flying. Crossing my fingers for some good weather this weekend!

Starting the Big Paint Job

Over the past few months, I've spent most of my free time stripping, sanding and painting and I finally have something to show for it. We agonized over paint colors and ended up choosing a series of colors in Sherwin Williams' "Arts & Crafts" series.

A big part of the painting process is scraping old paint. We decided not to remove all of the paint but instead are only removing the loose paint, sanding to feather the edges, priming and painting.

We spent a lot of time determining the technique we would use to paint trim and sills. I'll devote and entirely new blog post to that in the coming weeks.

Here are some progress photos of the front porch so that you can get an idea of what the finished product will look like. 

Color inspiration on my morning run

I am very fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has no shortage of well maintained landmark homes to draw inspiration from. Even outside the historic districts, there are plenty of excellent examples of bungalow paint colors and exterior renovations that are really well done. This morning, I decided to take some extra time, and log a couple extra miles, looking for some paint color inspiration in the neighborhood. Here are a few of my favorites.