Our First Home Project – Full Bathroom Edition
I had the biggest veil over my eyes when we jumped in on purchasing this little farmhouse of ours, sight unseen. I saw every imperfection as a project we could easily tackle. Cabinet doors off in the kitchen? No problem! I know how to use a drill. Appliances out of place?! No problem! We can shimmy them back where they belong alllll day…
Bathroom without a vanity…you guessed it. No problem! That is, until the girls and I arrived. At the time, I was 10 days post surgery, and after a couple of nights of brushing our teeth in the kitchen sink, Justin and I both knew this would be the space we would tackle first.
To begin with, this is the only full bathroom in our small farmhouse. Yes, even though it’s bigger than our rental home in Stony Brook, it’s still small. But, to be honest, we still have to measure (doing that this weekend) because we don’t fully trust the inspectors report. But, if we did, that report did say this home is 1138 square feet, in case you were wondering.
A square footage we happily signed on (the dotted line) for, because as I said, our rental home was well under 1000 square feet, and had about 9.90 less acres (maybe even less).
The Thing About the Bathroom is
So, here’s the thing, the bathroom pretty much mirrors about 95% of the house, and that means the walls are covered in wood paneling. Not the shiplap everyone has been putting on their walls lately but, the dark vertical wood paneling from the 70s + 80s.
I have to give it to the previous owners though, each room has a different paint color so, they were definitely trying to work with it.
In this case, the bathroom is painted white. THANK GOD! Because believe me, if you ever witness the shade of green chosen for our kitchen, it could be literally any other color. Aside from the walls, the bathroom also has a “tub surround”. You know, one of those design elements that is definitely hiding something behind it.
I’m not trying to be rude, because I can definitely see the reason behind choosing a surround but, given the attention to detail we have uncovered so far, Justin and I are a bit weary of the tub surround. I mean it doesn’t even have a faucet. Yup, that means no baths for our girls who love bath bombs and bubbles pretty much every day of the week.
Trivial! You might be saying, and on occasion, I might even agree with you for saying so. But, there are certain customs that are hard to let go of, especially when you move 13+ hours away from the place you’ve called home. Yes, there have been a few growing pains with this move.
But, it’s all a part of the journey.
No Major Renovations Just Yet
Before we get into the before and after of this mini makeover, let’s chat about the initial plans for this home. Well, the goal is to make this a beautifully, cozy, country farmhouse. One where friends and family stop by on a whim to sip some sweet tea on the front porch while watching the kiddos run wild in the yard (with all of the animals).
A simple, classic and somewhat minimal approach to style is on its way for this space. However, this project will be anything but simple. We do want to change the entire floor plan of the house after all.
However, our vision board goals for this home are currently on hold. No major renovations yet. Because our first goal is to make the space liveable and comfortable before we get to tearing it down. Now, that might seem crazy. But, we don’t want to rush into any major renovations until we get the opportunity to live in this space, and see what makes sense and what doesn’t.
Now, that brings me to you. I’m curious. What would you do with your fixer upper? Dive in and renovate or take our approach, and spend some time living in the space first?
Okay, let’s move on to what this bathroom looked like before its mini facelift.
FULL BATHROOM BEFORE
Now, what you’ve got here is a pretty standard bathroom. Tub/shower combo (without the tub option, more on that later). Loo, a couple of light fixtures and plumbing for the vanity install.
At first glance the floors look fantastic. They’re certainly in the best shape of all of the floors in this home. But, if you were to take a closer look, you would notice gapping between the planks. Ugh!
Then there’s the issue of that tub/ shower combo. Well, there is no faucet. Just a hole where the faucet should be.
And that leaves a lot of opportunity for water to get into that hole, which backs up to one of the walls in Nora’s room. Especially, with a couple of curious kids that like to make up their own adventures.
If I remember correctly, Sadie’s tale went a little like this (after I caught her trying to put water in said hole in the wall) – Ohhhh, does that hole go to Nora’s room? (smart cookie) Well, if I fill it up with water, I can shrink down to size, and swim right through to Nora’s room.
Of course, I explained how that wasn’t such a good idea. But, it’s only a matter of time before a new adventure creeps into her imagination.
The Details
This mini makeover consisted of plumbing the sink, installing the vanity, and medicine cabinet. Installing the vanity proved to be easier than Justin anticipated. But, there was that slight mix up with the hot and cold lines running to the faucet. So, if you stop by for a visit now, and need to use the WC just know that hot is cold, and cold is hot. Okay?
Justin said he is going to fix it but, I have a feeling it’s going to stay that way until we start with our big picture renovation.
I forgot to mention that the previous owners purchased two vanities, and never installed them. The trouble is neither fit the space in the full bathroom. So, we exchanged one for a smaller vanity.
The vanity in place now was a little over $100. Not too bad for a temporary fix. But, then add the drain, and faucet and I’m sure the price is closer to $200. I chose to go with matte black fixtures. I just love the look of them right now.
We also picked up a toilet paper holder that Justin installed on the side of the vanity. And hand towel holder, affixed to the wall.
The most difficult endeavor was cutting out a portion of the wall to insert the medicine cabinet. Justin discovered that the studs had been glued to the drywall. He exhausted all efforts in his attempt to remove a portion of this wood beam (and three oscillating saw blades).
Even though this part of the project took longer than expected, the beam finally gave way and Justin was able to insert the medicine cabinet in its rightful place. That just left changing out the nickel knobs for matte black. And, while I love the knobs I chose, I must admit it seems a bit large on the medicine cabinet.
We have friends who are currently taken on a major home build of their own. And, their advice was to get the bathroom fully functioning, and then set up the kitchen. Some of the best, most practical advice we’ve received so far in our journey with this space.
So, now you know where we are off to next. Getting the boxes unpacked in the kitchen, and those cabinet doors in place. But, as you may have guessed, the cabinets are in need of a major clean. So, that’s where we’ll get started. Off to our next (“make it liveable”) project!
