Like any person who buys a house that you didn’t design yourself, there are always things you want to change. Some things are minor like the storage situation in your laundry room and some things are major like renovating your entire kitchen {it’s on the list!} and some things fall in between like updating your floors or renovating your bathroom. Before we fell down the rabbit hole of home redo ideas, and let’s be honest who can resist falling down that hole when HGTV makes it look so damn easy to upgrade errrythang, {insert what is money?} I knew one of the first things I wanted us to tackle was our master bathroom or lack there of. Our house when we bought it July of 2016 was truly beautiful and super clean even though it wasn’t totally my taste. I knew what potential each room had and figured we could update over time. After plotting and planning for a year we decided that for our sanity and the strength of our marriage, our one-person pedestal sink in the bathroom attached to our bedroom had to be reconfigured. Also, the tub on the shower had jets on it from 1999 and that kind of grossed me out so it was easy to say this is where we make things better.
The best of intentions:
As I said, the bathroom was very small for a master suite. It was a toilet, shower/tub with tile that had delicate flowers throughout… eek, and a small sink which had barely any counter space for my hot tools and you don’t want to see my hair without the assistance of hot tools– and then imagine George trying to brush his teeth in the background of the booby-trapped system of beauty ammunition I had going. What was amazing is our bedroom had this sitting room as you entered it. While that sounds all sorts of lovely having a sweet little space to enjoy a good book or cup of tea, I felt that space could more useful as part of our bathroom so I didn’t accidentally electrocute my better half. I came up with a plan to knock the wall between the bathroom and sitting room down {don’t all the best things on the home improvement shows start with knocking down a wall?} and use some of that space. With what was left we would make an extra closet. Insert sinister laugh… Who doesn’t love an extra closet? And while we were basically taking a wrecking ball to the bedroom we thought it would be best to rip up the carpet since we have Baxter boy who likes to just puke sometimes and replace the floors for all of the upstairs with porcelain tile.
Before photos:
From concept to creation:
This did not happen over night. I started looking at materials in March of 2017. While I knew that was early in the process, budget wise we knew we wouldn’t be ready to go until July-ish, we were both kind of half ass looking at things as we went to the stores {it can easily get overwhelming even when you know exactly what you want} but I knew I just wanted to get started. George was pretty awesome and left almost all of the design up to me and only interjected when he thought I was being too trendy {which I was}. Ultimately I decided I wanted function over everything so a darker floor that didn’t show every strand of hair that likes to skydive from my head, french doors because duh and room for a soaking tub. OH AND HOW COULD I FORGET, double sinks with counter space so we could stay married. After a few more months of going to every supply store throughout New Jersey and meeting with a few contractors we were ready to make magic in mid September. We decided to go with Scotch Plains Builders as our contractor and a majority of our materials came from The Tile Shop in North Plainfield.
A beautiful nightmare:
Things started off going well. I didn’t really have an expectation of how a renovation is supposed to go but day 1 the guys showed up, ripped out the sink, shower and toilet and I considered that a success. On the day they knocked down the wall and got down to the studs of the bathroom walls is when all hell broke loose. Like an episode of Property Brothers, cue the dramatic music and deliver the news- you have severe water damage all the way down the exterior and interior of your house, now zoom in on my face of horror. As dollar bills burned in my brain I tried to understand how this wasn’t discovered in our inspection and also how our insurance said this was just general wear and tear on the house and they were not covering it. Ouuuuh was I heated!!! {The photos show none of this was up to code so even though I was mad I was also glad nothing bad happened because this was a ticking time bomb.} If you follow on instagram you know this was the theme of my stories for a few weeks. Just drama. The guys from Scotch Plains Builders were good though and handled this detour by replacing the walls from the third floor all the way to the foundation from the inside out, as well as the back side of our roof. This happening as we were in the midst of my sister’s wedding and approaching the holiday season was obviously perfect timing. Re: can I pay you in trident gum?
Eventually all the repairs were accomplished and we got back on track to regular problems like the floors in our upstairs being uneven and needing cement to balance them out and running out of tile three times. FUN 😉 Oh and finding a white doorknob for those french doors took some serious wizardry on my end as well. But the heart wants what it wants.
I can’t believe it’s over:
Remember in the beginning when I said this was an in-between sized renovation? An 8-12 weeker at most. Well, with all the repairs and fitting us back in the schedule when they thought we would be a distant memory, it was February when we finally wrapped this project construction wise. It was all worth it, it just became my new normal to have several people in the house while I was working from home. And Baxter surely misses the crew.
The bathroom turned out exquisite- calming, spacious and functional. The tub is my major transportation hub to zen and I’ve even caught George taking a soak once or twice already to give his knee some TLC. We also put in heated floors in the bathroom and they have been a nice touch on the chilly days. Replacing all the carpeted floors felt so good too! Just feels more modern and sure is easier to maintain. Oh and the landing area doesn’t look too shabby either. Hello, selfie station!
The only thing we didn’t get to is the interior of that new closet. That will come down the road but I think we both would vomit if we spent another dime on this project at the moment. We put in the blinds over that new double window and that was the last of it for now as far as the bathroom is concerned. Because again, if you follow my stories you know we now have a fence to replace! {Be a homeowner they said, it will be fun they said.}
Now for the pics and deets!
Have you ever read a longer blog post? Me either.
Details:
All tile– bedroom and bathroom flooring/ wall marble/ shower interior/ spanish print tile on landing from The Tile Shop
we had a wonderful experience with a woman named Linda if you find yourself at the North Plainfield location
Soaking tub and fixtures from Signature Hardware
Blinds from 3 Day Blinds
{really easy to work with and a great price for custom service!}
Click on the following to see their origin: Vanity / Mirrors/ Large Plant / Towels {sold out} similar / Rattan Baskets Under Vanity / Doorknob / Reclaimed Wood Shelves / Relax Sign / Acrylic Jars / Rattan Wastebasket
Small plant, soap dispenser, everything on sink in the tray and basket that large plant is in all from Homegoods.
While I definitely highlighted the major details, if I missed something that you have your eye on just hit me up- you know how to find me @TiffanyPineroStyle on instagram |@TPineroStyleon Twitter |\TiffanyPineroStyle on Facebook!
Thanks for checking my latest work out! xx
