Bathroom is grouted!

Our bathroom is getting closer to completion! The tile is now 97% finished and grouted! We just need to get the marble slab pieces for the top of the curb and the top of the pony wall and it's finished.

Next step will be to have the plummer come back to put the sink pipes into the wall (for some reason they are sticking out like 6 inches and are huge....which won't look so great behind the see-through vanity) and then we'll fix the sheetrock behind the vanity and finally get the vanity in place ready for the marble fabricators to come measure, cut, install!

Things we still need to decide:

lights over vanity mirrors (will be a two arm, pointing down light of some type)

faucets

shower door

paint color

whether to do the walls with subways or wainscoting or just big baseboards and pain

DH is working on the door and window trim in the bathroom right now. That will finish it off so nicely!

Bathroom remodel week 2

Hi!
Sorry it's been a while since I posted. We took a 4 day camping trip to Lake Tahoe last weekend, which was amazing! We're still getting unpacked and cleaned up from the trip, but that hasn't slowed down the bathroom remodel.
Our tile guy has been here for 3 days now and is almost finished! He did all the mud on day 1. Then yesterday he tiled the shower walls with white subway tiles. Today he did the marble floor (18x18 carerra marble) and some of the quarter round and cuts of the subway. Tomorrow he plans to finish the shower floor and grout!
Our marble vanity slab has been ordered. I didn't get it for quite the price I had hoped to, but think I got a great deal over all. I ended up buying a huge slab and we're using almost all of it. We'll have the vanity top, 3 sides of backsplash on the vanity, a slab for the shower curb and a slab for the top of the pony wall and finally we'll be using a slab for our entry way countertop! We hadn't planned that last project, but since we had to buy a whole slab, it didn't cost much more to have them cut it to fit our entry way. So I got all of the marble, fabricated and installed for $1800. Not bad considering most of the quotes I got for JUST the vanity top alone were $1,500-$1,700. I'm happy!

Here are some in-progress pictures:











Left side of shower.











Left side of shower, peeking into w/c area.
















Right side of shower and my cute last minute cut out for shampoo.

The main floor.

Day 7- Studs to Spa in 3 weeks

So we are just finishing week one of three in our studs to spa marathon. It's moving along at a good pace I think.

Day 5 - our plummer (my hairdresser's wonderful husband) came to move the shower head to the other side of the shower and move the drain a few inches because our shower is getting about a foot wider (yay!)

Day 6 - my husband, who is turning himself into quite the Jack-of-all-trades, re-wired and moved the 4 light switches so that our shower could be a foot wider, ripped out the rest of the plywood floor and replaced the damaged sub-floor boards, finished tearing down the old full wall in the shower and designed the pony wall that will replace it. And of course, we had to wait until the first 90+ degree day of the year to do this! I have to give my husband some credit, here, too. When we got married, he was not the "handyman" type, if you know what I mean. I gave him his first power tool one birthday before we had kids. Whereas, I grew up with my parents building the two houses I lived in as a child. When I was a teenager and was lost without a phone for a week in our new house, I learned how to wire the phone jacks and proceeded to set up the phone system in our house (a motivated teenager can actually work hard!) So it's been exciting to see my husband morph into a handyman! And what a great job he's doing.

My job was to keep the kids out of his way and plan where the mirrors

(Restoration Hardware Asbury, see pic) and sconces would go. After too many fraction equations, I finally determined that our original plan for: sconce, mirror, sconce, mirror, sconce required an 84" wall and we only have 72"!! So plan B is to place a 2-arm light above each mirror. These lights will be installed in a place there were no lights before, so DH will also wire those before the sheetrock goes up.....and he's relying on me to tell him, down to the 1/16 of an inch, where each light needs to go. How does one without a degree in math figure this out? I swear I did over 30 fraction problems with different denominators...and even then had to re-do a few that just didn't seem right. In the end I think I decided that the bottom of the mirror will be 8" above the top of the vanity and the bottom of the lights will be 4" above the top of the mirror. Let's hope the plan works! Hopefully the mirrors and lights will both end up centered over the sinks, which are not installed yet. If not, my husband will probably take away my math degree.

Day 7 - today's plan is to install a can light above the shower and build the pony wall. Also, the hardwood floor we discovered in half of the bathroom needs to be torn out. He may or may not get to the sheetrock today. Unfortunately the forcast is 91 degrees! Keep that fan blowing.

Day 3 bathroom remodel

Day 3 of our studs to spa in 3 weeks master bath remodel:

Today I called 3 more places looking for a marble slab for the vanity. Trying to find the most beautiful piece for the lowest cost! That's my "Nordstrom quality for Walmart prices" theme. I talked to the Restoration Hardware outlet for what was probably a total of an hour looking for a marble slab and finally concluded that the only one they had was in shabby shape. I called 3 other places and got quotes from $900-$1700. I'd love to get it for $800.....well $900 if you included the two pieces I need for the shower curb and pony wall. So that's my goal: $900 total for the marble pieces I need. I'm almost there! Restoration Hardware charges $1500 plus tax for the marble, so I figure no matter what I'm doing pretty good! Also, I got the vanity from Resto's outlet....so what normally costs $1550, well $1750 if you count shipping, I got at the outlet for $650!

Here's the vanity:























Still undecided on fixtures. Our taste has us picking out one that is crazy expensive. Back to my Walmart budget. So we are trying very hard to find something for a low cost that we love just as much....still looking. Here's the one we love, Kohler Pinstripe:

Master bath: from studs to spa in 3 weeks, so we hope!

We just found out that in order to close our refinance loan, we have to complete our master bath remodel. We have just about 3 weeks to take our bathroom from the studs to fnished!



The plan:



Vanity- Restoration Hardware base in ebony

Vanity top- honed cararra marble slab

Floor- 18x18 cararra marble tiles

Shower floor- hex tiles in matte white, 2 inch

Shower walls- white subway tiles in polished 3x6

Shower wall decorative trim piece- blue glass

Shower curb and pony wall top- honed cararra marble slab

Shower door- frameless

Fixtures- brushed nickel or polished nickel; still undecided

Mirrors- Restoration Hardware; same finish as fixtures

Paint- something pale blue/green

Lighting- TBD



Day 1:

Call plummer, set up day for him to move shower head to opposite wall

Call various marble places looking for vanity slab

Meet with tile setter, discuss availabilty

Go to local tile store to order tile for shower



Day 2:

Look at the huge variety of faucets on line

Finalize tile order

Continue to look for marble slab

Starting a blog!

Hi!
I'm Celeste, wife to a wonderful husband and mother of 3 amazing children: a 6 year old son and twin 2 year old girls. I decided to start a blog where I talk about ideas, products I love, cooking "real" food, and our home rennovation. After looking for a couple of years, we finally stumbled upon our "dream" home in Greenbrae, CA. It fit our criteria in that it was a very livable fixer upper. It was well kept, though very dated. I will chronicle our experiences as we attempt to make it all that we dreamed it could be.....as well as talk about all the great things I like to talk about (obsess over) in the meantime!
Thanks for reading!