Master Bath Reveal AKA Look But Don't Touch

When I was a little girl, I had this habit of setting up really elaborate houses and villages for my Barbies, Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Little Ponies—you name it—and as soon as I had them arranged to my seven-year-old satisfaction, I'd walk away. I didn't want to play because everything looked so great, I didn't want to mess anything up.

This was exactly the way I felt when we got the master bathroom to a state of near finish last week.

It's been a long time coming...

When Mr. W told me he planned to inaugurate the shower last Friday, I immediately wanted to seal the door and only allow people to look into the room through the windows from the backyard.

I knew the shower had hit its peak and would never, ever be the same after it had been used. Which is why I took all of the pictures below before Mr. W put his dirty body in there. 

I might have also watched while he squeegeed it naked to make sure he did a good job. Seriously, I was only overseeing the squeegee job....while drinking a glass of wine...and smiling.

Anyway, we still have some sanding and painting to do on a few spots on the wall, and Mr. W is in the process of building the drawers and cupboard doors for the vanity—but for all intents and purposes, the bathroom is fully functional.

We've had some major ups and downs with this one (as with all of our projects, I guess). We initially bought a totally different slab of marble that had all sorts of issues when our counter top installers went to cut it, so we had to buy a completely new piece. I love the new one, so it was probably a blessing in disguise, but not a blessing for our bank account.

The cute little hexagonal tiles in the shower were also super problematic. We had a hard time getting the grout just right—which surprised me because these are timeless and you see them everywhere. Apparently the people who were laying them in the 1930s and 40s had way more skills and patience than we do.

Did I mention that the glass for the shower was also cut wrong when they first came to install it? Yep, kind of one thing after another with this room. But like Leo in The Revenant, in the end we triumphed.

Sorry if I just ruined that movie for you.

Here are the winners of Best Supporting Bathroom in a Musical or Comedy:

I took my first shower in there Saturday morning and I have to say, it's pretty freaking awesome. Well worth all the long work days and long wait for it to be finished. It's a beauty. Can't wait until we finish the vanity and I can reveal its gorgeousness, too.

No Crying Over Spilled...Glass

We're no strangers to mishaps here at the Maris house, but this past week has been a test of our collective wills.

The good times began last Friday when the glass walls around
our new shower were supposed to be installed. Mr. W finished grouting the shower last Tuesday and, after a minor incident with the table saw that involved a sliced finger and blood spray on his face, he also installed the new bathroom vanity. It seemed like the old master water closet was moving right along.

But when the shower glass installers went to put in the surrounds, they discovered two of the panels were an inch too tall. So they laid the track and hung one little sliver of glass and promised to be back this week.

Oh Glass Misfortune, how could you get worse?

Why, in the form of a broken car window of course!

Saturday when Mr. W hired a helper to come load stuff into his truck to take to the dump, Glass Misfortune reared her head full force. We both heard the helper shout "Oh no!" while we were in the side yard and all I could think was, "Please don't be fractured or concussed."

We rushed out to where the guy was loading the truck and found him with his mouth agape—and a 4x4 wood beam in his hands that he had just smashed through the back window of Mr. W's truck. Did I mention the truck is only a few months old? Did I mention I have eczema and a strange rash on one of my legs?

Super fun times around here right now, ya'll.

After spending Valentine's Day drinking wine and laughing with friends, we thought perhaps our fates had changed and the pox had been lifted.

But then we got the call that the local building supply shop we'd hired to cut our master bathroom countertop was having major issues. Never, ever buy a slab of marble over the phone after you leave a stone yard. Back in the late summer or early fall, we saw a lovely slab of "French Vanilla" marble but weren't ready to pull the trigger to buy it on site so we called later that afternoon and asked if we could send the local builder to come pick it up.

A nice big crack down the middle and cheap filler in some divots that turned a lovely shade of brown

When we saw the slab again, it looked totally different from what either of us remembered. And it had a big fissure right down the middle. Our builder buddies thought they might be able to cut it in a way that placed one of the bathroom sinks over the fissure, but that didn't work out. And when they called us this week, it was to tell us that the marble was pretty much crumbling as they were trying to shape the countertop. Fail.

We drove over to the shop to look at it and agreed that even if they could try to fix is, neither of us liked the marble. It was just a crappy piece of stone and we never should have bought it without writing our names in permanent marker on the actual slab we wanted. So we told the builder to cut us one of their existing slabs of Cararra instead. Bye, bye Benjamins...

The good news is our building supply pal is going to try to sell the old marble on consignment, as it would probably work fine for a smaller vanity. So hopefully we'll recoup some of our cash.

The shower glass guys also came back yesterday afternoon and installed the walls they weren't able to set last week. After one more visit to hang the shower door, they should be done.

Friday is going to be a big day here—the new countertop is supposed to be delivered and the shower door is supposed to be hung. In the meantime, I may burn some sage and say some prayers to the glass gods that everything goes in a smooth, non-shattery direction from here on out...

Fun with Photoshop...and Non-Fun with Stencils

In my last post, I gave you a peek at the inside of the master bathroom. In this one, I'm telling you the torrid tale of its outside—i.e. the bathroom door.

I should start by telling you that Mr. W and I are wicked mad wimps when it comes to morning sunlight streaming into our bedroom. We have dark curtains to block the light from the French doors and windows, but the pocket door we bought for the bathroom has a frosted glass panel in the middle of it and, in spite of the blinds we installed inside the bathroom, the sun was shining right in through that door every morning. Our sleepy work-from-home-all-day-in-our-pjs eyes just couldn't handle it.

We discussed possible light-blocking options: some sort of wood or veneer, straight paint, tin tiles or a sheet of cool metal. Paint was the obvious easy choice but I felt like it needed texture beyond a straight color, particularly because of the big block of color on the gallery wall. Gotta have variety. Except when it comes to bedfellows. And morning soda-coffee. #DrPepper

Anyway, I found a few different stencils I liked online but didn't want to buy anything without having an idea of how it would look on the actual door. And thus began the Photoshop fun...

Which one did you like best?

I preferred the L-shaped hooky, linky option, so I ordered it online, bought a couple variations of the grey paint we have on the walls, and grabbed a flat sponge brush aaaallll excited to take on my first stenciling project.

Anyone out there ever done a large-scale vertical stenciling project? Let me tell you, it ain't no picnic.

Per the instructions, I had to spray the stencil with adhesive to get it to stay in place on the glass. And every time I moved it, I had to spray it again, which was particularly superfun at the very end when I had one tiny piece that I had to keep repositioning to get the edge right. Punch me in the face until I'm unconscious. 

The other difficult thing was that when the paint would bleed out beyond the parameters of the stencil, it was really hard to get off the frosted glass. If it had been regular glass I could have just scraped it off with a razor blade. But in order to not scratch the frosting, I had to use q-tips and nail polish remover. Not nearly as exact a science as I would have liked.

The good news was, I had a great audio book to listen to while I worked on it all, and when I painted the secondary color, all my fuzzy inexact edges became much less noticeable. I'm actually really pleased with how it all turned out (minus the reflection in the picture below...I was too impatient to wait and take a better pic with different lighting).

The best part is that not an ounce of morning sunlight sneaks in past this paint job (Mr. W and I can continue our life of slovenly living and nice, dark mornings). It also blocks the tools, tile, and various other renovation heaps still hiding inside the bathroom...

Renovation + Relationship Balance...in the Bathroom

Several weeks ago I was recounting the harrowing story of our master bath tub installation to a friend (it's very heavy and had to be cemented to the bathroom floor, which required many, many rounds of lifting it out of its wooden frame and putting it back in...anyway...) when she remarked that Mr. W and I must work really well together on this sort of stuff.

Yes. And No.

I cannot tell you how many times he has banned me from his workspace. (I ask too many questions and point out too many issues that aren't important in the moment.) And I can't tell you how many times I've nearly beaten him in the head with whatever object I just painted that he scuffed.

Typically, he is all about process and precision and I am all about speed and good-enough aesthetics.

Oftentimes, his by-the-book way of doing things leads to me whining in a pool of salted caramel ice cream, lamenting the fact that we're STILL Under Construction—while my corner-cutting drives him to lecture like Al Gore and curse like Amy Schumer. And then he usually bans me from the room.

But sometimes when the stars are aligned just right, our dueling approaches come together in marital renovation perfection.

For example, during the bathtub installation.

Although Mr. W had a bizarre Rainman-esque talent for applying wood veneer in our other bathroom, when it came time to install the veneer around the tub deck, we hit a wrinkle.

Literally, the veneer wrinkled. And so did Mr. W. He crumpled into the bathtub in total and utter defeat.

Cue my good-enough pep talk. I assured him that we could just cut out a bit of the extra veneer with a razor and flatten it into place and it would look like any other line of wood grain—no one would ever know we had popped a big bubble right there. He begrudgingly complied and you know what? It looks great. And no one will ever notice the line when they look.

The next snafu came when we were trying to get the tub lined up to perfectly sit in the deck hole and nestle just right between the floor joists so that we (haha who am I kidding with this "we" stuff—I meant HE) could connect the plumbing. The only problem was that there was a huge 4" x 4" beam just east of where the drain needed connect through the floor.

Mr. W had to cut the tub deck hole bigger so we could shimmy everything around and Doh—we accidentally ended up with a gap between the deck and the lip of the tub.

He put his head in his hands. I thought he might cry. After all the hard work with the veneer, now there was a stupid gap that couldn't be repaired.

But ah—wait a minute—this corner-cutter is also an expert problem solver.

So saddened by my poor husband's broken renovation spirit, I sprung into action and grabbed an extra piece of quarter-round floor molding. This is where we balance each other out perfectly, my friends. When the perfectionist is near tears, I use my ingenuity to bring him out of it.

"We'll just cut a piece of molding, paint it, spray it with high gloss and it'll look like it's part of the bathtub. Plus, it's on the backside so NO ONE WILL EVER SEE IT." (We say this a lot in our house.)

The clouds parted in his eyes and a little sunshiny ray of hope broke through.

So that is the secret to our renovation success. Picking the other person up after they've fallen (either on their own or because we've knocked each other down). It seems to work pretty darn well.

That said, do me a favor, would you? Don't scrutinize the bathroom when you come visit us.

An in-progress shot of the shower. Mr. W finished tiling, we just have to grout and find a shelf solution for inside the shampoo nook.

I'm in love with the hex tile in the shower floor. We're still installing the final little halvsie pieces (I think Mr. W cut about 85 of them today) but it's going to look great once it's grouted.

Still working out some kinks in the veneer. Need to grout the floor. Oh and then there's the whole building of the vanity and installing the sinks shtick to deal with...

Suite Dreams Are Made of This

Ever since our master bedroom became livable back in June, our renovation velocity has slowed a bit in that part of the house. Sure, we styled the bookshelf, got the gallery wall up, organized the closet, and Mr. W installed most of the molding (after a spirited cursing fight) but the room felt like there was a huge hole in it because of the blank wall over our bed.

We had planned the entire room around this one piece of art. Not just any piece—a painting that our friend Pete did for Mr. W back in 2002. If you read this blog regularly, you know that we tragically lost Pete in 2012, so to have one of his paintings hanging above us every night is pretty much equivalent to having an angel chillin' over our headboard.

The only catch was, his original painting was about 15x20" and we wanted a 24x36" canvas. So we had a high-res scan of the painting made, Mr. W worked some Photoshop magic on it to adjust the aspect ratio (which took many hours), and then we had a company print the new image to look like it was painted on canvas.

This whole process took weeks, during which I said over and over to Mr. W (because he loves it when I do this) "You know what would really make the room feel finished? If we could get Pete's picture done." Rinse. Repeat. 

Though it was a long wait, it was worth it. Every time I walk into the room now, it makes me smile.

It also makes me smile that Mr. W has been plugging away on the master bathroom. He has the shower almost completely tiled (after many tedious days working to get the slope just right on the shower floor).

And last weekend, he built and veneered the bathtub surround. We're going with teak veneer in this bathroom and I think it's going to look so purty once it's varnished.

Here are a few examples of the aesthetic we're after:

Source

Source

Source

If we're lucky, maybe by the end of the year he'll have the vanity built, too. Our countertop slab of French vanilla marble is just sitting at the local building supply waiting to be cut and installed. Once it's in, once the bathroom is workable, I'm prepared to celebrate with a glass of champagne and a bubble bath. Most likely followed by some touch-up spackling and painting...

They Don't Call it "Hard"Wood Flooring for Nothing...

On the last episode of OMG This Remodel Is Taking Forever, we had just gotten the outside prepped for stucco and the inside covered in drywall:

Since then, we've made some sweet, sweet progress (smells like tears of joy and extra deodorant, doesn't it?):

After several days of plaster work on the inside—and a thousand pounds of dust on every surface in the house—the room was ready for paint. There may not be any S&M activity taking place in our household (at least none we'll admit to), but we definitely have a 50 Shades of Grey thing going on around here. Living room walls are light grey...kitchen walls are light grey...kitchen countertop and flooring are grey...bathroom tiles and vanity are grey...outside is greyish...Mr. W owns a lot of pairs of grey underwear. You get the picture.

So it seemed only natural for us to go with a soft grey in the bedroom. But we also wanted to do something different with color, so we decided to add a big fat gallery wall accent stripe to the wall our bed will face.

The hope is that it'll have this effect when we hang some of our favorite travel pictures on it: 

Source

Once the paint was on the walls, it was time to take on what became the most arduous task of the entire process (says the girl who did pretty much nothing to help with any of the construction at any point...): Installing the hardwood flooring. If you ever go on Youtube and watch a video of someone installing hardwoods, it looks super easy. Tongue, meet groove, nail, repeat. 

The reality of floor installation was that the nailgun dealie Mr. W bought would more times than not push some wood splinters out, making it impossible to get the tongue tightly in the groove—so he had to slice off the superfluous wood after putting in every nail. And there were approximately a bagillion nails.

What we thought would take about 3 days to install took close to 3 weeks. Needless to say, there was a lot of cursing involved.

But now the floors are all in:

We just have to find some kind soul to come sand them for us. It continues to baffle me how many contractors and craftsmen never return phone calls. It's a wonder they're able to keep their businesses going. Fingers crossed that we can get someone do to it for a reasonable price.

And then we will finally get to move out of the guest room. And not make visitors sleep on mattresses and aerobeds on the floor. And stop overloading every surface with clothes we can't find a place to put. And start working on the bathroom...which currently looks like this:

Wish us luck. We continue to need it every day.