Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from the Hateful Hovel!

Bathroom - After Video

I've gotten a lot of requests for a video of the finished bathroom, so here it is! A video of the finished bathroom! Sorry for the delay - it is hard to make a video when you are rarely in your house during daylight hours. And when you are at home during the day, the only person available to video you (Chris) is not at home. So I snagged Kylie when she was over helping me get the Christmas things out of the attic and forced her to hold the camera.

Sorry if the quality is bad and the audio is quiet - I really need to get a dedicated video camera and stop using my regular camera for videos.

Bathroom - The Reveal!

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for - the big bathroom reveal!  Silly me forgot to take any before photos, so I am going to have to use stills from some before videos I shot.  Please excuse the poor quality - I'll do better next time, I promise!

Doorway

Before

After

Before you even enter the room, you can see a huge change - the whole doorway was moved!  You'll see when we get inside that this made a huge difference as far as space is concerned.

Door/Closet Wall

Before

After

You can see here that the closet took up so much space!  It went right up to the door molding.  And now that we have space for towel bars and shelves I don't need that rack on the door.  Hooray for more mirror space!

Window/Closet Wall

Before

After

After

Again, look at all the space we gained by taking out that dumb closet!  Almost the entire vanity is in the space where the closet used to be.  And finally - a mirror above the sink!  What a novelty!

Back Corner

Before

After

We moved the toilet to the back corner of the room where the sink used to be.  Because of the new wall for the shower, you cannot be seen from the doorway.

Shower

Before

After

I no longer have to step out of the shower in order to soap up.  I can not express to you in words what a wonderful change this is.  Especially now that the cold weather is stetting in.

Seriously, this bathroom is soooo amazing.  I walk in there and I can hardly believe I am in the same house, let alone the same room.  Everything takes twice as long as it used to because I just can't stand the thought of leaving.  I dread seeing our next water bill.  And we managed to come in almost exactly on budget of $2400. Yes, you read that correctly.  This whole project cost us only $2400 because of the help of my wonderful amazing family.  Seriously, there is no way we could have done this without them.  They are are greatest people ever and I think they should consider becoming house flippers - don't you agree?!?

Bathroom - Basement Edition

Chris and I filmed a little video of our basement bathroom, just in case you were curious about the, uh, rustic conditions with which we've been dealing.  Enjoy!

Sneak Preview

So the bathroom is almost finished.  We bought a bunch of accessories today (like, seriously, I can't express to you in words how many things we bought today), and most of them are installed.  The rest, I believe, will be installed tomorrow.  So I will soon be able to do a video walk-through of the final product.  Let me just tell you, it looks amazing!  Here is a sneak preview of some of the new additions we purchased today:

Clock!

Toothbrush holder and soap dispenser!

Tumbler, jewelry box, and soap dish!

A mirror!

Shelves!

More mirrors!

Bathroom - Day 85

This past week, all the molding went up in the bathroom.  I can't believe what a difference it makes - everything looks so put together.  My uncle picked out some molding that pretty much matched the original molding in the rest of the house.

Original Molding in my Office

New Molding in the Bathroom

New Molding on the Window

Chair Rail and Baseboard

Pretty much all that it left now is to find a mirror and some towel rods.  Oh, and curtains.  We've currently got pillowcases duct taped to the windows.  It's not the most attractive look.  I'm not sure what I want to do about curtains in this room - any suggestions?

Talk about scary...

This house is so clean after the party that I hardly recognize it!

Storage Ottoman

We have been talking about buying a storage ottoman since we moved in ALMOST A YEAR AGO and yesterday we finally got around to doing it.  Mako is very pleased by our decision.

He climbed right on as soon as we brought it in the house and hasn't moved since - even when I pushed it around the room trying to find the best place.  I'm glad he likes his new bed.

All we need is the perfect mirror...

Bathroom - Day 71

Check it out - our showerhead is now installed!

Chris couldn't wait to take a (fake) shower.  Also, our toilet - which we just bought yesterday, is already installed and operational.  That was fast!

Isn't it lovely?  I never thought I would be this excited about a toilet, but here we are.  Being an adult is weird.  And if both of these new bathroom additions weren't exciting enough, the vanity and vanity lights also went in today!

It's even more beautiful than I imaged.  Now all we have to do is buy a mirror.  Hooray!

Wallpaper In Progress!

Bathroom - Day 69

Are you ready for the worst panoramic collage ever?  Here it is!

See, wasn't that terrible?  Unfortunately, it was the only way I could think of to get the entire shower stall in one image.  The lighting in there is pretty iffy right now, and it doesn't help that it is mostly dark by the time I get home from work during the week.  So weird, ill-lit pictures are the best I can do for now.  Trust me, it is better in person.

But yeah, isn't the tile awesome?  It is exactly what Chris and I had hoped and dreamed.  And the floor is pretty great, too.

We've also gotten some new windows since the last update.  These actually open without a crowbar - and they stay open without props.  Amazing!

As you can see, the drywall is all smoothed and painted and wonderful.  You know what that means - it's wallpaper time!

Our rolls arrived today and I think they will be going up pretty soon.  We're going to be buying a toilet and a mirror this weekend, I think, because I am told things will go pretty fast from here.  I can't believe it is almost finished!  As Aunt Candy said on the phone this evening - I never imagined I would be so excited about a bathroom.

Bathroom - Day 61

We've got tile!!

The floor and bottom of the shower will be going in tomorrow, I am told. More pictures to come!

Bathroom - Day 58

My bathroom mostly has walls! Hooray!

I took these pictures on Saturday. Since then, work has begun on the tiling. Well, there has been prep work for tiling. There is now cement on the floor of the shower stall. I am not sure what comes next as far as prep is concerned, but I do know that I am really excited to see it all tiled up.  I have heard some rumors about the tile that will be put in, and let me tell you - it sounds like just what I was hoping for.  I am so excited!

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Bathroom - Day 53

So, here are some pictures of my current half-walls.  As you can see, it is starting to look like a legitimate room.  How exciting!

Also, I was only a half right when I guessed that those panels in the last post were the ceiling.  They were for the ceiling, but there will apparently be something going over those panels.  In any case, there is now a hint of a ceiling.

The room looks a lot... taller than it did before, with that dumb drop ceiling.  I am so excited to see this room finished!

Bathroom - Day 39

Here's a slide show of the bathroom today - the shower stall is starting to appear!  I apologize for the awkward photos,but it's a small room.  It's pretty difficult to get good angles.

Luxe Versailles - Loire

Not entirely sure about the general color scheme I want for the bedroom, but I think it just may be built around this comforter set...

Bathroom - The Look

So, I guess I'll finally explain what sort of look I am going for in this bathroom.  I'll start at the beginning, with this post at The Steampunk Home.  I saw this waaaay back when we still lived at the apartment, but it stuck with me all of this time.  I just loved the idea of old map wallpaper.  It would give the bathroom, usually such a boring room, a little visual interest.  And since we already intended to decorate the house with a steampunk sort of feel, this all works out pretty well.

Here's an inspiration board of the color scheme I am attempting to achieve:

And here are the new hardware items that I am planning to buy (hopefully tomorrow):

I am not sure about the wainscoting, though.  I might go with some sort of fancy faux finish and a chair rail instead.  Any thoughts?

Bathroom - Day 30

Here are some current pictures of our bathroom.

the entrance

back wall

ceiling

inside the door

You can see, in the picture of the ceiling, the place where an exhaust fan will be installed.  This is the one we chose:

As you can see, it is also a light.  It will actually be inside the shower.  How exciting!

Coming soon: pictures/video of our interim bathroom (aka the basement) and an overall explanation of the look we are attempting to achieve.